The 1998 season

Cyclone Veli (1998)

Cyclone Veli reached Category 1 in the South Pacific between January 30, 1998 and February 4, 1998, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Cyclone Veli, 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
January 30, 1998 to February 4, 1998
Peak strength
Category 1, 75 kt (86 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 695 km (432 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
4.2
Identifier
SH181998

Deaths and damage

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

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Jan 30, 06:0013.1S 165.8W25 kt1000 mbNot reported
Jan 30, 12:0013.1S 164.5W25 kt1000 mbNot reported
Jan 30, 18:0012.9S 163.0W25 kt999 mbNot reported
Jan 31, 00:0012.5S 161.4W30 kt998 mbNot reported
Jan 31, 06:0012.3S 159.9W30 kt998 mbNot reported
Jan 31, 12:0011.9S 155.7W25 kt997 mbTropical storm
Jan 31, 18:0013.0S 153.9W30 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 00:0014.0S 152.0W40 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 06:0015.0S 150.2W50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 12:0016.2S 148.5W65 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 18:0017.2S 147.4W70 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 00:0018.0S 146.6W75 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 06:0019.1S 145.6W75 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 12:0019.9S 144.9W70 kt980 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 18:0020.6S 144.3W60 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 00:0021.1S 144.0W55 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 06:0021.6S 143.9W50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 12:0022.1S 143.7W45 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 18:0023.1S 143.2W40 kt997 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 00:0023.8S 142.8W30 ktTropical storm
Feb 4, 06:0024.6S 142.4W25 ktTropical storm

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.