The 1939 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1939)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at unknown kt in the South Indian between January 11, 1939 and January 20, 1939.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical depression, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1939 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
January 11, 1939 to January 20, 1939
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Landfall
No; closest approach 1394 km (866 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
1939011S12092

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
Jan 11, 06:0012.0S 91.8ENot reported
Jan 11, 12:0012.1S 91.6ENot reported
Jan 11, 18:0012.2S 91.4ENot reported
Jan 12, 00:0012.2S 90.9ENot reported
Jan 12, 06:0012.3S 90.6ENot reported
Jan 12, 12:0012.4S 90.5ENot reported
Jan 12, 18:0012.6S 90.2ENot reported
Jan 13, 00:0012.7S 89.9ENot reported
Jan 13, 06:0012.9S 89.6ENot reported
Jan 13, 12:0013.0S 89.3ENot reported
Jan 13, 18:0013.3S 88.8ENot reported
Jan 14, 00:0013.6S 88.3ENot reported
Jan 14, 06:0013.8S 87.9ENot reported
Jan 14, 12:0014.1S 87.6ENot reported
Jan 14, 18:0014.4S 87.2ENot reported
Jan 15, 00:0014.7S 86.8ENot reported
Jan 15, 06:0015.1S 86.5ENot reported
Jan 15, 12:0015.5S 86.2ENot reported
Jan 15, 18:0016.0S 85.9ENot reported
Jan 16, 00:0016.4S 85.7ENot reported
Jan 16, 06:0017.0S 85.5ENot reported
Jan 16, 12:0017.6S 85.3ENot reported
Jan 16, 18:0018.2S 85.1ENot reported
Jan 17, 00:0018.7S 85.0ENot reported
Jan 17, 06:0019.3S 85.0ENot reported
Jan 17, 12:0019.7S 85.0ENot reported
Jan 17, 18:0020.2S 85.0ENot reported
Jan 18, 00:0020.6S 85.1ENot reported
Jan 18, 06:0021.1S 85.1ENot reported
Jan 18, 12:0021.7S 85.2ENot reported
Jan 18, 18:0022.3S 85.3ENot reported
Jan 19, 00:0022.8S 85.4ENot reported
Jan 19, 06:0023.2S 85.5ENot reported
Jan 19, 12:0023.6S 85.6ENot reported
Jan 19, 18:0023.8S 85.7ENot reported
Jan 20, 00:0023.9S 85.7ENot reported
Jan 20, 06:0024.0S 85.8ENot reported

Other South Indian storms of 1939

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.