The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Gilma (1988)

Tropical Storm Gilma peaked at 45 kt in the Eastern Pacific between July 28, 1988 and August 3, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 1000 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Gilma. 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 28, 1988 to August 3, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
1000 mb (29.53 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.0
Fastest the center moved
18 kt (21 mph)
Identifier
EP071988

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 28, 12:0015.1N 135.0W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Jul 28, 18:0015.6N 135.3W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Jul 29, 00:0015.7N 135.5W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Jul 29, 06:0015.7N 135.8W35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Jul 29, 12:0015.8N 136.0W40 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Jul 29, 18:0015.9N 136.2W45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 00:0016.0N 136.4W45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 06:0016.0N 136.4W40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 12:0016.1N 136.8W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 18:0016.5N 138.0W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Jul 31, 00:0016.9N 139.9W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Jul 31, 06:0017.2N 140.5W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Jul 31, 12:0017.5N 141.8W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Jul 31, 18:0017.8N 143.0W25 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 1, 00:0018.0N 144.3W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 1, 06:0018.2N 145.6W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 1, 12:0018.4N 146.9W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 1, 18:0018.6N 148.2W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 2, 00:0018.8N 149.5W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 2, 06:0019.1N 150.8W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 2, 12:0019.4N 152.1W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 2, 18:0019.7N 153.4W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 3, 00:0020.1N 154.7W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 3, 06:0020.6N 156.0W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 3, 12:0021.1N 157.3W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression

Other Eastern Pacific 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.