The 1959 season

Tropical Storm Kate (1959)

Tropical Storm Kate peaked at 40 kt in the Western Pacific between August 24, 1959 and August 27, 1959, with a lowest pressure of 1000 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Kate, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1959 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
August 24, 1959 to August 27, 1959
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
1000 mb (29.53 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 68 km (42 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.5
Identifier
WP101959

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
Aug 24, 00:0010.0N 132.3EDisturbance
Aug 24, 06:0010.5N 130.7ETropical storm
Aug 24, 12:0011.3N 129.9ETropical storm
Aug 24, 18:0012.8N 129.5E1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 25, 00:0014.5N 128.1E40 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 25, 06:0014.4N 127.5E35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 25, 12:0014.3N 126.8E35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 25, 18:0014.4N 126.2E35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 26, 00:0014.5N 125.5E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Aug 26, 06:0014.6N 124.7E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Aug 26, 12:0014.8N 124.0E30 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Aug 26, 18:0015.5N 123.4E25 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Aug 27, 00:0016.0N 123.2E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 27, 06:0016.5N 123.3E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 27, 12:0017.0N 123.5E20 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 27, 18:0017.5N 124.0E20 ktTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1959

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.