The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Jeff (1988)

Tropical Storm Jeff peaked at 45 kt in the Western Pacific between September 11, 1988 and September 17, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 994 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Jeff. 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
September 11, 1988 to September 17, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
994 mb (29.35 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 765 km (475 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.5
Identifier
WP161988

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
Sep 11, 06:0015.0N 132.0E1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 12:0015.0N 132.0E1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 18:0015.5N 132.0E1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 00:0015.5N 132.0E1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 06:0015.8N 131.5E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 12:0015.7N 131.8E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 18:0015.5N 132.3E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 13, 00:0015.3N 133.1E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 13, 06:0015.2N 134.0E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 13, 12:0015.3N 134.9E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 13, 18:0015.7N 135.9E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 14, 00:0016.3N 136.7E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 14, 06:0017.1N 137.5E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 14, 12:0018.0N 138.2E45 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 14, 18:0019.0N 138.9E45 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 00:0020.1N 139.5E45 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 06:0021.4N 140.0E45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 12:0022.8N 140.5E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 18:0024.0N 141.0E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 00:0025.3N 141.5E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 06:0026.9N 142.9E1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 12:0028.5N 144.5E1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 18:0029.8N 146.0E1010 mbTropical storm
Sep 17, 00:0031.0N 147.5E1012 mbTropical storm

Other Western 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.