The 1979 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1979)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at 20 kt in the Western Pacific between August 16, 1979 and August 20, 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
August 16, 1979 to August 20, 1979
Peak strength
Tropical Depression, 20 kt (23 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 2418 km (1502 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
WP141979

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
Aug 16, 00:0011.8N 168.5ETropical storm
Aug 16, 06:0011.9N 168.4ETropical storm
Aug 16, 12:0012.1N 168.2ETropical storm
Aug 16, 18:0012.5N 167.9ETropical storm
Aug 17, 00:0012.8N 167.5EMixed
Aug 17, 06:0013.0N 167.3EMixed
Aug 17, 12:0013.1N 167.2EMixed
Aug 17, 18:0013.2N 167.0ETropical storm
Aug 18, 00:0013.5N 166.6E15 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 06:0013.9N 166.2E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 12:0014.5N 165.6E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 18:0015.3N 165.2E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 00:0016.1N 164.6E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 06:0017.1N 163.9E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 12:0018.1N 163.0E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 18:0019.2N 162.0E15 ktMixed
Aug 20, 00:0020.0N 160.9E10 ktTropical storm
Aug 20, 06:0021.0N 159.6E10 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.