The 1971 season

Tropical Storm Kristy (1971)

Tropical Storm Kristy peaked at 45 kt in the North Atlantic between October 18, 1971 and October 21, 1971, with a lowest pressure of 992 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Kristy, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1971 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
October 18, 1971 to October 21, 1971
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
992 mb (29.29 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1039 km (646 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.8
Fastest the center moved
38 kt (44 mph)
Identifier
AL211971

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
Oct 18, 00:0025.0N 58.5W25 ktTropical depression
Oct 18, 06:0026.0N 58.0W25 ktTropical depression
Oct 18, 12:0027.0N 57.6W25 ktTropical depression
Oct 18, 18:0028.0N 57.3W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Oct 19, 00:0029.1N 57.1W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Oct 19, 06:0030.0N 56.8W25 ktTropical depression
Oct 19, 12:0031.1N 56.3W25 ktTropical depression
Oct 19, 18:0032.5N 54.7W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Oct 20, 00:0033.5N 52.8W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 20, 06:0034.8N 49.8W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 20, 12:0035.4N 47.1W45 kt997 mbTropical storm
Oct 20, 18:0036.4N 42.9W45 kt992 mbTropical storm
Oct 21, 00:0036.7N 38.3W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 21, 06:0037.0N 34.6W40 ktExtratropical
Oct 21, 12:0038.2N 30.8W40 ktExtratropical
Oct 21, 18:0040.5N 28.9W40 ktExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1971

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.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.