The 1997 season

Tropical Storm Gillian (1997)

Tropical Storm Gillian peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between February 8, 1997 and February 13, 1997, with a lowest pressure of 995 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Gillian. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
South Pacific
Dates
February 8, 1997 to February 13, 1997
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
995 mb (29.38 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.4
Identifier
SH241997

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads carries a casualty or damage figure for this storm.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Feb 8, 00:0010.0S 155.0E15 ktTropical storm
Feb 8, 06:0010.6S 154.4E15 ktTropical storm
Feb 8, 12:0011.2S 153.8E15 ktTropical storm
Feb 8, 18:0011.8S 153.2E15 ktTropical storm
Feb 9, 00:0012.1S 152.2E15 ktTropical storm
Feb 9, 06:0012.1S 151.2E20 ktTropical storm
Feb 9, 12:0012.3S 150.2E20 ktTropical storm
Feb 9, 18:0012.7S 149.5E20 ktTropical storm
Feb 10, 00:0013.2S 149.1E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Feb 10, 06:0014.0S 149.1E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 10, 12:0014.6S 149.1E40 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Feb 10, 18:0015.3S 149.1E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 00:0016.1S 149.1E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 06:0016.8S 148.9E45 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 12:0017.5S 148.5E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 11, 18:0018.1S 148.0E40 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Feb 12, 00:0018.4S 147.3E35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Feb 12, 06:0018.7S 147.0E30 ktTropical storm
Feb 12, 12:0018.9S 146.8E25 ktTropical storm
Feb 12, 18:0019.5S 146.5ENot reported
Feb 13, 00:0019.7S 147.0ENot reported

Other South Pacific storms of 1997

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.