The 1986 season

Tropical Storm Selwyn (1986)

Tropical Storm Selwyn peaked at 50 kt in the South Indian between February 21, 1986 and February 26, 1986, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Selwyn, 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
February 21, 1986 to February 26, 1986
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 482 km (300 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.6
Identifier
SH201986

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 21, 06:0013.4S 114.3E25 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Feb 21, 12:0014.0S 114.5E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Feb 21, 18:0014.4S 114.8E25 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 00:0014.8S 114.9E25 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 06:0014.9S 114.3E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 12:0015.4S 114.5E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 18:0015.9S 114.1E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 00:0016.5S 113.3E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 06:0017.2S 112.5E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 12:0017.9S 111.7E35 kt986 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 18:0018.6S 110.8E40 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 00:0019.3S 109.9E45 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 06:0019.9S 108.9E50 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 12:0020.5S 108.0E45 kt984 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 18:0021.0S 107.3E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 00:0021.6S 106.7E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 06:0022.3S 106.4E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 12:0022.8S 106.2E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 18:0023.3S 106.3E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 00:0024.0S 106.2E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 06:0024.2S 106.3E25 kt1002 mbTropical 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.