The 1973 season

Cyclone Jean (1973)

Cyclone Jean peaked at 80 kt in the South Indian between January 10, 1973 and January 17, 1973, with a lowest pressure of 964 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Cyclone Jean, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1973 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 10, 1973 to January 17, 1973
Peak strength
Cyclone, 80 kt (92 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
964 mb (28.47 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 369 km (229 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
SH091973

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 10, 00:0012.1S 115.0ETropical storm
Jan 10, 06:0012.6S 115.0ETropical storm
Jan 10, 12:0013.1S 115.0ETropical storm
Jan 10, 18:0013.6S 115.0ETropical storm
Jan 11, 00:0014.3S 115.0ETropical storm
Jan 11, 06:0015.3S 114.7ETropical storm
Jan 11, 12:0016.3S 114.4ETropical storm
Jan 11, 18:0017.2S 114.0ETropical storm
Jan 12, 00:0017.8S 113.5ETropical storm
Jan 12, 06:0017.8S 112.7ETropical storm
Jan 12, 12:0017.9S 111.6ETropical storm
Jan 12, 18:0018.3S 109.9ETropical storm
Jan 13, 00:0018.8S 108.6ETropical storm
Jan 13, 06:0019.4S 107.6ETropical storm
Jan 13, 12:0019.8S 106.7ETropical storm
Jan 13, 18:0020.2S 106.0ETropical storm
Jan 14, 00:0020.6S 105.2ETropical storm
Jan 14, 06:0021.1S 104.4ETropical storm
Jan 14, 12:0021.7S 103.5ETropical storm
Jan 14, 18:0022.4S 102.6ETropical storm
Jan 15, 00:0023.1S 101.7ETropical storm
Jan 15, 06:0023.6S 100.6ETropical storm
Jan 15, 12:0024.2S 99.8ETropical storm
Jan 15, 18:0025.2S 99.6ETropical storm
Jan 16, 00:0025.6S 99.3ETropical storm
Jan 16, 06:0025.4S 98.8ETropical storm
Jan 16, 12:0025.1S 98.5ETropical storm
Jan 16, 18:0024.8S 98.4ETropical storm
Jan 17, 00:0024.5S 98.5ETropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1973

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.