The 1983 season

Tropical Storm Saba (1983)

Tropical Storm Saba peaked at 50 kt in the South Pacific between March 20, 1983 and March 25, 1983, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Saba, 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 Pacific
Dates
March 20, 1983 to March 25, 1983
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 3866 km (2402 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.4
Identifier
1983079S13224

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
Mar 20, 00:0012.6S 136.2W30 kt997 mbNot reported
Mar 20, 06:0014.3S 136.3WNot reported
Mar 20, 12:0015.8S 136.2W40 kt990 mbNot reported
Mar 20, 18:0017.1S 135.8WNot reported
Mar 21, 00:0018.2S 135.3W50 kt985 mbNot reported
Mar 21, 06:0019.0S 134.8WNot reported
Mar 21, 12:0019.7S 134.3W50 kt985 mbNot reported
Mar 21, 18:0020.3S 133.9WNot reported
Mar 22, 00:0021.0S 133.5W50 kt985 mbNot reported
Mar 22, 06:0021.9S 132.8WNot reported
Mar 22, 12:0023.0S 132.0W50 kt985 mbNot reported
Mar 22, 18:0024.1S 131.3WNot reported
Mar 23, 00:0025.0S 130.5W40 kt990 mbNot reported
Mar 23, 06:0025.6S 129.7WNot reported
Mar 23, 12:0026.1S 129.0W35 kt995 mbNot reported
Mar 23, 18:0026.6S 128.3WNot reported
Mar 24, 00:0027.0S 127.5W30 kt997 mbNot reported
Mar 24, 06:0027.4S 126.5WNot reported
Mar 24, 12:0027.7S 125.5W30 kt997 mbNot reported
Mar 24, 18:0027.9S 124.5WNot reported
Mar 25, 00:0028.0S 123.5W30 kt997 mbNot reported

Other South Pacific 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. 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.