Tropical Storm Fay (1979)

Basin

South Pacific

Dates

December 24, 1978 to December 31, 1978

Peak strength

Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph), ten-minute wind

Lowest pressure

980 mb (28.94 inHg)

Landfall

Yes

Accumulated cyclone energy

2.0

Identifier

SH041979

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.

• Tropical Storm PeterSouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Storm50 kt · 980 mb
• Cyclone GordonSouth Pacific · 1979Cat 175 kt · 965 mb
• Tropical Storm GretaSouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Storm50 kt · 986 mb
• Tropical Storm HenrySouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Storm50 kt · 980 mb
• Unnamed tropical stormSouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Storm40 kt
• Cyclone KerrySouth Pacific · 1979Cat 3105 kt · 945 mb
• Cyclone RosaSouth Pacific · 1979Cat 295 kt · 955 mb
• Tropical Storm LeslieSouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb
• Cyclone MeliSouth Pacific · 1979Cat 4115 kt · 945 mb
• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Depression
• Tropical Storm StanSouth Pacific · 1979Tropical Storm35 kt · 995 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.