The 1939 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1939)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at unknown kt in the Western Pacific between December 22, 1939 and December 26, 1939.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical depression, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1939 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
Western Pacific
Dates
December 22, 1939 to December 26, 1939
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Landfall
No; closest approach 1077 km (669 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
1939356N08146

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Dec 22, 12:007.7N 145.8ENot reported
Dec 22, 18:008.3N 145.3ENot reported
Dec 23, 00:009.0N 144.7ENot reported
Dec 23, 06:009.8N 144.1ENot reported
Dec 23, 12:0010.7N 143.5ENot reported
Dec 23, 18:0011.6N 142.9ENot reported
Dec 24, 00:0012.5N 142.1ETropical storm
Dec 24, 06:0013.5N 141.3ETropical storm
Dec 24, 12:0014.6N 140.6ETropical storm
Dec 24, 18:0015.7N 139.9ETropical storm
Dec 25, 00:0016.7N 139.6ETropical storm
Dec 25, 06:0017.7N 139.7ETropical storm
Dec 25, 12:0018.4N 140.0ETropical storm
Dec 25, 18:0019.0N 140.5ETropical storm
Dec 26, 00:0019.7N 141.6ENot reported
Dec 26, 06:0020.7N 143.4ENot reported
Dec 26, 12:0021.6N 145.4ENot reported
Dec 26, 18:0022.3N 147.3ENot reported

Other Western Pacific storms of 1939

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.