Track map & timeline · Eastern Pacific · October 8–12, 1981
TD TS Cat 1 2 3 4 5 · dashed = post-tropical / remnant low. Click any point or table row to jump there.
01 · The story
Hurricane Norma (1981) was a Category 3 hurricane of the 1981 Eastern Pacific season. It formed on October 8, 1981, 284 mi SSW of Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, Mexico, reached its peak of 127 mph (204 km/h) on October 10, 1981, and never made landfall. It rapidly intensified by 69 mph in 24 hours (to 104 mph on October 10, 1981). The storm lasted 3.8 days and travelled about 792 miles (1,274 km).
02 · Intensity
03 · Impact
| City | Distance to center | When (UTC) | Storm strength then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico | 17 mi | Oct 12 · 10:00 UTC | Cat 2 104 mph |
Distance from the city to the storm’s center, interpolated hourly between official fixes. Damaging winds, surge and rain reach far beyond the center.
04 · Timeline
| Date · UTC | Status | Wind | Pressure | Position | Nearest place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8 18:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 14.5°N 104.5°W | open ocean |
| Oct 9 00:00 | TD | 35 mph | — | 14.8°N 105.2°W | open ocean |
| Oct 9 06:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 15.2°N 105.8°W | open ocean |
| Oct 9 12:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 15.7°N 106.1°W | open ocean |
| Oct 9 18:00 | Cat 1 | 75 mph | — | 16.3°N 106.6°W | open ocean |
| Oct 10 00:00 | Cat 2 | 104 mph | — | 16.6°N 107.0°W | open ocean |
| Oct 10 06:00 | Cat 2 | 104 mph | — | 17.0°N 107.4°W | open ocean |
| Oct 10 12:00 | Cat 3 | 115 mph | — | 17.4°N 107.8°W | open ocean |
| Oct 10 18:00 | Cat 3 | 127 mph | — | 17.8°N 108.2°W | open ocean |
| Oct 11 00:00 | Cat 3 | 127 mph | — | 18.3°N 108.6°W | open ocean |
| Oct 11 06:00 | Cat 3 | 115 mph | — | 19.0°N 108.7°W | open ocean |
| Oct 11 12:00 | Cat 2 | 104 mph | — | 19.8°N 108.6°W | open ocean |
| Oct 11 18:00 | Cat 2 | 109 mph | — | 20.7°N 108.1°W | 186 mi W of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico |
| Oct 12 00:00 | Cat 2 | 104 mph | — | 21.6°N 107.7°W | 139 mi SW of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico |
| Oct 12 06:00 | Cat 2 | 104 mph | — | 22.5°N 107.0°W | 62 mi SW of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico |
| Oct 12 12:00 | Cat 2 | 104 mph | — | 23.7°N 106.5°W | 33 mi N of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico |
⬇ Download track data (CSV) · public-domain NOAA best track
Questions
No — the NOAA best-track record shows no landfall for Norma. Its closest approach to a major city was 17 miles from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico.
At its peak on October 10, 1981, Norma was a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 127 mph (204 km/h).
3.8 days, from October 8, 1981 to October 12, 1981, including 66 hours at hurricane strength (24 as a major hurricane). It travelled about 792 miles.
The 6-hourly positions, winds, pressure and wind radii are available as CSV on this page (track.csv) — they come from the NOAA National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 database and are in the public domain.
This site was built by Digital Dynamics Kft.
This archive is our own work, built from openly available data — the NOAA best-track records, the replay engine, the wind-field rendering and the map tiles served from our own servers in the European Union. If your business generates data — measurements, machines, orders, customers — we are happy to turn it into a clear, interactive interface.
But this is not all we build:
Or anything else that can be programmed — just get in touch.
See our work → or write: info@digitaldynamics.hu