Cyclone Ima (1986)

Basin

South Pacific

Dates

February 5, 1986 to February 16, 1986

Peak strength

Category 1, 75 kt (86 mph)

Lowest pressure

940 mb (27.76 inHg)

Landfall

No; closest approach 292 km (181 mi)

Accumulated cyclone energy

13.9

Identifier

SH151986

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.

• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Depression30 kt
• Tropical Storm VernonSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Storm45 kt · 990 mb
• Cyclone WinifredSouth Pacific · 1986Cat 290 kt · 957 mb
• Tropical Storm JuneSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb
• Tropical Storm KeliSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Storm45 kt · 987 mb
• Tropical Storm LusiSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Storm45 kt · 990 mb
• Tropical Storm AlfredSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Storm45 kt · 990 mb
• Cyclone MartinSouth Pacific · 1986Cat 175 kt · 970 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1986Tropical Depression30 kt
• Cyclone ManuSouth Pacific · 1986Cat 170 kt · 970 mb
• Cyclone NamuSouth Pacific · 1986Cat 180 kt · 955 mb

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.

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.