The 1989 season

Tropical Storm Kerry (1989)

Tropical Storm Kerry peaked at 50 kt in the South Pacific between March 29, 1989 and April 4, 1989, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Kerry, 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 Pacific
Dates
March 29, 1989 to April 4, 1989
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 112 km (70 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.0
Identifier
SH221989

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
Mar 29, 00:0014.8S 187.3E30 kt997 mbNot reported
Mar 29, 06:0015.4S 186.8ENot reported
Mar 29, 12:0016.0S 186.4E30 kt997 mbNot reported
Mar 29, 18:0016.6S 186.0ENot reported
Mar 30, 00:0017.2S 185.2E30 kt997 mbNot reported
Mar 30, 06:0017.7S 183.6ENot reported
Mar 30, 12:0018.3S 181.8E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Mar 30, 18:0019.3S 179.8W30 ktTropical storm
Mar 31, 00:0019.9S 179.2E35 kt997 mbTropical storm
Mar 31, 06:0020.5S 178.3E40 kt995 mbTropical storm
Mar 31, 12:0021.0S 177.5E45 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 31, 18:0021.6S 177.1E45 kt987 mbTropical storm
Apr 1, 00:0022.1S 177.4E45 kt985 mbTropical storm
Apr 1, 06:0021.9S 177.8E45 kt985 mbTropical storm
Apr 1, 12:0021.7S 177.6E50 kt985 mbTropical storm
Apr 1, 18:0021.5S 177.5E50 kt985 mbTropical storm
Apr 2, 00:0021.3S 177.6E50 kt985 mbTropical storm
Apr 2, 06:0021.5S 177.8E50 kt985 mbTropical storm
Apr 2, 12:0022.1S 179.7W50 kt987 mbTropical storm
Apr 2, 18:0022.8S 178.0W50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Apr 3, 00:0023.7S 175.6W50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Apr 3, 06:0024.5S 174.0W45 kt995 mbTropical storm
Apr 3, 12:0025.7S 187.5E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Apr 3, 18:0026.8S 189.3ETropical storm
Apr 4, 00:0028.0S 191.0E30 kt997 mbTropical storm

Other South Pacific 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.