The 1988 season

Tropical Storm John (1988)

Tropical Storm John peaked at 35 kt in the Eastern Pacific between August 16, 1988 and August 21, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 1004 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm John. 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
August 16, 1988 to August 21, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
1004 mb (29.65 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 60 km (37 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.4
Fastest the center moved
9 kt (10 mph)
Identifier
EP101988

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 16, 18:0017.5N 105.8W25 kt1012 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 00:0017.8N 106.3W30 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 06:0018.1N 106.9W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 12:0018.6N 107.4W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 17, 18:0019.1N 107.8W35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 00:0019.5N 108.2W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 06:0020.1N 108.7W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 12:0020.7N 109.2W30 kt1006 mbTropical depression
Aug 18, 18:0021.5N 109.7W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 19, 00:0021.7N 110.3W30 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 19, 06:0021.5N 110.6W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 19, 12:0021.4N 110.7W25 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 19, 18:0021.3N 110.7W25 kt1012 mbTropical depression
Aug 20, 00:0021.1N 110.7W25 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 20, 06:0021.0N 110.4W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 20, 12:0021.2N 110.1W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 20, 18:0021.8N 109.9W25 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Aug 21, 00:0022.3N 110.2W20 kt1013 mbTropical depression
Aug 21, 06:0022.6N 110.7W20 kt1014 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.