The 1979 season

Tropical Storm Dot (1979)

Tropical Storm Dot peaked at 40 kt in the Western Pacific between May 6, 1979 and May 17, 1979, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Dot. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
May 6, 1979 to May 17, 1979
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.6
Identifier
WP041979

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
May 6, 00:004.0N 147.5E15 ktTropical storm
May 6, 06:004.0N 146.5E15 ktTropical storm
May 6, 12:004.1N 145.4E15 ktTropical storm
May 6, 18:004.2N 144.4E15 ktTropical storm
May 7, 00:004.3N 143.3E15 ktTropical storm
May 7, 06:004.5N 142.1E15 ktTropical storm
May 7, 12:004.9N 141.0E15 ktTropical storm
May 7, 18:005.3N 139.8E20 ktTropical storm
May 8, 00:005.2N 138.4E20 ktTropical storm
May 8, 06:004.8N 136.8E20 ktTropical storm
May 8, 12:004.4N 135.6E20 ktTropical storm
May 8, 18:004.5N 134.5E20 ktTropical storm
May 9, 00:005.0N 134.2E25 kt1008 mbTropical storm
May 9, 06:005.8N 133.9E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
May 9, 12:006.7N 133.8E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
May 9, 18:007.3N 133.2E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
May 10, 00:007.7N 132.0E25 kt1004 mbMixed
May 10, 06:008.2N 130.5E30 kt1004 mbMixed
May 10, 12:008.7N 129.0E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 10, 18:008.9N 127.3E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 11, 00:009.3N 126.0E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 11, 06:009.7N 124.7E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 11, 12:009.9N 123.4E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 11, 18:0010.2N 122.2E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
May 12, 00:0010.4N 121.4E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 12, 06:0010.5N 120.6E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 12, 12:0010.9N 119.9E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 12, 18:0011.7N 119.5E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
May 13, 00:0012.2N 119.4E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
May 13, 06:0012.5N 119.4E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
May 13, 12:0013.0N 119.6E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 13, 18:0013.4N 119.9E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
May 14, 00:0013.7N 120.2E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 14, 06:0014.0N 120.8E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
May 14, 12:0014.4N 121.4E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 14, 18:0014.7N 122.0E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 15, 00:0015.1N 122.6E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 15, 06:0015.6N 123.3E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 15, 12:0016.2N 124.1E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 15, 18:0017.0N 125.1E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 16, 00:0017.8N 126.2E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 16, 06:0018.8N 127.5E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 16, 12:0020.0N 129.0E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 16, 18:0021.2N 131.0E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 17, 00:0022.2N 133.0E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
May 17, 06:0024.1N 136.0E1002 mbTropical storm
May 17, 12:0025.7N 139.2E1006 mbExtratropical

Other Western Pacific storms of 1979

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.