The 1986 season

Tropical Storm Pancho (1986)

Tropical Storm Pancho peaked at 55 kt in the South Indian between January 18, 1986 and January 22, 1986, with a lowest pressure of 976 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Pancho, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1986 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
January 18, 1986 to January 22, 1986
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph)
Lowest pressure
976 mb (28.82 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 523 km (325 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.7
Identifier
SH101986

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 18, 00:0014.4S 107.7E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 18, 06:0013.9S 108.4E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 18, 12:0013.8S 108.9E25 kt999 mbTropical storm
Jan 18, 18:0013.7S 109.5E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 00:0013.9S 110.4E30 kt995 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 06:0014.0S 111.2E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 12:0014.1S 111.9E50 kt984 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 18:0013.9S 113.1E55 kt978 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 00:0013.7S 114.2E55 kt976 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 06:0014.4S 114.5E55 kt978 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 12:0014.6S 114.6E25 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 18:0014.5S 114.3E35 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 00:0015.0S 113.7E35 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 06:0016.0S 112.7E35 kt984 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 12:0017.0S 111.7E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 18:0017.8S 110.9E30 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jan 22, 00:0018.6S 110.2E25 ktNot reported

Other South Indian storms of 1986

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.