Cyclone Pam (1974)

Basin

South Pacific

Dates

January 30, 1974 to February 8, 1974

Peak strength

Cyclone, 105 kt (121 mph), ten-minute wind

Lowest pressure

928 mb (27.40 inHg)

Landfall

No; closest approach 81 km (50 mi)

Accumulated cyclone energy

4.4

Identifier

SH201974

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Depression
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Depression
• Unnamed tropical stormSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm40 kt · 990 mb
• Cyclone Lottie:NatalieSouth Pacific · 1974Cyclone70 kt · 965 mb
• Tropical Storm UnaSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm55 kt · 985 mb
• Tropical Storm MonicaSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm40 kt · 990 mb
• Tropical Storm VeraSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb
• Tropical Storm NessieSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm40 kt · 990 mb
• Tropical Storm WandaSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm50 kt · 997 mb
• Tropical Storm YvonneSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm55 kt · 990 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Depression
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Depression
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Depression
• Cyclone ZoeSouth Pacific · 1974Cyclone75 kt · 968 mb
• Tropical Storm JennySouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm50 kt · 988 mb
• Tropical Depression AliceSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Depression
• Tropical Storm AliceSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb
• Tropical Storm TinaSouth Pacific · 1974Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb

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. This storm’s winds are ten-minute averages from its regional agency. They read about 12 percent lower than the one-minute winds US agencies use, so a Saffir-Simpson category is not given for it.

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.