The 1951 season

Typhoon Louise (1951)

Typhoon Louise reached Category 4 in the Western Pacific between July 25, 1951 and August 5, 1951, with a lowest pressure of 904 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Typhoon Louise. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
July 25, 1951 to August 5, 1951
Peak strength
Category 4, 120 kt (138 mph)
Lowest pressure
904 mb (26.70 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
20.7
Identifier
WP061951

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
Jul 25, 06:0010.5N 144.5ETropical storm
Jul 25, 12:0010.1N 143.5ETropical storm
Jul 25, 18:0010.0N 142.5ETropical storm
Jul 26, 00:009.9N 141.5ETropical storm
Jul 26, 06:0010.1N 140.5E963 mbTropical storm
Jul 26, 12:0011.0N 139.0E80 kt960 mbTropical storm
Jul 26, 18:0011.4N 138.0E85 kt956 mbTropical storm
Jul 27, 00:0012.0N 137.0E90 kt951 mbTropical storm
Jul 27, 06:0012.7N 135.7E90 kt947 mbTropical storm
Jul 27, 12:0013.2N 134.0E95 kt943 mbTropical storm
Jul 27, 18:0013.6N 132.8E100 kt940 mbTropical storm
Jul 28, 00:0014.0N 131.2E100 kt937 mbTropical storm
Jul 28, 06:0014.4N 129.8E110 kt935 mbTropical storm
Jul 28, 12:0015.1N 128.5E115 kt931 mbTropical storm
Jul 28, 18:0015.6N 127.3E115 kt929 mbTropical storm
Jul 29, 00:0015.7N 126.3E120 kt924 mbTropical storm
Jul 29, 06:0015.9N 125.3E120 kt911 mbTropical storm
Jul 29, 12:0016.2N 124.3E110 kt904 mbTropical storm
Jul 29, 18:0016.5N 123.2E110 kt904 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 00:0017.2N 122.3E100 kt916 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 06:0017.8N 121.8E100 kt935 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 12:0018.2N 121.3E90 kt956 mbTropical storm
Jul 30, 18:0018.5N 120.4E80 kt971 mbTropical storm
Jul 31, 00:0019.0N 119.7E70 kt979 mbTropical storm
Jul 31, 06:0019.4N 118.8E60 kt980 mbTropical storm
Jul 31, 12:0019.6N 117.9E50 kt982 mbTropical storm
Jul 31, 18:0020.1N 116.8E50 kt983 mbTropical storm
Aug 1, 00:0020.7N 115.7E45 kt984 mbTropical storm
Aug 1, 06:0021.0N 114.3E45 kt984 mbTropical storm
Aug 1, 12:0021.1N 112.9E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Aug 1, 18:0020.9N 111.5E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 00:0020.4N 110.2E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 06:0021.7N 110.8E990 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 12:0021.8N 109.9E995 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 18:0022.1N 109.2E995 mbTropical storm
Aug 3, 00:0022.3N 108.1E995 mbTropical storm
Aug 3, 06:0022.8N 106.9E995 mbTropical storm
Aug 3, 12:0023.2N 105.8E995 mbTropical storm
Aug 3, 18:0023.5N 104.7E995 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 00:0024.0N 103.5E995 mbMixed
Aug 4, 06:0024.7N 102.4E995 mbMixed
Aug 4, 12:0025.7N 103.0E996 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 18:0026.1N 104.3E997 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 00:0026.5N 105.5E998 mbTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1951

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.