The 1979 season

Tropical Storm Ivan (1979)

Tropical Storm Ivan peaked at 60 kt in the South Indian between March 16, 1979 and March 21, 1979, with a lowest pressure of 988 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Ivan, 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.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
March 16, 1979 to March 21, 1979
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 60 kt (69 mph)
Lowest pressure
988 mb (29.18 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1476 km (917 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.5
Identifier
SH201979

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
Mar 16, 00:0013.2S 92.0E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Mar 16, 06:0013.3S 91.9E30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Mar 16, 12:0013.5S 91.8E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Mar 16, 18:0013.8S 91.7E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Mar 17, 00:0014.2S 91.5E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 17, 06:0014.9S 90.8E45 kt993 mbTropical storm
Mar 17, 12:0015.7S 90.0E50 kt992 mbTropical storm
Mar 17, 18:0016.1S 89.5E45 kt991 mbTropical storm
Mar 18, 00:0016.5S 89.0E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 18, 06:0017.1S 88.0E40 kt989 mbTropical storm
Mar 18, 12:0017.8S 87.0E40 kt988 mbTropical storm
Mar 18, 18:0019.0S 86.9E40 kt988 mbTropical storm
Mar 19, 00:0019.9S 86.8E40 kt989 mbTropical storm
Mar 19, 06:0020.2S 86.4E50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 19, 12:0020.5S 86.0E60 kt991 mbTropical storm
Mar 19, 18:0020.8S 85.5E55 kt991 mbTropical storm
Mar 20, 00:0021.1S 84.8E50 kt992 mbTropical storm
Mar 20, 06:0021.3S 83.7E45 kt993 mbTropical storm
Mar 20, 12:0021.5S 82.0E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Mar 20, 18:0023.4S 81.6E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Mar 21, 00:0023.9S 80.9E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Mar 21, 06:0024.4S 80.4ETropical storm

Other South Indian 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.