The 2010 season

Tropical Storm Matthew (2010)

Tropical Storm Matthew peaked at 50 kt in the North Atlantic between September 23, 2010 and September 26, 2010, with a lowest pressure of 998 mb, and made landfall. It killed 126 people, as Wikidata records it.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Matthew, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 2010 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
September 23, 2010 to September 26, 2010
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
998 mb (29.47 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.5
Tropical-storm-force wind reached
150 nmi (278 km, 173 mi) from the center at its widest
Eyewall radius at its peak
30 nmi (56 km, 35 mi)
Overall size
250 nmi (463 km, 288 mi) to the outermost closed isobar
Peak gust in the best track
60 kt (69 mph)
Fastest the center moved
19 kt (22 mph)
Identifier
AL152010

Deaths and damage

The sources count different things and are not added together.

Wikidata

126 deathsno damage figure

A community-maintained total, usually direct and indirect deaths together and damage worldwide. Joined to this storm by its IBTrACS serial, not by name.

Landfalls

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Sep 24, 19:00Puerto Cabezas, North Caribbean Coast, Nicaragua, 75 km away14.7N 83.3W50 kt (58 mph)998 mb
Sep 25, 15:00Lívingston, Izabal Department, Guatemala, 84 km away16.5N 88.4W35 kt (40 mph)1000 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
Sep 23, 12:0013.7N 74.8W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Sep 23, 18:0013.9N 76.2W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 00:0014.0N 77.7W40 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 06:0014.0N 79.3W45 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 12:0014.2N 81.1W45 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 18:0014.6N 83.0W50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 19:00 landfall14.7N 83.3W50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 00:0015.2N 84.6W50 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 06:0015.8N 86.1W45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 12:0016.3N 87.7W35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 15:00 landfall16.5N 88.4W35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 18:0016.7N 89.4W30 kt1000 mbTropical depression
Sep 26, 00:0017.0N 90.8W30 kt1001 mbTropical depression
Sep 26, 06:0017.3N 91.9W25 kt1002 mbTropical depression
Sep 26, 12:0017.5N 92.8W20 kt1002 mbLow
Sep 26, 18:0017.2N 93.3W20 kt1003 mbLow

Other North Atlantic storms of 2010

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.