The 2017 season

Tropical Storm Selma (2017)

Tropical Storm Selma peaked at 35 kt in the Eastern Pacific between October 26, 2017 and October 28, 2017, with a lowest pressure of 1004 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Selma, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 2017 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
Eastern Pacific
Dates
October 26, 2017 to October 28, 2017
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
1004 mb (29.65 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.6
Tropical-storm-force wind reached
40 nmi (74 km, 46 mi) from the center at its widest
Eyewall radius at its peak
30 nmi (56 km, 35 mi)
Overall size
120 nmi (222 km, 138 mi) to the outermost closed isobar
Peak gust in the best track
45 kt (52 mph)
Fastest the center moved
8 kt (9 mph)
Identifier
EP202017

Deaths and damage

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

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Oct 28, 11:00Zacatecoluca, La Paz Department, El Salvador, 19 km away13.4N 89.0W35 kt (40 mph)1004 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 26, 18:0010.3N 88.6W30 kt1005 mbLow
Oct 27, 00:0010.3N 88.9W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression
Oct 27, 06:0010.5N 89.2W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 27, 12:0010.8N 89.3W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 27, 18:0011.3N 89.3W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 28, 00:0012.0N 89.1W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 28, 06:0012.7N 89.0W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 28, 11:00 landfall13.4N 89.0W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 28, 12:0013.5N 89.0W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression

Other Eastern Pacific storms of 2017

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.