The 1986 season

Cyclone Victor (1986)

Cyclone Victor reached Category 3 in the South Indian between March 2, 1986 and March 9, 1986, with a lowest pressure of 930 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Cyclone Victor, 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
March 2, 1986 to March 9, 1986
Peak strength
Category 3, 105 kt (121 mph)
Lowest pressure
930 mb (27.46 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 150 km (93 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
12.4
Identifier
SH221986

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
Mar 2, 12:0013.6S 124.7E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Mar 2, 18:0013.7S 124.2E25 kt996 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 00:0013.9S 123.5E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 06:0014.1S 122.7E30 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 12:0014.3S 121.8E35 kt986 mbTropical storm
Mar 3, 18:0014.6S 121.1E40 kt984 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 00:0015.0S 120.3E45 kt976 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 06:0015.4S 119.4E55 kt965 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 12:0015.8S 118.4E70 kt955 mbTropical storm
Mar 4, 18:0016.3S 117.6E80 kt950 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 00:0016.9S 116.8E90 kt940 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 06:0017.4S 116.1E100 kt930 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 12:0017.9S 115.5E105 kt935 mbTropical storm
Mar 5, 18:0018.3S 115.0E105 kt945 mbTropical storm
Mar 6, 00:0018.6S 114.5E100 kt945 mbTropical storm
Mar 6, 06:0019.0S 114.1E95 kt945 mbTropical storm
Mar 6, 12:0019.5S 113.6E90 kt950 mbTropical storm
Mar 6, 18:0020.0S 113.1E85 kt955 mbTropical storm
Mar 7, 00:0020.5S 112.5E80 kt955 mbTropical storm
Mar 7, 06:0021.1S 112.0E75 kt960 mbTropical storm
Mar 7, 12:0021.7S 111.5E70 kt965 mbTropical storm
Mar 7, 18:0022.4S 111.0E65 kt974 mbTropical storm
Mar 8, 00:0023.2S 110.4E55 kt982 mbTropical storm
Mar 8, 06:0024.2S 109.9E50 kt986 mbTropical storm
Mar 8, 12:0025.2S 109.5E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 8, 18:0026.3S 109.3E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 9, 00:0027.4S 109.3E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Mar 9, 06:0028.7S 109.8E25 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.