The 1988 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1988)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at 30 kt in the Eastern Pacific between September 12, 1988 and September 15, 1988.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed tropical depression. 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
September 12, 1988 to September 15, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Depression, 30 kt (35 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 484 km (301 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Fastest the center moved
11 kt (13 mph)
Identifier
EP191988

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 12, 18:0016.3N 108.2W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 00:0016.5N 109.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 06:0017.0N 110.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 12:0016.8N 110.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 18:0016.8N 110.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 14, 00:0016.8N 110.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 14, 06:0016.7N 109.8W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 14, 12:0016.8N 110.0W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 14, 18:0017.0N 110.0W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 15, 00:0017.0N 110.0W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 15, 06:0016.8N 110.8W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 15, 12:0016.9N 110.9W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 15, 18:0017.0N 111.0W25 ktTropical 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.