The 1985 season

Tropical Storm Vivian (1985)

Tropical Storm Vivian peaked at 35 kt in the Eastern Pacific between September 18, 1985 and September 21, 1985.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Vivian, 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
Eastern Pacific
Dates
September 18, 1985 to September 21, 1985
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1212 km (753 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.7
Fastest the center moved
7 kt (8 mph)
Identifier
EP201985

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
Sep 18, 06:0013.3N 116.7W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 18, 12:0013.8N 117.1W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 18, 18:0014.3N 117.5W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 19, 00:0014.6N 117.7W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 19, 06:0014.8N 117.8W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 19, 12:0014.9N 117.9W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 19, 18:0015.0N 118.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 20, 00:0015.2N 118.2W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0015.2N 118.4W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0015.1N 118.6W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0015.0N 118.8W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0014.8N 118.9W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0014.6N 119.0W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0014.4N 119.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 21, 18:0014.2N 118.9W25 ktTropical depression

Other Eastern 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.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.