The 1952 season

Tropical Storm Elaine (1952)

Tropical Storm Elaine peaked at 45 kt in the Western Pacific between December 4, 1952 and December 6, 1952, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Elaine, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1952 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
December 4, 1952 to December 6, 1952
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 2420 km (1504 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.8
Identifier
WP251952

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 4, 00:0017.0N 176.3E45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 4, 06:0016.7N 174.9E45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 4, 12:0015.9N 173.5E40 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 4, 18:0015.0N 172.3E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Dec 5, 00:0014.2N 171.1E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Dec 5, 06:0013.8N 170.4E30 kt990 mbTropical storm
Dec 5, 12:0013.1N 169.7E30 kt995 mbTropical storm
Dec 5, 18:0012.5N 168.8E25 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Dec 6, 00:0012.0N 168.0E25 ktTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1952

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.