The 1983 season

Tropical Storm Ken (1983)

Tropical Storm Ken peaked at 55 kt in the South Indian between February 27, 1983 and March 6, 1983, with a lowest pressure of 970 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Ken, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1983 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
February 27, 1983 to March 6, 1983
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph)
Lowest pressure
970 mb (28.64 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.5
Identifier
SH161983

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
Feb 27, 12:0013.3S 126.7E25 ktTropical storm
Feb 27, 18:0013.0S 125.7E25 ktTropical storm
Feb 28, 00:0012.9S 125.1E30 ktTropical storm
Feb 28, 06:0013.1S 124.7E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
Feb 28, 12:0013.3S 124.5E35 kt988 mbTropical storm
Feb 28, 18:0013.6S 124.4E35 kt984 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 00:0013.8S 124.3E40 kt980 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 06:0014.0S 124.2E40 kt977 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 12:0014.2S 124.2E45 kt975 mbTropical storm
Mar 1, 18:0014.5S 124.2E45 kt973 mbTropical storm
Mar 2, 00:0014.8S 124.3E50 kt970 mbTropical storm
Mar 2, 06:0015.3S 124.5E55 kt970 mbTropical storm
Mar 2, 12:0015.9S 124.7E55 kt970 mbTropical storm
Mar 2, 18:0016.3S 124.9E55 kt976 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 00:0016.7S 125.0E55 kt988 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 06:0017.2S 125.2E55 kt991 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 12:0017.8S 125.5E55 kt992 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 18:0018.3S 125.9E50 kt992 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 00:0018.7S 126.4E45 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 06:0019.7S 126.5E20 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 12:0020.4S 126.3E20 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 18:0021.0S 126.0E20 kt995 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 00:0021.6S 125.5E15 kt995 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 06:0022.4S 124.6E15 kt995 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 12:0023.2S 123.9E15 kt997 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 18:0024.8S 125.2E15 kt999 mbTropical storm
Mar 6, 00:0025.8S 126.8E15 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Mar 6, 06:0026.7S 127.9E15 kt1003 mbTropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1983

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.