The 1989 season

Tropical Storm Karen (1989)

Tropical Storm Karen peaked at 50 kt in the North Atlantic between November 28, 1989 and December 4, 1989, with a lowest pressure of 1000 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Karen, 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
North Atlantic
Dates
November 28, 1989 to December 4, 1989
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
1000 mb (29.53 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 85 km (53 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.6
Fastest the center moved
12 kt (14 mph)
Identifier
AL151989

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
Nov 28, 12:0017.1N 84.0W25 kt1005 mbTropical depression
Nov 28, 18:0018.0N 84.8W30 kt1004 mbTropical depression
Nov 29, 00:0019.0N 85.1W30 kt1004 mbTropical depression
Nov 29, 06:0019.5N 85.1W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression
Nov 29, 12:0020.0N 85.0W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression
Nov 29, 18:0020.4N 84.6W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression
Nov 30, 00:0020.8N 84.2W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Nov 30, 06:0020.8N 83.6W45 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Nov 30, 12:0020.8N 83.4W50 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Nov 30, 18:0020.5N 83.1W50 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 1, 00:0019.9N 83.1W45 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Dec 1, 06:0019.3N 83.2W40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Dec 1, 12:0019.0N 83.3W35 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Dec 1, 18:0018.5N 84.0W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Dec 2, 00:0018.0N 84.5W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Dec 2, 06:0017.8N 84.9W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Dec 2, 12:0017.5N 85.5W35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Dec 2, 18:0017.5N 85.5W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Dec 3, 00:0017.5N 85.5W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Dec 3, 06:0017.4N 85.3W40 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Dec 3, 12:0017.2N 85.0W40 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Dec 3, 18:0017.0N 84.5W40 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Dec 4, 00:0016.5N 83.9W35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Dec 4, 06:0016.5N 83.9W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression

Other North Atlantic 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.

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.