The 1952 season

Tropical Storm Shirley (1952)

Tropical Storm Shirley peaked at 40 kt in the Western Pacific between October 14, 1952 and October 17, 1952, with a lowest pressure of 995 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Shirley, 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.

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The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
October 14, 1952 to October 17, 1952
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
995 mb (29.38 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.3
Identifier
WP171952

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 14, 00:009.7N 118.2EDisturbance
Oct 14, 06:0014.8N 117.2E25 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Oct 14, 12:0014.6N 115.8E30 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Oct 14, 18:0014.4N 114.1E40 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Oct 15, 00:0014.2N 112.9E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Oct 15, 06:0014.1N 111.6E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Oct 15, 12:0013.8N 109.9E30 kt995 mbTropical storm
Oct 15, 18:0014.2N 108.2E25 kt995 mbTropical storm
Oct 16, 00:0013.2N 105.8E998 mbTropical storm
Oct 16, 06:0013.0N 104.5E1000 mbMixed
Oct 16, 12:0012.9N 103.2E1003 mbMixed
Oct 16, 18:0012.8N 102.6EDisturbance
Oct 17, 00:0012.7N 102.0EDisturbance

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.