The 1985 season

Tropical Storm Elsie (1985)

Tropical Storm Elsie peaked at 40 kt in the Western Pacific between January 5, 1985 and January 11, 1985, with a lowest pressure of 1000 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Elsie, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1985 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
Western Pacific
Dates
January 5, 1985 to January 11, 1985
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
1000 mb (29.53 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 939 km (583 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.4
Identifier
WP011985

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
Jan 5, 00:003.6N 156.9EDisturbance
Jan 5, 06:003.6N 156.8EDisturbance
Jan 5, 12:003.7N 156.7EDisturbance
Jan 5, 18:003.9N 156.4EDisturbance
Jan 6, 00:004.1N 156.1E20 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 06:004.5N 155.6E20 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 12:004.9N 155.1E20 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 18:005.4N 154.6E25 ktTropical storm
Jan 7, 00:005.9N 154.1E30 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 7, 06:006.7N 153.2E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 7, 12:008.0N 152.0E40 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 7, 18:009.2N 150.9E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 8, 00:0010.5N 149.6E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 8, 06:0012.0N 148.5E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 8, 12:0013.8N 147.9E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 8, 18:0015.5N 148.1E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 9, 00:0017.2N 148.4E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 9, 06:0012.0N 144.0E1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 9, 12:0012.8N 143.6E1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 9, 18:0014.0N 143.7E1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 10, 00:0014.9N 144.1E1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 10, 06:0016.3N 145.0E1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 10, 12:0017.3N 146.1E1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 10, 18:0018.4N 147.1E1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 11, 00:0019.4N 148.3E1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 11, 06:0021.0N 150.0E1004 mbTropical storm
Jan 11, 12:0023.0N 152.0E1006 mbTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1985

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.