The 1984 season

Tropical Storm Atu (1984)

Tropical Storm Atu peaked at 35 kt in the South Pacific between December 26, 1983 and December 31, 1983, with a lowest pressure of 987 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Atu, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1984 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 26, 1983 to December 31, 1983
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
987 mb (29.15 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 223 km (139 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.2
Identifier
SH111984

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 26, 06:0012.9S 174.1E15 ktTropical storm
Dec 26, 12:0013.4S 173.8E15 ktTropical storm
Dec 26, 18:0013.9S 173.4E15 ktTropical storm
Dec 27, 00:0014.3S 172.9E15 ktMixed
Dec 27, 06:0014.6S 172.2E20 ktMixed
Dec 27, 12:0015.0S 171.3E20 ktMixed
Dec 27, 18:0015.5S 170.4E25 kt995 mbMixed
Dec 28, 00:0016.3S 170.0E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 28, 06:0017.4S 170.2E25 kt987 mbTropical storm
Dec 28, 12:0018.6S 170.8E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 28, 18:0019.8S 171.4E30 kt987 mbTropical storm
Dec 29, 00:0020.5S 172.0E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 29, 06:0020.9S 172.6E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Dec 29, 12:0021.2S 173.1E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 29, 18:0021.4S 173.4E30 kt995 mbTropical storm
Dec 30, 00:0021.6S 173.3ETropical storm
Dec 30, 06:0022.0S 173.7E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Dec 30, 12:0022.5S 174.0ETropical storm
Dec 30, 18:0022.9S 174.3ETropical storm
Dec 31, 00:0023.3S 174.5ETropical storm

Other South Pacific storms of 1984

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.