EASTERN PACIFIC SEASON MAP
1980 Pacific hurricane season
15 recorded storms from Jun 9, 1980 to Nov 25, 1980
Last updated
The 1980 Pacific hurricane season produced 15 tropical storms, 8 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes in the archive, with accumulated cyclone energy of 88.7. Most storms formed south of Acapulco and ran west-northwest out to sea. Hurricane Kay became the strongest and longest-lived storm at 120 kt, and no storm made landfall. Read more
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| Agatha | – | 115 | Cat 3 | — | 1,920 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blas | – | 58 | Tropical storm | — | 550 |
| Celia | – | 75 | Cat 1 | — | 1,390 |
| Darby | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 1,250 |
| Estelle | – | 46 | Tropical storm | — | 340 |
| Frank | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 720 |
| Georgette | – | 75 | Cat 1 | — | 1,150 |
| Howard | – | 104 | Cat 2 | — | 1,640 |
| Isis | – | 98 | Cat 2 | — | 1,140 |
| Javier | – | 115 | Cat 3 | — | 1,750 |
| Kay | – | 138 | Cat 4 | — | 3,840 |
| Lester | – | 40 | Tropical storm | — | 560 |
| Madeline | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 310 |
| Newton | – | 40 | Tropical storm | — | 320 |
| Dinah | – | 115 | Cat 3 | 950 | 5,390 |
15 storms with an IBTrACS 1980 hurricane season record. Tracks are the archived center positions, first observation Jun 9, 1980, last Nov 25, 1980.
Tropical-stage US-agency wind of 39 mph or more
74 mph or more, one-minute sustained
110 mph or more, Saffir–Simpson scale
158 mph or more at any tropical-stage observation
138 mph
Dinah, Nov 22, 1980
Kay, full archive record
Mapped, but outside the counts above
SEASON HISTORY
A below-average year, counted two ways
The current eastern Pacific best track lists 15 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes, against long-term averages of 15 tropical storms, 9 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes. Its list opens with Tropical Storm Carmen, which crossed the Date Line from the western Pacific in April, and it leaves out Hurricane Dinah. The site's archive works the other way round. It counts storms by their tropical-stage one-minute winds within the calendar year in this basin, so its tally starts with Hurricane Agatha on 9 June and ends with Dinah, a November hurricane that carries a western Pacific designation and formed near the Date Line. That swap explains the extra hurricane and major hurricane in the site's figures.
The year passed with few impacts. No storm made landfall, and neither source records deaths or damage. Newton came closest to the coast in late October, heading northeast toward Mexico from southeast of Socorro Island before wind shear and cool water broke it up on 29 October.
Early storms off Acapulco
Agatha formed about 400 miles south-southwest of Acapulco on 9 June and became the first hurricane on 10 June. It peaked at 100 kt, Category 3, on 12 June, then weakened over cooler, stable air and dissipated on 15 June. Blas and a short-lived depression followed within days, and Hurricane Celia reached 65 kt on 26 June before an upper-level trough carried its moisture into the United States. Rain from Celia's remnants fell in Santa Barbara County, California, on the last two days of June.
July brought three short tropical storms, Darby, Estelle and Frank, and then Hurricane Georgette, which reached 65 kt on 29 July. Hurricane Howard formed south of Acapulco on 31 July and ran parallel to the Mexican coast, peaking at 90 kt on 4 August. It threatened southern California and northern Baja California but never approached land. Hurricane Isis reached 85 kt on 8 August, and Hurricane Javier, which formed south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, peaked at 100 kt on 25 August.
Hurricane Kay's long drift west
Kay formed south of Acapulco on 16 September and became a hurricane the next day. It peaked at 120 kt, Category 4, at 18 UTC on 18 September, the highest wind of the season in the archive. Kay weakened to a tropical storm by 20 September, slowed as it neared the central Pacific, and regained hurricane strength on 23 September before crossing 140°W. After a small anticyclonic loop it weakened again and dissipated north of the Hawaiian Islands on 30 September.
The archive tracks Kay for 342 hours, the longest record of the season. It lasted 14.5 days, the fifth longest for a Pacific hurricane at the time, and caused no damage or casualties.
October stragglers and Hurricane Dinah
Tropical Storm Lester spun in open water south of Mexico in late September, and Madeline and Newton each lasted little more than a day in October. The archive's final storm, Hurricane Dinah, reached hurricane strength on 21 November and peaked at 100 kt with a pressure of 950 hPa on 22 November, the lowest pressure recorded for any storm the site assigns to this season. Its tropical stage ended on 25 November.
Four of the season's names, Agatha, Estelle, Georgette and Madeline, had appeared on the older four-year lists; the rest were used for the first time. No names were retired, and the list returned in 1986. The central Pacific's Hawaiian list went unused, since the Joint Typhoon Warning Center named Carmen from the western Pacific list.
Further reading
QUICK ANSWERS
The 1980 season in brief
How many hurricanes were there in the 1980 Pacific hurricane season?
The archive records 8 hurricanes (one-minute winds of 74 mph or more) among 15 tropical storms, with 4 major hurricanes reaching 110 mph. Counts use US-agency winds during the tropical stage.
What was the strongest storm of the 1980 Pacific hurricane season?
Kay, with a peak one-minute sustained wind of 138 mph (Category 4) on Sep 18, 1980, 06:00 PM UTC.
How many Category 5 storms were there in 1980?
None. No storm in the 1980 Pacific hurricane season reached Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale in the archive.
When did the 1980 Pacific hurricane season start and end?
The first tropical-stage observation is on Jun 9, 1980 and the last on Nov 25, 1980, from 15 tracked storms in the archive.
What was the first hurricane of the 1980 Pacific hurricane season?
Agatha, which reached hurricane strength (74 mph) on Jun 10, 1980, 03:00 PM UTC.
METHODOLOGY
Data sources and limitations
The map and totals are generated from NOAA's IBTrACS v04r01 archive. A storm belongs to this page when the archive lists it in the Eastern Pacific basin for the 1980 season, so a December storm whose track ends in January stays with its season. Storms that cross between basins appear on the page of their archive basin only.
Counts use US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage: 34 kt for a tropical storm, 64 kt for hurricane strength and 96 kt for major intensity, on the Saffir–Simpson scale in every basin. Local agencies classify storms differently, and official season summaries can differ from the archive. Accumulated cyclone energy sums squared winds at six-hourly synoptic times, counting observations in the calendar year. Storms with no US-agency wind are mapped but cannot enter the counts.
The map frame is the same for every Eastern Pacific season, so a track that leaves it is cut at the edge. Lines show each storm's center, not its size, rainfall or flood extent. Coastlines use Natural Earth's 1:10m land data.
Archive retrieved
NOAA IBTrACS archive and Field documentation
Sources & methodology