Hurricane History Map

Cyclone Carol path, 1981

South-West Indian basin, 13 December 1980 to 24 December 1980. Its recorded track is shown on the map and selected for you.

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Years1842 to 2026
Ocean basin

Choosing a minimum category hides storms with no wind speed in the record. To see which storms have passed near you, search a town or ZIP code, or tap the map.

Key
  • Tropical depression Winds below 34 knots (39 mph)
  • Tropical storm 34 to 63 knots (39 to 73 mph)
  • Category 1 64 to 82 knots (74 to 95 mph)
  • Category 2 83 to 95 knots (96 to 110 mph)
  • Category 3 96 to 112 knots (111 to 129 mph), major
  • Category 4 113 to 136 knots (130 to 156 mph), major
  • Category 5 137 knots (157 mph) or more, major
  • Unknown intensity No wind speed in the record
  • Post-tropical Storm has become post-tropical (dashed line)

How to read the lines. Each line is the track of one storm, drawn through its six-hourly positions and coloured by its intensity at each point (the Saffir-Simpson scale), so a line changes colour as the storm strengthens or weakens. Tap a line for its details, or tap anywhere else to see which storms have passed nearby. Weaker storms appear as you zoom in. Hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are the same kind of storm with different names in different oceans.

What the record says

Carol was a cyclone in the South-West Indian basin that lasted about 11 days, from 13 December 1980 to 24 December 1980. Its peak was Category 4 (125 kt) on 16 December 1980, with a 1-minute sustained wind of 125 kt (144 mph, 232 km/h). Its lowest recorded pressure was 940 hPa.

  • Category 4peak intensity
  • 125 ktpeak wind (144 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 110 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.

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.

Other notable storms of the 1981 South-West Indian season

The 1981 South-West Indian season · All notable storms

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