The 1978 season

Tropical Storm Winnie (1978)

Tropical Storm Winnie peaked at 55 kt in the Western Pacific between November 25, 1978 and December 1, 1978, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Winnie, 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
Western Pacific
Dates
November 25, 1978 to December 1, 1978
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1289 km (801 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.4
Identifier
WP321978

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
Nov 25, 12:009.4N 147.7E20 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Nov 25, 18:009.7N 147.7E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Nov 26, 00:0010.0N 147.8E20 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Nov 26, 06:0010.3N 148.0E20 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Nov 26, 12:0010.6N 148.3E20 kt998 mbTropical storm
Nov 26, 18:0010.7N 148.8E20 kt998 mbTropical storm
Nov 27, 00:0010.9N 149.2E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Nov 27, 06:0011.6N 149.3E25 kt994 mbTropical storm
Nov 27, 12:0012.6N 149.0E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Nov 27, 18:0013.5N 148.4E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
Nov 28, 00:0014.7N 147.8E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Nov 28, 06:0016.2N 147.3E35 kt985 mbTropical storm
Nov 28, 12:0017.7N 146.8E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Nov 28, 18:0019.2N 146.4E45 kt980 mbTropical storm
Nov 29, 00:0020.7N 146.2E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Nov 29, 06:0022.4N 147.0E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Nov 29, 12:0024.3N 149.0E55 kt980 mbTropical storm
Nov 29, 18:0026.3N 151.9E50 kt980 mbTropical storm
Nov 30, 00:0028.4N 155.8E40 kt980 mbTropical storm
Nov 30, 06:0029.9N 159.9E45 kt985 mbTropical storm
Nov 30, 12:0031.4N 165.1E40 kt990 mbMixed
Nov 30, 18:0033.1N 169.8E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Dec 1, 00:0036.0N 174.0E996 mbExtratropical
Dec 1, 06:0039.0N 179.0E992 mbExtratropical

Other Western Pacific 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.

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.