The 1988 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1988)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 35 kt in the South Pacific between December 18, 1987 and December 22, 1987.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed tropical storm. 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
South Pacific
Dates
December 18, 1987 to December 22, 1987
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 124 km (77 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.5
Identifier
SH041988

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
Dec 18, 18:007.5S 176.5E20 ktTropical storm
Dec 19, 00:007.8S 176.8E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 19, 06:008.1S 177.0E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 19, 12:008.4S 177.2E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 19, 18:008.7S 177.4E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 00:008.9S 177.6E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 06:009.2S 177.8E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 12:009.5S 177.9E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 20, 18:009.9S 178.2E35 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 00:0010.4S 178.5E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 06:0011.1S 178.9E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 12:0012.0S 179.1E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 21, 18:0012.9S 179.3E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 00:0013.8S 179.3E30 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 06:0014.7S 179.5E25 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 12:0015.2S 179.2W25 ktTropical storm
Dec 22, 18:0014.7S 177.5W25 ktTropical storm

Other South 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.