The 1987 season

Tropical Storm Damien (1987)

Tropical Storm Damien peaked at 50 kt in the South Indian between January 31, 1987 and February 9, 1987, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Damien. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
January 31, 1987 to February 9, 1987
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 30 km (19 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.9
Identifier
SH121987

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 31, 00:0014.6S 124.0E20 kt998 mbTropical storm
Jan 31, 06:0014.6S 123.7E20 kt997 mbTropical storm
Jan 31, 12:0014.8S 124.0E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Jan 31, 18:0015.3S 123.8E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 00:0015.6S 123.4E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 06:0015.9S 123.0E35 kt992 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 12:0016.0S 122.7E40 kt992 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 18:0016.2S 122.6E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 00:0016.3S 122.8E40 kt988 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 06:0016.1S 122.9E40 kt986 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 12:0016.5S 122.5E40 kt984 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 18:0017.2S 121.9E40 kt982 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 00:0017.5S 121.1E45 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 06:0017.7S 120.4E45 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 12:0017.8S 119.9E45 kt982 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 18:0017.9S 119.4E50 kt983 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 00:0017.9S 118.9E50 kt983 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 06:0018.0S 118.4E45 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 12:0018.0S 118.0E40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 18:0018.1S 117.6E35 kt989 mbTropical storm
Feb 5, 00:0018.2S 117.3E30 kt991 mbTropical storm
Feb 5, 06:0018.4S 117.3E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
Feb 5, 12:0018.7S 117.2E30 kt992 mbMixed
Feb 5, 18:0019.0S 117.1E30 kt992 mbMixed
Feb 6, 00:0019.4S 116.9E25 kt993 mbMixed
Feb 6, 06:0019.9S 116.6E25 kt994 mbMixed
Feb 6, 12:0020.2S 116.0E25 kt995 mbMixed
Feb 6, 18:0020.3S 115.3E25 kt997 mbMixed
Feb 7, 00:0020.1S 114.6E25 kt998 mbMixed
Feb 7, 06:0019.6S 113.9E25 kt998 mbMixed
Feb 7, 12:0019.2S 113.4E25 kt999 mbMixed
Feb 7, 18:0019.2S 112.9E25 kt999 mbMixed
Feb 8, 00:0019.3S 112.4E20 kt999 mbMixed
Feb 8, 06:0019.6S 111.9E20 kt999 mbMixed
Feb 8, 12:0019.8S 111.6E20 kt999 mbMixed
Feb 8, 18:0019.9S 111.3E20 kt999 mbMixed
Feb 9, 00:0020.0S 111.0E1000 mbMixed

Other South Indian 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.