The 1980 season

Hurricane Howard (1980)

Hurricane Howard reached Category 2 in the Eastern Pacific between July 31, 1980 and August 7, 1980.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Hurricane Howard. 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
Eastern Pacific
Dates
July 31, 1980 to August 7, 1980
Peak strength
Category 2, 90 kt (104 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 669 km (416 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
12.1
Fastest the center moved
12 kt (14 mph)
Identifier
EP081980

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 31, 00:0011.0N 103.9W30 ktTropical depression
Jul 31, 06:0011.0N 104.7W30 ktTropical depression
Jul 31, 12:0011.1N 105.3W40 ktTropical storm
Jul 31, 18:0011.2N 106.0W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 1, 00:0011.3N 106.8W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 1, 06:0011.5N 107.9W55 ktTropical storm
Aug 1, 12:0011.7N 109.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 1, 18:0011.9N 110.1W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 2, 00:0012.6N 111.1W70 ktHurricane
Aug 2, 06:0013.1N 112.2W75 ktHurricane
Aug 2, 12:0013.8N 113.2W75 ktHurricane
Aug 2, 18:0014.6N 114.0W75 ktHurricane
Aug 3, 00:0015.5N 114.8W80 ktHurricane
Aug 3, 06:0016.2N 115.2W80 ktHurricane
Aug 3, 12:0016.9N 115.9W80 ktHurricane
Aug 3, 18:0017.4N 116.4W70 ktHurricane
Aug 4, 00:0018.0N 116.6W85 ktHurricane
Aug 4, 06:0018.6N 116.7W90 ktHurricane
Aug 4, 12:0019.3N 117.2W80 ktHurricane
Aug 4, 18:0019.9N 117.7W80 ktHurricane
Aug 5, 00:0020.5N 118.1W80 ktHurricane
Aug 5, 06:0020.9N 118.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 5, 12:0021.3N 118.9W65 ktHurricane
Aug 5, 18:0021.8N 119.2W65 ktHurricane
Aug 6, 00:0022.3N 119.7W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 6, 06:0023.0N 120.0W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 6, 12:0023.6N 120.3W45 ktTropical storm
Aug 6, 18:0024.3N 120.7W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 7, 00:0024.8N 120.9W35 ktTropical storm
Aug 7, 06:0025.3N 121.2W25 ktTropical depression

Other Eastern Pacific storms of 1980

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.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.