The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP) was established within NOAA in 2007, in response to devastating hurricanes such as Charley in 2004, and Wilma, Katrina, Rita in 2005. 

HFIP provides the unifying organizational infrastructure for NOAA and other agencies supporting their efforts to coordinate the hurricane research needed to achieve the HFIP goals. These goals include improving the accuracy and reliability of hurricane forecasts, to extend lead time for hurricane forecasts with increased certainty, and to increase confidence in hurricane forecasts; by accelerating the transition of model codes, techniques, and products from the research stage to operational implementation. HFIP’s focus on multi-organizational research activities to develop, demonstrate, and implement enhanced operational modeling capabilities, have dramatically improved the numerical forecast guidance. 

Established as the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program (HFIP) under Weather Act 2017, HFIP continues to advance through the development of Hurricane Analysis and Forecasting System (HAFS) which is being integrated into the Unified Forecast System (UFS). HAFS is a multi-scale, multiple moving nested modeling system with the data-assimilation package and ocean-wave coupling. 

Through the HFIP, NOAA continues to improve the accuracy of hurricane forecasts with applied research that exploits the advanced computer models. This advancement builds confidence in the crucial forecasting that informs community preparedness strategies, aimed to minimize property damages and loss of life.