The 1973 season

Tropical Depression Joan (1973)

Tropical Depression Joan peaked at unknown kt in the Western Pacific between August 20, 1973 and August 21, 1973.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Depression Joan, 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.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
August 20, 1973 to August 21, 1973
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Landfall
No; closest approach 15 km (9 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
1973232N24120

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
Aug 20, 00:0023.7N 120.0ETropical storm
Aug 20, 06:0024.4N 120.1ETropical storm
Aug 20, 12:0024.8N 120.3ETropical storm
Aug 20, 18:0024.7N 119.5ETropical storm
Aug 21, 00:0024.2N 119.3ETropical storm
Aug 21, 06:0024.0N 119.2ETropical storm
Aug 21, 12:0023.8N 119.0ETropical storm
Aug 21, 18:0023.6N 118.8ETropical storm

Other Western Pacific 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.

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.