Cyclone Bob (1978)

Basin

South Pacific

Dates

January 31, 1978 to February 12, 1978

Peak strength

Cyclone, 85 kt (98 mph), ten-minute wind

Lowest pressure

945 mb (27.91 inHg)

Landfall

No; closest approach 147 km (91 mi)

Accumulated cyclone energy

4.7

Identifier

1978032S09187

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.

• Tropical Storm TomSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Storm50 kt · 990 mb
• Cyclone SteveSouth Pacific · 1978Cat 165 kt · 965 mb
• Tropical Storm TessaSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Storm40 kt · 990 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Depression
• Tropical Storm AnneSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb
• Cyclone BobSouth Pacific · 1978Cat 3100 kt
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Depression
• Cyclone CharlesSouth Pacific · 1978Cat 175 kt · 945 mb
• Tropical Storm ErnieSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Storm50 kt · 980 mb
• Tropical Storm DianaSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Storm50 kt · 980 mb
• Tropical Storm GwenSouth Pacific · 1978Tropical Storm50 kt · 987 mb
• Cyclone HalSouth Pacific · 1978Cyclone70 kt · 965 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.