A Duration-Based Framework for Assessing Wind Exposure from Landfalling U.S. Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

Landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) affect not only coastal regions but also inland communities, where wind exposure has often been overlooked. This study introduces the duration of wind exposure (DWE), an energy-based metric derived from the accumulated cyclone energy framework, to quantify long-term inland wind exposure from U.S. landfalling TCs between 1900 and 2024. Using HURDAT2 best-track data, we apply an exponential decay function-based interpolation method to generate high-resolution inland wind estimates and summarize exposure at the county level from Texas to North Carolina. Results show that although coastal counties experience the highest DWE, numerous inland counties accumulate high tropical storm force exposure, reflecting both storm frequency and slow inland decay. A sensitivity analysis for 2004 through 2024 shows that incorporating radius of maximum wind information produces a broader and more structurally informed pattern of inland wind exposure than relying solely on storm-center locations. These findings show the importance of considering storm decay and structure when assessing inland wind hazards. The DWE metric provides a county-level measure of accumulated TC wind exposure that can support future analyses of inland hazard patterns, mitigation needs, and resilience planning.