The 1987 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1987)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 40 kt in the North Atlantic between August 9, 1987 and August 17, 1987, with a lowest pressure of 1007 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed tropical storm. 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
North Atlantic
Dates
August 9, 1987 to August 17, 1987
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
1007 mb (29.74 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.6
Fastest the center moved
12 kt (14 mph)
Identifier
AL031987

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.

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Aug 10, 06:00Bolivar Peninsula, TX, 8 km away29.5N 94.5W40 kt (46 mph)1009 mb

Landfall points the US agencies flagged in the best track. The nearest town is named from the site’s gazetteer, not from the report.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Aug 9, 12:0026.3N 93.6W30 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 9, 18:0027.3N 94.0W35 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 00:0028.4N 94.4W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 06:00 landfall29.5N 94.5W40 kt1009 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 12:0030.5N 94.5W40 kt1009 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 18:0031.3N 94.1W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 00:0031.8N 93.5W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 06:0032.3N 92.7W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 12:0032.3N 91.8W25 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 18:0032.2N 91.2W25 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 12, 00:0032.1N 90.6W25 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 12, 06:0032.0N 90.2W25 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 12, 12:0032.0N 89.7W25 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 12, 18:0032.0N 89.3W20 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 13, 00:0031.9N 88.8W20 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 13, 06:0031.8N 88.4W20 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 13, 12:0031.7N 88.0W20 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 13, 18:0031.5N 87.7W15 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 14, 00:0031.3N 87.4W15 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 14, 06:0031.1N 87.1W15 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 14, 12:0030.8N 86.8W15 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 14, 18:0030.6N 86.6W15 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 15, 00:0030.3N 86.3W15 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 15, 06:0030.0N 86.0W15 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 15, 12:0029.8N 85.6W15 kt1012 mbTropical depression
Aug 15, 18:0029.7N 85.0W15 kt1012 mbTropical depression
Aug 16, 00:0029.8N 84.5W15 kt1013 mbTropical depression
Aug 16, 06:0030.2N 84.0W15 kt1014 mbTropical depression
Aug 16, 12:0030.5N 83.7W15 kt1014 mbTropical depression
Aug 16, 18:0030.9N 83.2W10 kt1014 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 00:0031.4N 82.9W10 kt1015 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 06:0031.8N 82.3W10 kt1015 mbTropical depression

Other North Atlantic 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.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.