The 1979 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1979)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at 20 kt in the Western Pacific between July 23, 1979 and July 27, 1979.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed tropical depression. 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
July 23, 1979 to July 27, 1979
Peak strength
Tropical Depression, 20 kt (23 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 101 km (63 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
WP081979

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
Jul 23, 00:0019.0N 142.5ETropical storm
Jul 23, 06:0019.5N 140.8E20 ktTropical storm
Jul 23, 12:0020.3N 139.0E20 ktMixed
Jul 23, 18:0021.2N 137.5E20 ktMixed
Jul 24, 00:0022.0N 135.8E20 ktMixed
Jul 24, 06:0022.7N 134.4E20 ktMixed
Jul 24, 12:0023.4N 133.0E20 ktMixed
Jul 24, 18:0024.0N 131.5E20 ktMixed
Jul 25, 00:0025.0N 130.2E20 ktMixed
Jul 25, 06:0026.0N 128.8E20 ktTropical storm
Jul 25, 12:0027.4N 127.4E15 ktTropical storm
Jul 25, 18:0029.4N 127.0E15 ktMixed
Jul 26, 00:0031.5N 126.3E20 ktMixed
Jul 26, 06:0033.3N 124.9E20 ktMixed
Jul 26, 12:0034.0N 124.5EDisturbance
Jul 26, 18:0035.0N 124.0EDisturbance
Jul 27, 00:0036.0N 124.0EDisturbance
Jul 27, 06:0037.0N 124.0EDisturbance

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.