The 1947 season

Typhoon Olive (1947)

Typhoon Olive reached Category 3 in the Western Pacific between October 2, 1947 and October 5, 1947.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Typhoon Olive, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1947 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
October 2, 1947 to October 5, 1947
Peak strength
Category 3, 110 kt (127 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1238 km (769 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
8.0
Identifier
WP151947

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
Oct 2, 06:0013.7N 155.4E45 ktTropical storm
Oct 2, 12:0014.7N 155.4E50 ktTropical storm
Oct 2, 18:0015.5N 155.3E55 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 00:0016.2N 154.4E40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 06:0016.3N 153.1E40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 12:0017.9N 152.0E40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 18:0019.9N 151.1E55 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 00:0021.8N 150.0E60 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 06:0022.9N 149.3E100 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 12:0023.7N 149.0E100 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 18:0024.3N 148.8E100 ktTropical storm
Oct 5, 00:0024.9N 148.7E110 ktTropical storm
Oct 5, 06:0025.6N 148.8E90 ktTropical storm
Oct 5, 12:0026.6N 149.2E80 ktTropical storm
Oct 5, 18:0028.1N 150.5E70 ktTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1947

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.