The 1986 season

Tropical Storm Rhonda (1986)

Tropical Storm Rhonda peaked at 50 kt in the South Indian between February 17, 1986 and February 22, 1986, with a lowest pressure of 968 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Rhonda, 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.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
February 17, 1986 to February 22, 1986
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
968 mb (28.59 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.6
Identifier
SH181986

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 17, 00:0015.7S 116.3E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Feb 17, 06:0015.7S 115.3E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Feb 17, 12:0016.1S 115.3E20 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Feb 17, 18:0014.6S 113.8E25 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Feb 18, 00:0015.3S 114.0E25 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Feb 18, 06:0016.1S 114.1E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Feb 18, 12:0016.9S 114.1E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Feb 18, 18:0017.7S 114.1E35 kt992 mbTropical storm
Feb 19, 00:0018.6S 114.0E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 19, 06:0019.6S 113.9E45 kt984 mbTropical storm
Feb 19, 12:0020.6S 113.7E50 kt978 mbTropical storm
Feb 19, 18:0021.7S 113.4E50 kt974 mbTropical storm
Feb 20, 00:0022.9S 112.9E50 kt968 mbTropical storm
Feb 20, 06:0024.4S 112.4E50 kt970 mbTropical storm
Feb 20, 12:0026.2S 112.6E40 kt975 mbTropical storm
Feb 20, 18:0028.5S 113.5E25 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 21, 00:0027.5S 112.9E25 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 21, 06:0028.8S 113.1ETropical storm
Feb 21, 12:0030.2S 113.8ETropical storm
Feb 21, 18:0031.7S 115.6ETropical storm
Feb 22, 00:0033.3S 118.2ETropical storm

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.