The 1978 season

Cyclone Fleur (1978)

Cyclone Fleur peaked at 82 kt in the South Indian between January 16, 1978 and January 23, 1978, with a lowest pressure of 941 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Cyclone Fleur, 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
January 16, 1978 to January 23, 1978
Peak strength
Cyclone, 82 kt (94 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
941 mb (27.79 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 85 km (53 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.8
Identifier
SH131978

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
Jan 16, 06:0010.1S 65.9E20 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Jan 16, 12:0010.3S 64.6ETropical storm
Jan 16, 18:0010.6S 63.5ETropical storm
Jan 17, 00:0011.1S 62.4ETropical storm
Jan 17, 06:0011.5S 61.7E24 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jan 17, 12:0011.8S 61.3ETropical storm
Jan 17, 18:0012.1S 61.1ETropical storm
Jan 18, 00:0012.4S 60.9ETropical storm
Jan 18, 06:0012.8S 60.7E36 kt991 mbTropical storm
Jan 18, 12:0013.3S 60.4ETropical storm
Jan 18, 18:0013.9S 60.1ETropical storm
Jan 19, 00:0014.5S 60.0ETropical storm
Jan 19, 06:0015.0S 59.9E52 kt976 mbTropical storm
Jan 19, 12:0015.5S 59.9ETropical storm
Jan 19, 18:0016.0S 59.9ETropical storm
Jan 20, 00:0016.4S 59.9ETropical storm
Jan 20, 06:0017.0S 59.9E72 kt954 mbTropical storm
Jan 20, 12:0017.9S 59.9ETropical storm
Jan 20, 18:0019.0S 59.9ETropical storm
Jan 21, 00:0020.0S 59.3ETropical storm
Jan 21, 06:0021.0S 58.5E82 kt941 mbTropical storm
Jan 21, 12:0022.2S 58.0ETropical storm
Jan 21, 18:0023.5S 57.5ETropical storm
Jan 22, 00:0024.7S 57.1ETropical storm
Jan 22, 06:0026.0S 56.9E44 kt984 mbMixed
Jan 22, 12:0027.5S 56.9ETropical storm
Jan 22, 18:0029.0S 57.0ETropical storm
Jan 23, 00:0030.2S 57.2ETropical storm
Jan 23, 06:0031.3S 57.6EMixed

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.