The 1987 season

Tropical Depression Irma (1987)

Tropical Depression Irma peaked at 30 kt in the South Pacific between January 19, 1987 and January 22, 1987, with a lowest pressure of 978 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Depression Irma. 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 Pacific
Dates
January 19, 1987 to January 22, 1987
Peak strength
Tropical Depression, 30 kt (35 mph)
Lowest pressure
978 mb (28.88 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
SH111987

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 19, 00:0012.4S 139.8E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 06:0012.6S 139.0E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 12:0012.8S 138.3E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 18:0013.0S 137.7E30 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 00:0013.2S 137.1E30 kt985 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 06:0013.4S 136.5E30 kt978 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 12:0013.6S 135.7E30 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 18:0014.2S 134.8E30 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 00:0015.1S 134.0E30 kt984 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 06:0015.9S 133.3E30 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 12:0016.5S 133.0E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 18:0016.9S 132.8E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Jan 22, 00:0017.3S 132.4E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Jan 22, 06:0017.6S 132.0E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Jan 22, 12:0017.7S 132.0E30 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.