Cyclone Benjamine (1979)

Basin

South Indian

Dates

January 3, 1979 to January 14, 1979

Peak strength

Cyclone, 82 kt (94 mph), ten-minute wind

Lowest pressure

941 mb (27.79 inHg)

Landfall

No; closest approach 47 km (29 mi)

Accumulated cyclone energy

2.0

Identifier

SH071979

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 stormSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm40 kt
• Cyclone AngeleSouth Indian · 1979Cyclone82 kt · 941 mb
• Unnamed tropical stormSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm55 kt
• Cyclone CelineSouth Indian · 1979Cyclone92 kt · 927 mb
• Tropical Depression DoraSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Depression28 kt · 997 mb
• Tropical Storm EstelleSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm36 kt · 991 mb
• Tropical Depression FatouSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Depression28 kt · 997 mb
• Cyclone HazelSouth Indian · 1979Cat 3100 kt · 936 mb
• Tropical Depression GelieSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Depression28 kt · 997 mb
• Tropical Storm IvanSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm60 kt · 988 mb
• Tropical Depression HeliosSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Depression28 kt · 997 mb
• Cyclone IdylleSouth Indian · 1979Cyclone95 kt · 927 mb
• Tropical Storm JaneSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm35 kt · 988 mb
• Unnamed tropical stormSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm50 kt
• Tropical Storm KevinSouth Indian · 1979Tropical Storm50 kt · 986 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.