The 1971 season

Tropical Storm Rosie (1971)

Tropical Storm Rosie peaked at 55 kt in the South Pacific between December 30, 1970 and January 6, 1971, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Rosie, 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.

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The storm

Basin
South Pacific
Dates
December 30, 1970 to January 6, 1971
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.0
Identifier
SH071971

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 30, 00:0014.8S 165.6E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Dec 30, 06:0015.2S 165.5ETropical storm
Dec 30, 12:0015.5S 165.4E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Dec 30, 18:0015.7S 165.4ETropical storm
Dec 31, 00:0016.0S 165.3E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Dec 31, 06:0016.4S 165.3ETropical storm
Dec 31, 12:0016.8S 165.2E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Dec 31, 18:0017.1S 165.1ETropical storm
Jan 1, 00:0017.5S 165.0E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 1, 06:0018.3S 165.0ETropical storm
Jan 1, 12:0019.2S 165.0E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 1, 18:0019.8S 165.0ETropical storm
Jan 2, 00:0020.5S 165.2E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 2, 06:0022.1S 165.5ETropical storm
Jan 2, 12:0024.0S 165.8E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 2, 18:0025.4S 166.1ETropical storm
Jan 3, 00:0027.0S 166.4E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jan 3, 06:0029.4S 167.1ETropical storm
Jan 3, 12:0032.0S 168.0E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jan 3, 18:0034.3S 168.6ETropical storm
Jan 4, 00:0036.5S 169.0E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jan 4, 06:0038.0S 168.7ETropical storm
Jan 4, 12:0039.0S 167.7E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Jan 4, 18:0039.7S 166.2ETropical storm
Jan 5, 00:0039.8S 164.6ETropical storm
Jan 5, 06:0039.2S 163.5ETropical storm
Jan 5, 12:0038.3S 162.8ETropical storm
Jan 5, 18:0037.3S 163.0ETropical storm
Jan 6, 00:0036.3S 164.0ETropical storm

Other South Pacific 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. This storm’s winds are ten-minute averages from its regional agency. They read about 12 percent lower than the one-minute winds US agencies use, so a Saffir-Simpson category is not given for it.

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.