The 1979 season

Tropical Storm Pamela (1979)

Tropical Storm Pamela peaked at 45 kt in the Western Pacific between September 23, 1979 and September 26, 1979, with a lowest pressure of 994 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Pamela. 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
September 23, 1979 to September 26, 1979
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
994 mb (29.35 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 799 km (496 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.7
Identifier
WP201979

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 23, 00:0018.0N 150.0E15 ktTropical storm
Sep 23, 06:0018.2N 148.8E15 ktTropical storm
Sep 23, 12:0018.3N 147.6E15 ktTropical storm
Sep 23, 18:0018.5N 146.5E15 ktTropical storm
Sep 24, 00:0018.6N 145.6E15 ktTropical storm
Sep 24, 06:0018.7N 145.0E15 ktTropical storm
Sep 24, 12:0018.8N 144.6E20 ktTropical storm
Sep 24, 18:0019.0N 144.1E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 25, 00:0019.2N 143.6E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 06:0019.4N 143.0E45 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 12:0019.7N 142.1E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 18:0020.3N 140.9E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 26, 00:0020.8N 139.4E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 26, 06:0022.0N 137.9E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 26, 12:0024.1N 137.6E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 26, 18:0026.0N 136.8E20 ktMixed

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.