The 1969 season

Tropical Depression Amber (1969)

Tropical Depression Amber peaked at unknown kt in the South Indian between December 15, 1968 and December 24, 1968, with a lowest pressure of 975 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Depression Amber. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
December 15, 1968 to December 24, 1968
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Lowest pressure
975 mb (28.79 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1300 km (808 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
SH051969

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
Dec 15, 18:0011.1S 92.0ETropical storm
Dec 16, 00:0011.2S 90.7ETropical storm
Dec 16, 06:0011.3S 89.8ETropical storm
Dec 16, 12:0011.4S 89.2ETropical storm
Dec 16, 18:0011.7S 88.7ETropical storm
Dec 17, 00:0012.1S 88.2ETropical storm
Dec 17, 06:0012.5S 87.8ETropical storm
Dec 17, 12:0012.8S 87.5ETropical storm
Dec 17, 18:0013.2S 87.4ETropical storm
Dec 18, 00:0013.6S 87.3ETropical storm
Dec 18, 06:0014.0S 87.2ETropical storm
Dec 18, 12:0014.5S 87.0ETropical storm
Dec 18, 18:0015.0S 86.9ETropical storm
Dec 19, 00:0015.5S 86.8ETropical storm
Dec 19, 06:0016.0S 86.8ETropical storm
Dec 19, 12:0016.4S 86.8ETropical storm
Dec 19, 18:0016.8S 86.8ETropical storm
Dec 20, 00:0017.1S 86.8ETropical storm
Dec 20, 06:0017.4S 86.9ETropical storm
Dec 20, 12:0017.8S 87.1ETropical storm
Dec 20, 18:0018.1S 87.4ETropical storm
Dec 21, 00:0018.3S 87.6ETropical storm
Dec 21, 06:0018.6S 87.8ETropical storm
Dec 21, 12:0018.8S 87.9ETropical storm
Dec 21, 18:0019.1S 88.0ETropical storm
Dec 22, 00:0019.3S 87.9ETropical storm
Dec 22, 06:0019.5S 87.7ETropical storm
Dec 22, 12:0019.8S 87.4ETropical storm
Dec 22, 18:0020.1S 87.0ETropical storm
Dec 23, 00:0020.3S 86.3ETropical storm
Dec 23, 06:0020.5S 85.6ETropical storm
Dec 23, 12:0020.8S 84.8ETropical storm
Dec 23, 18:0021.0S 84.0ETropical storm
Dec 24, 00:0021.1S 83.4ETropical storm
Dec 24, 06:0021.2S 83.0ETropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1969

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.