Cyclone Adelaide:alice path, 1981

What the record says

Adelaide:alice was a cyclone in the South-West Indian basin that lasted about 11 days, from 3 November 1980 to 14 November 1980. Its peak was Category 4 (119 kt) on 8 November 1980, with a 1-minute sustained wind of 119 kt (137 mph, 220 km/h). Its lowest recorded pressure was 940 hPa.

• Category 4peak intensity
• 119 ktpeak wind (137 mph)
• 940 hPalowest pressure
• 11 dayslifetime

Source of the peak wind: Australian Bureau of Meteorology, converted from a 10-minute wind to a 1-minute equivalent. The regional forecast centre (Australian Bureau of Meteorology) gave a peak of 105 kt on its own averaging convention (10-minute winds), so the two figures differ.

It has its own page because it reached category 4 or stronger.

This page gives the official record's figures. It does not describe the human cost of the storm, which is far larger than any wind speed or pressure here.

Where it came ashore

The record shows no landfall: the storm stayed at sea.

Countries it came within 50 km of

Strongest effect first.

• Indonesia

How to read this track

The line joins the storm's six-hourly positions with straight lines, coloured by its intensity at each point, so it shows how the storm strengthened and weakened. The real path curved between the positions. A dashed grey stretch means the storm had become post-tropical. Records before the satellite era (about the 1960s) are estimates.

Source: NOAA NCEI IBTrACS, public domain. See data sources and caveats.