The 1981 season

Tropical Storm Paddy (1981)

Tropical Storm Paddy peaked at 35 kt in the South Indian between May 22, 1981 and May 30, 1981, with a lowest pressure of 973 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Paddy. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
May 22, 1981 to May 30, 1981
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
973 mb (28.73 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1112 km (691 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.9
Identifier
SH291981

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
May 22, 00:008.0S 90.7E20 ktTropical storm
May 22, 06:007.8S 90.7E20 ktTropical storm
May 22, 12:007.5S 90.6E20 ktTropical storm
May 22, 18:007.3S 90.5E20 ktTropical storm
May 23, 00:007.0S 90.4E20 ktTropical storm
May 23, 06:006.6S 90.1E20 ktTropical storm
May 23, 12:006.3S 89.8E20 ktTropical storm
May 23, 18:006.6S 89.4E20 ktTropical storm
May 24, 00:007.2S 89.1E20 ktTropical storm
May 24, 06:007.8S 89.5E20 kt1001 mbTropical storm
May 24, 12:008.4S 90.1E20 kt999 mbTropical storm
May 24, 18:009.0S 90.4E20 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 25, 00:009.7S 90.8E25 kt994 mbTropical storm
May 25, 06:0010.3S 91.1E25 kt991 mbTropical storm
May 25, 12:0010.8S 91.5E25 kt988 mbTropical storm
May 25, 18:0011.2S 91.7E25 kt982 mbTropical storm
May 26, 00:0011.5S 91.8E30 kt982 mbTropical storm
May 26, 06:0011.9S 91.8E30 kt973 mbTropical storm
May 26, 12:0012.3S 91.8E30 kt973 mbTropical storm
May 26, 18:0012.7S 91.7E35 kt973 mbTropical storm
May 27, 00:0013.1S 91.6E35 kt973 mbTropical storm
May 27, 06:0013.4S 91.7E35 kt973 mbTropical storm
May 27, 12:0013.7S 91.9E35 kt973 mbTropical storm
May 27, 18:0013.9S 92.2E35 kt978 mbTropical storm
May 28, 00:0014.1S 92.5E35 kt983 mbTropical storm
May 28, 06:0014.4S 92.6E35 kt983 mbTropical storm
May 28, 12:0014.8S 92.8E30 kt988 mbTropical storm
May 28, 18:0015.3S 92.9E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
May 29, 00:0015.8S 93.1E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
May 29, 06:0016.1S 93.4E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 29, 12:0016.4S 93.8E25 kt1001 mbTropical storm
May 29, 18:0016.8S 94.3E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 30, 00:0017.1S 94.8E25 kt1003 mbTropical storm
May 30, 06:0017.4S 95.3E25 ktTropical storm
May 30, 12:0017.7S 95.8E20 ktTropical 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.

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.