The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Alberto (1988)

Tropical Storm Alberto peaked at 35 kt in the North Atlantic between August 5, 1988 and August 8, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 1002 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Alberto. 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
North Atlantic
Dates
August 5, 1988 to August 8, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
1002 mb (29.59 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.5
Fastest the center moved
33 kt (38 mph)
Identifier
AL011988

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 5, 18:0032.0N 77.5W20 kt1015 mbTropical depression
Aug 6, 00:0032.8N 76.2W20 kt1014 mbTropical depression
Aug 6, 06:0034.0N 75.2W20 kt1013 mbTropical depression
Aug 6, 12:0035.2N 74.6W25 kt1012 mbTropical depression
Aug 6, 18:0037.0N 73.5W25 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 7, 00:0038.7N 72.4W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 7, 06:0040.0N 70.8W30 kt1006 mbTropical depression
Aug 7, 12:0041.5N 69.0W35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 18:0043.0N 67.5W35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 00:0045.0N 65.5W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 06:0047.0N 63.0W35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 12:0049.0N 60.0W30 kt1008 mbExtratropical
Aug 8, 18:0051.0N 56.0W25 kt1010 mbExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1988

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.