Hurricane David (1979)

Basin

North Atlantic

Dates

August 25, 1979 to September 8, 1979

Peak strength

Category 5, 150 kt (173 mph)

Lowest pressure

924 mb (27.29 inHg)

Landfall

Yes

Accumulated cyclone energy

44.0

Fastest the center moved

39 kt (45 mph)

Identifier

AL091979

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.

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 1,612 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 15.45 inches (392 mm).

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Tropical Storm AnaNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Storm50 kt · 1005 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression25 kt
• Hurricane BobNorth Atlantic · 1979Cat 165 kt · 986 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Tropical Storm ClaudetteNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Storm45 kt · 997 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Hurricane FredericNorth Atlantic · 1979Cat 4115 kt · 943 mb
• Tropical Storm ElenaNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Storm35 kt · 1004 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Hurricane GloriaNorth Atlantic · 1979Cat 285 kt · 975 mb
• Hurricane HenriNorth Atlantic · 1979Cat 175 kt · 983 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Unnamed hurricaneNorth Atlantic · 1979Cat 165 kt · 980 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt
• Unnamed tropical depressionNorth Atlantic · 1979Tropical Depression30 kt

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.

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.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.

• Wikipedia article: Hurricane David