The 1998 season

Tropical Storm Wes (1998)

Tropical Storm Wes peaked at 45 kt in the South Pacific between January 31, 1998 and February 5, 1998, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Wes, 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 31, 1998 to February 5, 1998
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 130 km (81 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.1
Identifier
SH191998

Deaths and damage

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

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Jan 31, 06:0012.2S 173.4W25 kt1000 mbNot reported
Jan 31, 12:0011.3S 173.8W25 kt999 mbTropical storm
Jan 31, 18:0012.1S 171.4W25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 00:0012.2S 169.5W35 kt998 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 06:0012.3S 167.7W45 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 12:0012.4S 166.1W40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 1, 18:0012.6S 164.9W40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 00:0012.8S 163.7W40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 06:0013.3S 162.6W40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 12:0013.9S 161.8W40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 2, 18:0014.5S 161.3W40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 00:0015.1S 160.7W40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 06:0015.6S 160.2W45 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 12:0016.0S 159.6W45 kt985 mbTropical storm
Feb 3, 18:0016.3S 159.2W40 kt987 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 00:0016.6S 158.6W35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 06:0016.8S 157.8W30 kt990 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 12:0017.0S 157.2W25 kt995 mbTropical storm
Feb 4, 18:0017.3S 158.5W30 kt997 mbNot reported
Feb 5, 00:0017.5S 158.4W25 kt999 mbNot 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.