The 1985 season

Tropical Storm Gretel (1985)

Tropical Storm Gretel peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between April 11, 1985 and April 14, 1985, with a lowest pressure of 984 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Gretel, 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
South Pacific
Dates
April 11, 1985 to April 14, 1985
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
984 mb (29.06 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.7
Identifier
SH341985

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
Apr 11, 06:0010.4S 135.8E30 ktXX
Apr 11, 12:0010.3S 134.9E30 ktXX
Apr 11, 18:0010.4S 134.0E35 ktXX
Apr 12, 00:0010.6S 133.2E40 kt998 mbXX
Apr 12, 06:0010.9S 132.5E45 kt993 mbXX
Apr 12, 12:0011.4S 131.9E45 kt988 mbXX
Apr 12, 18:0011.9S 131.3E45 kt984 mbXX
Apr 13, 00:0012.3S 130.8E45 kt984 mbXX
Apr 13, 06:0012.7S 130.4E40 kt984 mbXX
Apr 13, 12:0013.2S 130.1E40 kt986 mbXX
Apr 13, 18:0013.7S 129.8E35 kt992 mbXX
Apr 14, 00:0014.0S 129.4E35 kt994 mbXX
Apr 14, 06:0014.0S 129.0E30 kt998 mbXX

Other South 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.