The 1948 season

Typhoon Mabel (1948)

Typhoon Mabel reached Category 1 in the Western Pacific between May 29, 1948 and June 2, 1948.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Typhoon Mabel, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1948 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
May 29, 1948 to June 2, 1948
Peak strength
Category 1, 80 kt (92 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 436 km (271 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
7.8
Identifier
WP031948

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
May 29, 00:0011.9N 129.8E50 ktTropical storm
May 29, 06:0012.8N 129.7E65 ktTropical storm
May 29, 12:0013.8N 129.6E65 ktTropical storm
May 29, 18:0014.8N 129.5E65 ktTropical storm
May 30, 00:0015.7N 129.4E70 ktTropical storm
May 30, 06:0016.8N 129.4E70 ktTropical storm
May 30, 12:0017.9N 129.4E70 ktTropical storm
May 30, 18:0019.0N 129.6E70 ktTropical storm
May 31, 00:0020.1N 129.8E75 ktTropical storm
May 31, 06:0021.1N 130.1E80 ktTropical storm
May 31, 12:0022.1N 130.8E80 ktTropical storm
May 31, 18:0023.0N 131.3E80 ktTropical storm
Jun 1, 00:0023.8N 131.9E65 ktTropical storm
Jun 1, 06:0025.0N 133.0E60 ktTropical storm
Jun 1, 12:0026.7N 134.9E60 ktTropical storm
Jun 1, 18:0028.3N 137.1E55 ktTropical storm
Jun 2, 00:0030.0N 139.4E50 ktTropical storm
Jun 2, 06:0031.4N 142.0E35 ktTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1948

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.