The 1982 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1982)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between December 20, 1981 and December 27, 1981, with a lowest pressure of 988 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1982 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 Pacific
Dates
December 20, 1981 to December 27, 1981
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
988 mb (29.18 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.9
Identifier
1981354S12140

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
Dec 20, 00:0011.8S 140.0E25 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Dec 20, 06:0011.9S 138.4E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Dec 20, 12:0012.0S 137.1E45 kt990 mbTropical storm
Dec 20, 18:0012.3S 135.5E35 kt997 mbTropical storm
Dec 21, 00:0012.4S 133.4E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Dec 21, 06:0012.2S 131.7E25 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Dec 21, 12:0012.0S 130.4E25 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Dec 21, 18:0011.6S 129.3E25 kt999 mbTropical storm
Dec 22, 00:0011.2S 127.9E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Dec 22, 06:0011.4S 126.4E40 kt992 mbTropical storm
Dec 22, 12:0011.5S 125.2E40 kt995 mbTropical storm
Dec 22, 18:0011.7S 124.0E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Dec 23, 00:0011.8S 122.9E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Dec 23, 06:0012.0S 121.9E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Dec 23, 12:0012.3S 121.2E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 23, 18:0012.5S 120.4ETropical storm
Dec 24, 00:0012.8S 119.5ETropical storm
Dec 24, 06:0012.8S 118.2ETropical storm
Dec 24, 12:0012.9S 117.0ETropical storm
Dec 24, 18:0012.9S 115.8ETropical storm
Dec 25, 00:0013.0S 114.6ETropical storm
Dec 25, 06:0013.1S 114.1ETropical storm
Dec 25, 12:0013.2S 113.7ETropical storm
Dec 25, 18:0013.3S 113.3ETropical storm
Dec 26, 00:0013.5S 112.9ETropical storm
Dec 26, 06:0013.6S 112.4ETropical storm
Dec 26, 12:0013.7S 111.9ETropical storm
Dec 26, 18:0013.9S 111.4ETropical storm
Dec 27, 00:0014.0S 111.0ETropical storm

Other South Pacific storms of 1982

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.