The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Kit (1988)

Tropical Storm Kit peaked at 60 kt in the Western Pacific between September 18, 1988 and September 22, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Kit, 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.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
September 18, 1988 to September 22, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 60 kt (69 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.1
Identifier
WP171988

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 18, 18:0014.6N 126.2E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 00:0015.7N 125.3E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 06:0016.7N 124.2E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 12:0017.5N 122.9E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 18:0018.0N 121.8E35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 00:0018.3N 120.8E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0018.7N 119.8E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0019.3N 119.1E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0019.8N 118.5E45 kt992 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0020.4N 118.0E50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0020.8N 117.5E55 kt985 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0021.4N 117.0E60 kt980 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0022.3N 116.5E55 kt985 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 00:0023.1N 116.1E45 kt992 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 06:0023.9N 115.9E1000 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.