The 1985 season

Tropical Storm Esitera (1985)

Tropical Storm Esitera peaked at 36 kt in the South Indian between February 9, 1985 and February 11, 1985, with a lowest pressure of 991 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Esitera, 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.

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The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
February 9, 1985 to February 11, 1985
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 36 kt (41 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
991 mb (29.26 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 235 km (146 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.8
Identifier
1985040S17054

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 9, 12:0017.0S 53.8E36 kt991 mbTropical storm
Feb 9, 18:0017.3S 53.3E28 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 10, 00:0017.3S 52.7E24 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Feb 10, 06:0017.2S 52.2E20 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Feb 10, 12:0016.9S 52.2E36 ktTropical storm
Feb 10, 18:0016.8S 52.7E36 ktTropical storm
Feb 11, 00:0016.9S 53.1E36 ktTropical storm
Feb 11, 06:0017.1S 53.4E36 ktMixed
Feb 11, 12:0017.5S 54.1E36 ktMixed
Feb 11, 18:0018.0S 55.1ETropical storm

Other South Indian 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. 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.