The 1989 season

Tropical Storm Iana (1989)

Tropical Storm Iana peaked at 44 kt in the South Indian between February 25, 1989 and March 1, 1989, with a lowest pressure of 984 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Iana, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1989 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 Indian
Dates
February 25, 1989 to March 1, 1989
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 44 kt (51 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
984 mb (29.06 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.0
Identifier
1989056S23039

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 25, 06:0022.5S 39.4ETropical storm
Feb 25, 12:0022.1S 40.0E28 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 18:0021.9S 40.4E28 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 00:0021.8S 40.7E28 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 06:0021.6S 42.5E36 kt991 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 12:0021.7S 43.4E44 kt984 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 18:0022.1S 44.8E36 ktMixed
Feb 27, 00:0022.8S 46.7E36 ktMixed
Feb 27, 06:0023.4S 48.0E36 kt991 mbTropical storm
Feb 27, 12:0024.0S 49.1E36 kt991 mbMixed
Feb 27, 18:0024.7S 50.3E36 kt991 mbMixed
Feb 28, 00:0025.2S 51.6E28 kt997 mbMixed
Feb 28, 06:0026.0S 52.8E28 kt997 mbMixed
Feb 28, 12:0026.9S 54.0E24 kt1000 mbMixed
Feb 28, 18:0028.0S 55.0E24 kt1000 mbMixed
Mar 1, 00:0029.3S 54.9E24 kt1000 mbMixed
Mar 1, 06:0030.7S 53.8E24 kt1000 mbMixed

Other South Indian storms of 1989

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. This storm’s winds are ten-minute averages from its regional agency. They read about 12 percent lower than the one-minute winds US agencies use, so a Saffir-Simpson category is not given for it.

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.