The 1989 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1989)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between February 11, 1989 and February 14, 1989, with a lowest pressure of 987 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, 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
February 11, 1989 to February 14, 1989
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
987 mb (29.15 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 415 km (258 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.7
Identifier
1989042S23178

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 11, 00:0023.0S 178.0E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 06:0022.6S 178.6E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 12:0022.2S 179.2E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 18:0021.7S 180.0E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 12, 00:0021.4S 180.7E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 12, 06:0021.2S 181.6E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 12, 12:0021.1S 182.8E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 12, 18:0021.2S 183.8E45 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 13, 00:0021.3S 184.6E45 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 13, 06:0022.0S 186.0E45 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 13, 12:0022.8S 187.3E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 13, 18:0024.4S 189.3E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 14, 00:0026.8S 191.1E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 14, 06:0030.1S 192.7E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 14, 12:0033.7S 194.0E40 kt990 mbExtratropical
Feb 14, 18:0037.3S 194.9E40 kt990 mbExtratropical

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. 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.