The 1981 season

Unnamed cyclone (1981)

Unnamed cyclone reached Category 1 in the North Indian between November 17, 1981 and November 20, 1981, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed cyclone, 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.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
North Indian
Dates
November 17, 1981 to November 20, 1981
Peak strength
Category 1, 75 kt (86 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
4.7
Identifier
IO021981

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
Nov 17, 06:0012.7N 91.2E25 ktDisturbance
Nov 17, 12:0013.1N 90.5E30 ktDisturbance
Nov 17, 18:0013.4N 90.2E40 ktTropical storm
Nov 18, 00:0013.7N 90.1E45 ktTropical storm
Nov 18, 06:0014.1N 90.1E55 ktTropical storm
Nov 18, 12:0014.7N 90.1E55 ktTropical storm
Nov 18, 18:0015.3N 90.2E60 ktTropical storm
Nov 19, 00:0016.0N 90.3E65 ktTropical storm
Nov 19, 06:0016.7N 90.5E70 ktTropical storm
Nov 19, 12:0017.5N 90.7E75 ktTropical storm
Nov 19, 18:0018.4N 91.0E75 ktTropical storm
Nov 20, 00:0019.2N 91.2E65 ktTropical storm
Nov 20, 06:0020.1N 91.5E60 ktTropical storm
Nov 20, 12:0020.9N 91.8E55 ktTropical storm
Nov 20, 18:0021.5N 92.0E50 ktTropical storm

Other North 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.