The 1987 season

Tropical Storm Elsie (1987)

Tropical Storm Elsie peaked at 60 kt in the South Indian between February 21, 1987 and February 27, 1987, with a lowest pressure of 940 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Elsie. 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
February 21, 1987 to February 27, 1987
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 60 kt (69 mph)
Lowest pressure
940 mb (27.76 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.1
Identifier
SH181987

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, 12:0015.1S 127.4E25 ktTropical storm
Feb 21, 18:0015.2S 126.3E25 ktTropical storm
Feb 22, 00:0015.3S 125.1E25 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 06:0015.4S 124.0E30 kt993 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 12:0015.6S 123.0E30 kt986 mbTropical storm
Feb 22, 18:0015.8S 122.1E30 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 00:0015.8S 121.4E35 kt978 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 06:0015.8S 120.9E35 kt976 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 12:0015.8S 120.7E40 kt964 mbTropical storm
Feb 23, 18:0015.9S 120.9E40 kt957 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 00:0016.2S 121.2E45 kt953 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 06:0016.6S 121.5E45 kt951 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 12:0017.2S 121.6E45 kt949 mbTropical storm
Feb 24, 18:0017.9S 121.4E50 kt947 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 00:0018.6S 121.2E55 kt945 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 06:0019.3S 121.0E60 kt941 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 12:0019.9S 121.0E55 kt941 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 18:0020.7S 121.3E45 kt955 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 00:0022.0S 121.8E40 kt970 mbMixed
Feb 26, 06:0022.0S 121.7E50 kt980 mbMixed
Feb 26, 12:0022.9S 122.1E35 kt984 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 18:0023.3S 122.9E30 kt988 mbTropical storm
Feb 27, 00:0023.5S 123.5E25 kt992 mbMixed
Feb 27, 06:0023.8S 124.9E20 kt998 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.