The 2012 season

Tropical Storm Helene (2012)

Tropical Storm Helene peaked at 40 kt in the North Atlantic between August 9, 2012 and August 19, 2012, with a lowest pressure of 1004 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Helene. 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
North Atlantic
Dates
August 9, 2012 to August 19, 2012
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
1004 mb (29.65 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.3
Tropical-storm-force wind reached
30 nmi (56 km, 35 mi) from the center at its widest
Eyewall radius at its peak
30 nmi (56 km, 35 mi)
Overall size
150 nmi (278 km, 173 mi) to the outermost closed isobar
Peak gust in the best track
45 kt (52 mph)
Fastest the center moved
25 kt (29 mph)
Identifier
AL072012

Deaths and damage

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

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Aug 18, 12:00Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 41 km away21.9N 97.7W30 kt (35 mph)1008 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
Aug 9, 18:0013.7N 43.0W30 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 00:0013.6N 44.6W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 06:0013.5N 46.3W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 12:0013.4N 48.2W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 18:0013.4N 50.5W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 00:0013.4N 52.9W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 06:0013.4N 55.4W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 11, 12:0013.3N 57.9W30 kt1011 mbTropical wave
Aug 11, 18:0013.3N 59.9W30 kt1011 mbTropical wave
Aug 12, 00:0013.5N 61.4W30 kt1011 mbTropical wave
Aug 12, 06:0013.7N 63.2W30 kt1011 mbTropical wave
Aug 12, 12:0013.9N 65.6W30 kt1011 mbTropical wave
Aug 12, 18:0014.1N 68.0W30 kt1010 mbTropical wave
Aug 13, 00:0014.1N 70.4W30 kt1009 mbTropical wave
Aug 13, 06:0014.1N 72.7W30 kt1009 mbTropical wave
Aug 13, 12:0014.1N 74.9W30 kt1008 mbTropical wave
Aug 13, 18:0014.1N 76.6W30 kt1008 mbTropical wave
Aug 14, 00:0014.1N 78.4W30 kt1008 mbTropical wave
Aug 14, 06:0014.1N 80.1W30 kt1009 mbTropical wave
Aug 14, 12:0014.1N 81.8W30 kt1009 mbTropical wave
Aug 14, 18:0014.3N 83.6W30 kt1009 mbTropical wave
Aug 15, 00:0014.7N 85.3W30 kt1010 mbTropical wave
Aug 15, 06:0015.2N 87.0W30 kt1010 mbTropical wave
Aug 15, 12:0015.7N 88.6W30 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 15, 18:0016.5N 89.5W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 16, 00:0017.5N 90.5W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 16, 06:0018.5N 91.0W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 16, 12:0019.2N 91.5W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 16, 18:0019.3N 92.6W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 17, 00:0019.3N 94.2W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 17, 06:0019.7N 95.2W25 kt1011 mbLow
Aug 17, 12:0019.9N 95.7W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 18:0020.3N 95.9W40 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 00:0020.8N 96.1W35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 06:0021.4N 96.8W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 18, 12:00 landfall21.9N 97.7W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 18, 18:0022.5N 98.7W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 19, 00:0022.7N 98.9W25 kt1009 mbLow

Other North Atlantic storms of 2012

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.