The 1992 season

Hurricane Virgil (1992)

Hurricane Virgil reached Category 4 in the Eastern Pacific between October 1, 1992 and October 5, 1992, with a lowest pressure of 948 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Virgil, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1992 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
Eastern Pacific
Dates
October 1, 1992 to October 5, 1992
Peak strength
Category 4, 115 kt (132 mph)
Lowest pressure
948 mb (27.99 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
8.0
Fastest the center moved
16 kt (18 mph)
Identifier
EP231992

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
Oct 4, 03:00Coalcomán de Vázquez Pallares, Michoacan, Mexico, 64 km away18.3N 103.5W95 kt (109 mph)965 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
Oct 1, 06:0013.5N 100.4W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Oct 1, 12:0013.9N 100.7W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Oct 1, 18:0014.4N 101.1W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Oct 2, 00:0014.8N 101.6W40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Oct 2, 06:0015.1N 102.1W50 kt997 mbTropical storm
Oct 2, 12:0015.4N 102.5W70 kt985 mbHurricane
Oct 2, 18:0015.6N 102.6W95 kt965 mbHurricane
Oct 3, 00:0015.9N 102.6W115 kt948 mbHurricane
Oct 3, 06:0016.3N 102.7W110 kt952 mbHurricane
Oct 3, 12:0016.7N 102.6W100 kt958 mbHurricane
Oct 3, 18:0017.3N 102.7W100 kt962 mbHurricane
Oct 4, 00:0018.1N 103.2W95 kt965 mbHurricane
Oct 4, 03:00 landfall18.3N 103.5W95 kt965 mbHurricane
Oct 4, 06:0018.6N 103.7W65 kt987 mbHurricane
Oct 4, 12:0019.2N 104.2W45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Oct 4, 18:0019.6N 104.5W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Oct 5, 00:0019.9N 104.8W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Oct 5, 06:0020.0N 105.3W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Oct 5, 12:0020.2N 106.1W20 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Oct 5, 18:0020.6N 107.6W20 kt1012 mbTropical depression

Other Eastern Pacific storms of 1992

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.