The 1998 season

Tropical Storm May (1998)

Tropical Storm May peaked at 35 kt in the South Pacific between February 24, 1998 and February 28, 1998, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm May, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1998 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

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The storm

Basin
South Pacific
Dates
February 24, 1998 to February 28, 1998
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.4
Identifier
SH251998

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads carries a casualty or damage figure for this storm.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Feb 24, 18:0014.4S 138.9E20 ktNot reported
Feb 25, 00:0014.6S 139.0E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 06:0014.9S 139.0E20 kt999 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 12:0015.2S 139.0E30 kt999 mbTropical storm
Feb 25, 18:0015.4S 138.9E30 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 00:0015.8S 138.8E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 06:0016.4S 138.7E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 12:0017.1S 138.6E35 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 26, 18:0017.5S 138.5E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 27, 00:0017.9S 138.4E30 ktNot reported
Feb 27, 06:0018.3S 138.3E30 ktNot reported
Feb 27, 12:0018.6S 138.0E25 ktNot reported
Feb 27, 18:0018.6S 137.5E25 ktNot reported
Feb 28, 00:0018.1S 136.9E25 ktNot reported
Feb 28, 06:0017.5S 136.3E25 ktNot reported
Feb 28, 12:0016.9S 135.7E25 ktNot reported
Feb 28, 18:0016.6S 134.9E25 ktNot reported

Other South Pacific storms of 1998

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.