The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Herbie (1988)

Tropical Storm Herbie peaked at 50 kt in the South Indian between May 17, 1988 and May 21, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 982 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Herbie, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1988 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

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The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
May 17, 1988 to May 21, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
982 mb (29.00 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.4
Fastest the center moved
80 kt (92 mph)
Identifier
SH211988

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
May 17, 06:007.0S 92.0E30 kt999 mbTropical storm
May 17, 12:007.6S 92.8E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
May 17, 18:009.0S 91.0E25 kt997 mbTropical storm
May 18, 00:009.4S 92.4E25 kt995 mbTropical storm
May 18, 06:0010.2S 93.7E25 kt992 mbTropical storm
May 18, 12:0011.0S 95.0E25 kt990 mbTropical storm
May 18, 18:0011.9S 96.0E30 kt991 mbTropical storm
May 19, 00:0012.7S 96.5E35 kt992 mbTropical storm
May 19, 06:0014.2S 96.9E35 kt993 mbTropical storm
May 19, 12:0016.0S 97.9E35 kt995 mbMixed
May 19, 18:0017.6S 99.3E30 kt995 mbMixed
May 20, 00:0019.2S 101.1E30 kt995 mbMixed
May 20, 06:0021.0S 103.0E30 kt992 mbMixed
May 20, 12:0022.9S 105.0E25 kt990 mbMixed
May 20, 18:0025.3S 108.0E25 kt985 mbMixed
May 21, 00:0026.0S 115.7E50 kt982 mbExtratropical
May 21, 06:0027.7S 117.0E45 kt992 mbExtratropical
May 21, 12:0028.7S 121.3E40 kt992 mbExtratropical
May 21, 18:0032.0S 129.0E40 kt990 mbExtratropical

Other South Indian 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.