begin

  nmaxcyclones = 1

  cyclone = 1
  cyclone!0 = "cyclone"

  cyclone@long_name = "dimension index of cyclone number"

  string_FillValue = ""

  CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid = new(nmaxcyclones,"string",string_FillValue)

  CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid!0 = "cyclone"

  CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid@longname = "Cyclone ATCF storm ID"

  CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid = (/"AL132023"/)

  ;===================================================================
  ; Set the file structure to Advanced so that we can write out strings.
  ;===================================================================
  setfileoption("nc","FileStructure","Advanced")

  ;===================================================================
  ; Set the file format to NetCDF4 so that compression can be used.
  ;===================================================================
  setfileoption("nc","Format","NetCDF4")

  ;===================================================================
  ; Create the file for writing
  ;===================================================================
  fout  = addfile("test.nc","c")   ; open output file

  ;===================================================================
  ; Explicitly declare file definition mode. This improves efficiency.
  ;===================================================================
  setfileoption(fout,"DefineMode",True)

  setfileoption(fout,"CompressionLevel",5)   ; NOTE: setting a level of 5 gives a pretty good balance between compression and efficiency.
                                             ; A level of 9 (the maximum level of compression) can result in a slightly smaller filesize,
                                             ; but at 4-5 times the computational cost.


  ;===================================================================
  ; Create global attributes of the file (these are output in reverse order given)
  ;===================================================================
  ; Write global attributes to file. It's okay to do this before
  ; predefining the file's variables. We are still in "define" mode.

  fAtt = True

  fAtt@title = "Test"

  fileattdef(fout,fAtt)   ; define file attributes

  ;===================================================================
  ; predefine the coordinate variables and their dimensionality
  ; Note: to get an UNLIMITED record dimension, we set the dimensionality
  ; to -1 and set the unlimited array to True.
  ;===================================================================

  dimNames = (/"cyclone"/)
  dimSizes = (/nmaxcyclones/)
  dimUnlim = (/True/)

  filedimdef(fout,dimNames,dimSizes,dimUnlim)


  ;===================================================================
  ; predefine the the dimensionality of the variables to be written out
  ; filevardef(output_file, name of variable, type of variable, CV's of -> Could we use getvardim for the third column??
  ; variable) note: at this point, when you do an ncdump on the file, it
  ; will look like the variable is there. If you do not output the values,
  ; however, then an ncdump -v xxx will reveal that there is no data.
  ;===================================================================

  ; coordinate dimensions
  filevardef(fout, "cyclone", typeof(cyclone), "cyclone")

  filevardef(fout, "CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid", typeof(CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid), "cyclone")

  ;===================================================================
  ; add some attributes
  ; note, since we are copying variables from one file to another,
  ; the original variables already have attributes, and we can copy
  ; them directly by just passing the variable to filevarattdef. You can
  ; create your own attributes by assigning them to the variable as we
  ; do with u.
  ;====================================================================

  ; coordinate dimensions
  filevarattdef(fout, "cyclone", cyclone)

  filevarattdef(fout, "CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid", CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid)


  ;====================================================================
  ; explicitly exit file definition mode. **NOT REQUIRED**
  ;====================================================================
  ; setfileoption(fout,"DefineMode",False)

  ; write out the coordinate dimensions
  fout->cyclone = (/ cyclone /)

  fout->CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid = (/ CYCLONE_ATCF_stormid /)

  ; Delete the file variable so that NCL will finalize and close it prior to trying to upload it to the server.
  delete(fout)

end