1979 North Sea hurricane season

The 1979 North Sea hurricane season was the first event in naming storms in the North Sea. The season featured 7 named storms, with three hurricanes and two major hurricanes. The season started on May 15, 1979 and ended on November 30, 1979. The season's strongest storm was Hurricane Eileen, which struck Ireland, Scotland, and Norway, causing over $800 million in damages.

Seasonal summary
The beginning of the 1979 North Sea hurricane season was relatively quiet, with almost no tropical waves forming for the first two weeks. Finally on May 27, a tropical wave formed just to the west of Northern Ireland. This tropical wave took an unusual path to the southeast, straight into Ireland and England. This tropical wave later became Hurricane Ann on May 31 and moved into Denmark, where Ann dissipated. Ann lasted from May 31 to June 5. In June, only two named storms formed, Benny and Cheri. Benny formed out in the open waters of the North Sea, about 95 miles north of the Netherlands. Benny was a weak storms and only lived for three days from July 21 to July 24. Tropical Storm Cheri formed just off of the coast of Eastern Scotland on June 29, becoming a fairly moderate tropical storm before dissipating off of the coast of Norway. Cheri lasted for five days, June 29 to July 4, 1979. July was tied with October for the least number of named storms in the season, minus September and November. The only storm of the month, Dan, lasted for four days without affecting any land area. It lasted from July 14 to July 19. Although August featured the strongest storms, it still lacked in activity, with only two named storms. By far the most notable storm was Eileen, which became an intense Category 4 hurricane before striking Ireland, Scotland, and later on Norway. Damages totaled to over $950 million and 42 people were killed. Eileen lasted from August 9 to August 23. Hurricane Finn was the next storm, lasting from August 24 to September 2, 1979. It became the second and final major hurricane of the season, striking no landmasses whatsoever. September featured no named storms, just like November would later on in the season. October, however, featured Tropical Storm Gerda at the very end of the month. Gerda peaked as a very weak tropical storm, making landfall on Norway and ending the season. Gerda lasted from October 30 to November 4.

Storm names
This was the debut of this list. All names on the list were used for the first time ever in this basin. Names that were not retired in the winter of 1980 were used again in 1985.

Retirement
The name Eileen was retired in the winter of 1980. It was replaced with the name Eloise for 1985.