The 2022 season

Tropical Storm Lester (2022)

Tropical Storm Lester peaked at 35 kt in the Eastern Pacific between September 15, 2022 and September 17, 2022, with a lowest pressure of 1005 mb, and made landfall. It killed 1 people directly, by the National Hurricane Center’s count.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Lester, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 2022 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
September 15, 2022 to September 17, 2022
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
1005 mb (29.68 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.6
Tropical-storm-force wind reached
60 nmi (111 km, 69 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
50 kt (58 mph)
Fastest the center moved
9 kt (10 mph)
Identifier
EP132022

Deaths and damage

The sources count different things and are not added together.

National Hurricane Center

1 direct deathsnone recorded in the United States

The season table in NHC’s report archive, final report. Direct deaths are those caused by the storm’s own wind, water or surge, anywhere in the world.

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Sep 17, 12:00Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico, 10 km away15.8N 97.0W30 kt (35 mph)1006 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 15, 12:0012.4N 95.1W25 kt1008 mbLow
Sep 15, 18:0012.6N 95.0W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Sep 16, 00:0012.8N 95.1W30 kt1006 mbTropical depression
Sep 16, 06:0013.1N 95.4W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 12:0013.5N 96.1W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 18:0014.0N 96.8W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 17, 00:0014.4N 97.3W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 17, 06:0015.1N 97.4W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 17, 12:00 landfall15.8N 97.0W30 kt1006 mbTropical depression

Other Eastern Pacific storms of 2022

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.