The 1885 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1885)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at unknown kt in the South Indian between March 9, 1885 and March 15, 1885.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical depression, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1885 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

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The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
March 9, 1885 to March 15, 1885
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Landfall
No; closest approach 791 km (492 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
1885068S15069

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Mar 9, 00:0014.6S 69.2ETropical storm
Mar 9, 06:0014.9S 68.9ETropical storm
Mar 9, 12:0015.3S 68.7ETropical storm
Mar 9, 18:0015.7S 68.5ETropical storm
Mar 10, 00:0016.1S 68.3ETropical storm
Mar 10, 06:0016.6S 68.0ETropical storm
Mar 10, 12:0017.0S 67.7ETropical storm
Mar 10, 18:0017.4S 67.4ETropical storm
Mar 11, 00:0017.8S 67.2ETropical storm
Mar 11, 06:0018.1S 67.0ETropical storm
Mar 11, 12:0018.4S 66.9ETropical storm
Mar 11, 18:0018.7S 66.7ETropical storm
Mar 12, 00:0019.0S 66.6ETropical storm
Mar 12, 06:0019.4S 66.4ETropical storm
Mar 12, 12:0019.8S 66.3ETropical storm
Mar 12, 18:0020.1S 66.1ETropical storm
Mar 13, 00:0020.4S 66.0ETropical storm
Mar 13, 06:0020.8S 65.8ETropical storm
Mar 13, 12:0021.2S 65.6ETropical storm
Mar 13, 18:0021.5S 65.4ETropical storm
Mar 14, 00:0021.8S 65.3ETropical storm
Mar 14, 06:0022.4S 65.1ETropical storm
Mar 14, 12:0023.0S 65.0ETropical storm
Mar 14, 18:0023.6S 64.8ETropical storm
Mar 15, 00:0024.3S 64.7ETropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1885

What this means

A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Sources

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.