The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Lee (1988)

Tropical Storm Lee peaked at 55 kt in the Western Pacific between September 16, 1988 and September 25, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Lee. 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 16, 1988 to September 25, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph)
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 218 km (135 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.9
Identifier
WP181988

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 16, 06:0015.0N 157.0E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 16, 12:0015.8N 155.2E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 16, 18:0016.8N 153.3E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 17, 00:0017.8N 151.3E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 17, 06:0018.0N 150.0E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 17, 12:0018.0N 149.5E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 17, 18:0018.0N 149.0E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 00:0018.0N 148.4E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 06:0017.8N 147.5E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 12:0017.7N 147.0E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 18:0017.7N 146.4E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 00:0017.8N 145.2E25 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 06:0017.8N 143.7E25 kt1008 mbMixed
Sep 19, 12:0017.9N 142.1E25 kt1008 mbMixed
Sep 19, 18:0018.0N 140.6E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 00:0018.1N 139.1E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0018.3N 137.7E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0018.4N 136.5E30 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0018.4N 135.4E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0018.4N 134.5E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0018.4N 133.4E45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0018.5N 132.3E50 kt992 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0018.8N 131.4E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 00:0019.2N 130.5E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 06:0019.6N 129.7E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 12:0020.0N 128.7E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 18:0020.7N 127.9E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 00:0021.3N 127.3E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 06:0022.1N 126.8E55 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 12:0022.8N 126.4E55 kt992 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 18:0024.1N 126.6E55 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 00:0025.0N 127.7E45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 06:0026.3N 128.8E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 12:0027.4N 130.3E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 24, 18:0028.0N 131.0E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 25, 00:0030.0N 133.0E1000 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.