The 1979 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1979)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 55 kt in the South Indian between December 20, 1978 and December 26, 1978.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, 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
December 20, 1978 to December 26, 1978
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1448 km (900 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.7
Identifier
SH031979

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
Dec 20, 00:009.8S 87.5E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 06:0010.0S 88.0E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 12:0010.2S 88.5E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 18:0010.4S 89.0E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 00:0010.5S 89.3E40 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 06:0010.8S 89.2E45 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 12:0011.0S 88.8E50 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 18:0011.1S 88.4E50 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 00:0011.1S 88.0E55 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 06:0011.3S 87.5E55 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 12:0011.4S 86.9E50 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 18:0011.3S 86.3E45 ktTropical storm
Dec 23, 00:0011.3S 85.5E40 ktTropical storm
Dec 23, 06:0011.4S 84.5E40 ktTropical storm
Dec 23, 12:0011.6S 83.5E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 23, 18:0011.8S 82.7E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 24, 00:0012.0S 82.0E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 24, 06:0012.1S 81.1E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 24, 12:0012.2S 80.1E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 24, 18:0012.3S 79.6E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 25, 00:0012.5S 79.0E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 25, 06:0012.7S 77.6E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 25, 12:0013.0S 76.0E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 25, 18:0013.2S 74.3E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 26, 00:0013.5S 72.5E25 ktTropical 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.