The 1979 season

Hurricane Guillermo (1979)

Hurricane Guillermo reached Category 1 in the Eastern Pacific between September 8, 1979 and September 13, 1979.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Guillermo, 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
September 8, 1979 to September 13, 1979
Peak strength
Category 1, 65 kt (75 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 134 km (83 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.4
Fastest the center moved
15 kt (17 mph)
Identifier
EP071979

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
Sep 8, 18:0016.0N 101.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 9, 00:0016.3N 102.5W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 9, 06:0016.8N 103.9W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 9, 12:0017.3N 105.2W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 9, 18:0017.8N 106.2W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 00:0018.3N 106.8W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 06:0018.9N 107.4W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 12:0019.5N 108.0W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 18:0020.1N 108.9W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 11, 00:0020.6N 109.7W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 11, 06:0020.8N 109.9W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 11, 12:0020.9N 110.3W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 11, 18:0021.1N 110.5W65 ktHurricane
Sep 12, 00:0021.6N 110.6W65 ktHurricane
Sep 12, 06:0021.6N 110.6W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 12, 12:0021.6N 110.6W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 12, 18:0021.6N 110.6W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 13, 00:0021.6N 110.6W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 06:0021.6N 110.6W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 12:0021.6N 110.6W20 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.