The 1988 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1988)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 45 kt in the Western Pacific between October 7, 1988 and October 10, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 992 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, 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
October 7, 1988 to October 10, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
992 mb (29.29 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.3
Identifier
1988282N15118

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
Oct 7, 12:0014.8N 117.5E1002 mbTropical storm
Oct 7, 18:0014.8N 116.8E1002 mbTropical storm
Oct 8, 00:0014.7N 116.0E1000 mbTropical storm
Oct 8, 06:0014.5N 115.1E35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Oct 8, 12:0014.3N 114.3E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Oct 8, 18:0014.4N 113.6E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Oct 9, 00:0014.4N 112.6E45 kt994 mbTropical storm
Oct 9, 06:0014.1N 111.6E45 kt992 mbTropical storm
Oct 9, 12:0013.8N 111.0E45 kt994 mbTropical storm
Oct 9, 18:0013.9N 110.2E40 kt996 mbTropical storm
Oct 10, 00:0014.1N 109.5E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Oct 10, 06:0014.5N 109.0E998 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. This storm’s winds are ten-minute averages from its regional agency. They read about 12 percent lower than the one-minute winds US agencies use, so a Saffir-Simpson category is not given for it.

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.