Tropical Storm Carol (1981)

Tropical Storm Carol peaked at 55 kt in the South Indian between December 12, 1980 and December 14, 1980, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Carol, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1981 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: December 12, 1980 to December 14, 1980
Peak strength: Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure: 980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall: No; closest approach 99 km (62 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy: 0.8
Identifier: 1980347S11122

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)	Position	Wind	Pressure	Status
Dec 12, 00:00	10.8S 122.3E	20 kt	1006 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 12, 06:00	10.9S 121.7E	20 kt	1005 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 12, 12:00	11.1S 120.9E	25 kt	1004 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 12, 18:00	11.3S 120.1E	25 kt	1003 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 13, 00:00	11.8S 119.2E	25 kt	1001 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 13, 06:00	12.4S 118.6E	30 kt	996 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 13, 12:00	12.9S 118.2E	45 kt	990 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 13, 18:00	13.4S 117.8E	50 kt	985 mb	Tropical storm
Dec 14, 00:00	13.7S 117.4E	55 kt	980 mb	Tropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1981

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.