The 1984 season

Tropical Storm Fritz (1984)

Tropical Storm Fritz peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between December 9, 1983 and December 14, 1983, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Fritz, 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.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
South Pacific
Dates
December 9, 1983 to December 14, 1983
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 217 km (135 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.9
Identifier
SH081984

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 9, 06:0014.4S 147.8E20 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Dec 9, 12:0015.0S 148.0E20 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Dec 9, 18:0015.0S 148.4E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Dec 10, 00:0014.7S 148.9E25 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Dec 10, 06:0014.8S 149.2E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Dec 10, 12:0014.9S 149.7E35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Dec 10, 18:0014.5S 150.0E35 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Dec 11, 00:0014.4S 150.5E40 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 11, 06:0014.8S 151.4E40 kt999 mbTropical storm
Dec 11, 12:0015.2S 152.3E45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 11, 18:0015.2S 152.3E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Dec 12, 00:0015.2S 152.3E40 kt995 mbTropical storm
Dec 12, 06:0015.5S 153.0E40 kt992 mbTropical storm
Dec 12, 12:0015.8S 153.7E40 kt992 mbTropical storm
Dec 12, 18:0015.7S 154.1E40 kt998 mbTropical storm
Dec 13, 00:0015.5S 153.5E35 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Dec 13, 06:0015.5S 151.9E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 13, 12:0015.4S 150.3E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 13, 18:0015.0S 148.8E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 14, 00:0014.1S 147.3E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 14, 06:0015.0S 148.5ENot reported
Dec 14, 12:0015.0S 147.4ENot reported

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.