The 1978 season

Tropical Storm Babette (1978)

Tropical Storm Babette peaked at 36 kt in the South Indian between December 3, 1977 and December 10, 1977, with a lowest pressure of 991 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Babette, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1978 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
South Indian
Dates
December 3, 1977 to December 10, 1977
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 36 kt (41 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
991 mb (29.26 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 234 km (145 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.1
Identifier
SH041978

Deaths and damage

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.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Dec 3, 00:0013.3S 75.7ETropical storm
Dec 3, 06:0013.0S 75.3E24 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 3, 12:0012.8S 74.9ETropical storm
Dec 3, 18:0012.9S 74.4ETropical storm
Dec 4, 00:0013.1S 73.9ETropical storm
Dec 4, 06:0012.5S 75.0E36 kt991 mbTropical storm
Dec 4, 12:0013.0S 74.0ETropical storm
Dec 4, 18:0013.5S 73.0ETropical storm
Dec 5, 00:0014.1S 72.0ETropical storm
Dec 5, 06:0014.6S 71.1E24 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 5, 12:0014.9S 70.6ETropical storm
Dec 5, 18:0015.2S 70.2ETropical storm
Dec 6, 00:0015.5S 69.8ETropical storm
Dec 6, 06:0015.8S 69.4E24 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 6, 12:0016.0S 69.0ETropical storm
Dec 6, 18:0016.0S 68.5ETropical storm
Dec 7, 00:0015.9S 68.2ETropical storm
Dec 7, 06:0016.0S 67.8E20 ktTropical storm
Dec 7, 12:0016.6S 67.0ETropical storm
Dec 7, 18:0017.3S 66.0ETropical storm
Dec 8, 00:0018.2S 64.9ETropical storm
Dec 8, 06:0018.8S 63.9EMixed
Dec 8, 12:0018.7S 62.9ETropical storm
Dec 8, 18:0018.5S 62.0ETropical storm
Dec 9, 00:0018.4S 61.4ETropical storm
Dec 9, 06:0018.3S 60.9ETropical storm
Dec 9, 12:0018.2S 59.7ETropical storm
Dec 9, 18:0018.0S 58.5ETropical storm
Dec 10, 00:0018.0S 57.6ETropical storm
Dec 10, 06:0018.0S 57.0ETropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1978

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. 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.

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.