The 1959 season

Hurricane Patsy (1959)

Hurricane Patsy reached Category 5 in the Eastern Pacific between September 6, 1959 and September 11, 1959, with a lowest pressure of 970 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Patsy, 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
Eastern Pacific
Dates
September 6, 1959 to September 11, 1959
Peak strength
Category 5, 150 kt (173 mph)
Lowest pressure
970 mb (28.64 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1881 km (1169 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
18.1
Fastest the center moved
28 kt (32 mph)
Identifier
CP021959

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
Sep 6, 00:0018.7N 181.3ETropical storm
Sep 6, 06:0020.0N 180.0W75 ktHurricane
Sep 6, 12:0020.8N 179.5W120 ktHurricane
Sep 6, 18:0022.2N 178.5W150 ktHurricane
Sep 7, 00:0023.5N 178.1W120 ktHurricane
Sep 7, 06:0024.9N 178.2W120 ktHurricane
Sep 7, 12:0026.2N 179.1W120 ktHurricane
Sep 7, 18:0026.9N 179.7W120 ktHurricane
Sep 8, 00:0027.3N 178.7W100 ktHurricane
Sep 8, 06:0027.7N 178.2W100 ktHurricane
Sep 8, 12:0027.9N 178.0W100 ktHurricane
Sep 8, 18:0028.1N 177.9W120 ktHurricane
Sep 9, 00:0028.4N 178.0W90 ktHurricane
Sep 9, 06:0029.2N 178.7W90 ktHurricane
Sep 9, 12:0030.2N 179.3W80 ktHurricane
Sep 9, 18:0031.2N 180.0W80 kt970 mbHurricane
Sep 10, 00:0032.4N 179.6W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 06:0033.5N 179.6W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 12:0034.5N 179.8W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 10, 18:0035.1N 181.1ETropical storm
Sep 11, 00:0037.4N 179.8E990 mbTropical storm

Other Eastern 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.

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