The 1981 season

Tropical Storm Roy (1981)

Tropical Storm Roy peaked at 50 kt in the Western Pacific between August 2, 1981 and August 11, 1981, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Roy, 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
Western Pacific
Dates
August 2, 1981 to August 11, 1981
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.2
Identifier
WP131981

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 2, 00:0012.8N 113.1EDisturbance
Aug 2, 06:0013.3N 113.4E1000 mbMixed
Aug 2, 12:0013.5N 113.8E1000 mbMixed
Aug 2, 18:0014.1N 114.4E1000 mbMixed
Aug 3, 00:0014.3N 114.6E1000 mbMixed
Aug 3, 06:0014.8N 114.7E1000 mbMixed
Aug 3, 12:0015.1N 114.6E1000 mbMixed
Aug 3, 18:0015.2N 114.8E1000 mbMixed
Aug 4, 00:0015.8N 115.3E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 06:0015.7N 114.8E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 12:0015.1N 115.2E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 18:0015.3N 116.0E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 00:0015.8N 116.8E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 06:0016.3N 117.2E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 12:0016.9N 117.4E45 kt990 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 18:0017.5N 117.6E45 kt990 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 00:0017.9N 117.9E50 kt985 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 06:0018.5N 118.4E50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 12:0019.2N 118.8E50 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 18:0019.9N 118.4E45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 00:0020.3N 117.8E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 06:0020.5N 117.3E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 12:0020.6N 116.8E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 18:0020.4N 116.1E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 00:0019.9N 115.5E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 06:0019.4N 114.9E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 12:0019.0N 114.1E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 18:0018.6N 113.3E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 00:0018.4N 112.5E20 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 06:0018.7N 111.3E998 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 12:0019.0N 110.2E998 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 18:0019.3N 109.1E998 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 00:0019.8N 108.0E998 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 06:0019.9N 106.8E998 mbMixed
Aug 10, 12:0020.2N 105.2E998 mbMixed
Aug 10, 18:0020.1N 104.3E998 mbTropical storm
Aug 11, 00:0020.0N 103.3E1000 mbTropical storm

Other Western Pacific 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.