The 1950 season

Tropical Storm How (1950)

Tropical Storm How peaked at 40 kt in the North Atlantic between October 1, 1950 and October 4, 1950, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm How, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1950 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
North Atlantic
Dates
October 1, 1950 to October 4, 1950
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.6
Fastest the center moved
14 kt (16 mph)
Identifier
AL081950

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.

Rainfall

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 821 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 5.00 inches (127 mm).

StationTotalPosition
SAN BENITO5.00 in (127 mm)26.13N 97.63W
HARLINGEN3.50 in (89 mm)26.20N 97.67W
BROWNSVILLE S PADRE ISLAND INTL AP2.16 in (55 mm)25.91N 97.42W
ENGLEMAN GARDENS1.60 in (41 mm)26.33N 98.02W
WESLACO1.54 in (39 mm)26.18N 97.97W
MUNDAY1.33 in (34 mm)33.45N 99.62W
JUDKINS1.26 in (32 mm)31.72N 102.63W
PORT ISABEL1.21 in (31 mm)26.09N 97.31W
RED BLUFF DAM1.20 in (30 mm)31.89N 103.92W
CANDELARIA1.19 in (30 mm)30.14N 104.68W
MCALLEN1.17 in (30 mm)26.19N 98.25W
FT. STOCKTON1.10 in (28 mm)30.91N 102.92W

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Oct 1, 06:0025.6N 88.4W30 ktTropical depression
Oct 1, 12:0025.8N 88.5W30 ktTropical depression
Oct 1, 18:0026.0N 88.6W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 2, 00:0026.1N 88.9W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 2, 06:0026.3N 89.5W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 2, 12:0026.4N 90.3W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 2, 18:0026.2N 91.1W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 00:0026.0N 92.1W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 06:0025.5N 93.5W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 12:0025.0N 94.8W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 3, 18:0024.7N 95.8W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 00:0024.4N 96.6W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 06:0024.0N 97.2W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 4, 12:0023.5N 97.8W30 ktTropical depression
Oct 4, 18:0023.0N 98.4W25 ktTropical depression

Other North Atlantic storms of 1950

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.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.