The 1979 season

Hurricane Fefa (1979)

Hurricane Fefa reached Category 3 in the Eastern Pacific between August 21, 1979 and August 25, 1979.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Fefa, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1979 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
Eastern Pacific
Dates
August 21, 1979 to August 25, 1979
Peak strength
Category 3, 100 kt (115 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 384 km (239 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
7.3
Fastest the center moved
19 kt (22 mph)
Identifier
EP061979

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
Aug 21, 00:0013.9N 101.8W25 ktTropical depression
Aug 21, 06:0014.2N 103.1W35 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 12:0014.8N 104.5W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 18:0015.3N 106.1W55 ktTropical storm
Aug 22, 00:0015.6N 108.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 22, 06:0015.8N 109.6W75 ktHurricane
Aug 22, 12:0016.2N 111.0W90 ktHurricane
Aug 22, 18:0016.7N 112.2W95 ktHurricane
Aug 23, 00:0016.9N 114.0W90 ktHurricane
Aug 23, 06:0017.5N 115.8W90 ktHurricane
Aug 23, 12:0017.8N 117.8W100 ktHurricane
Aug 23, 18:0017.8N 119.8W80 ktHurricane
Aug 24, 00:0017.9N 120.8W65 ktHurricane
Aug 24, 06:0018.0N 121.4W55 ktTropical storm
Aug 24, 12:0018.1N 122.1W35 ktTropical storm
Aug 24, 18:0018.2N 122.7W25 ktTropical depression
Aug 25, 00:0018.4N 123.3W20 ktTropical depression

Other Eastern 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.

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