The 1987 season

Tropical Storm Blanch:Blanche (1987)

Tropical Storm Blanch:Blanche peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between May 20, 1987 and May 27, 1987, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Blanch:Blanche, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1987 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 Pacific
Dates
May 20, 1987 to May 27, 1987
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 11 km (7 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.0
Identifier
SH271987

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
May 20, 00:007.7S 170.4E30 kt997 mbNot reported
May 20, 06:008.0S 169.2E30 kt997 mbNot reported
May 20, 12:008.5S 168.1E30 kt997 mbNot reported
May 20, 18:0010.0S 166.9E25 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 21, 00:0010.2S 165.7E25 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 21, 06:0010.5S 164.5E25 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 21, 12:0010.7S 163.4E25 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 21, 18:0010.9S 162.3E25 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 22, 00:0011.0S 161.4E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 22, 06:0011.3S 160.7E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
May 22, 12:0011.8S 160.0E30 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 22, 18:0012.3S 159.4E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 23, 00:0013.0S 158.9E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 23, 06:0013.7S 158.6E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 23, 12:0014.4S 158.4E45 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 23, 18:0015.0S 158.1E45 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 24, 00:0015.5S 157.8E45 kt992 mbTropical storm
May 24, 06:0015.9S 157.5E45 kt995 mbTropical storm
May 24, 12:0016.4S 157.3E45 kt995 mbTropical storm
May 24, 18:0016.6S 157.1E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
May 25, 00:0016.6S 157.0E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 25, 06:0016.6S 156.8E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 25, 12:0016.9S 156.6E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 25, 18:0017.5S 156.3E30 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 26, 00:0018.1S 156.2E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 26, 06:0019.0S 156.3E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
May 26, 12:0019.8S 156.5E25 kt1007 mbTropical storm
May 26, 18:0020.4S 156.8E25 kt1008 mbTropical storm
May 27, 00:0021.6S 157.1E25 ktTropical storm

Other South Pacific storms of 1987

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.