The 1960 season

Tropical Storm Hester (1960)

Tropical Storm Hester peaked at 40 kt in the Western Pacific between September 4, 1960 and September 11, 1960, with a lowest pressure of 1000 mb.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Hester. 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
September 4, 1960 to September 11, 1960
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
1000 mb (29.53 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 304 km (189 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.3
Identifier
WP191960

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 4, 00:0014.7N 148.2E25 kt1008 mbMixed
Sep 4, 06:0015.1N 147.9E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 4, 12:0015.5N 147.5E30 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 4, 18:0016.0N 147.0E35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 00:0016.8N 146.2E35 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 06:0017.0N 146.0E40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 12:0017.3N 145.5E40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 18:0018.8N 145.0E40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 6, 00:0019.9N 145.9E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 6, 06:0020.3N 145.8E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 6, 12:0020.5N 145.6E25 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 6, 18:0020.8N 145.4E30 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 7, 00:0021.1N 145.3E30 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 7, 06:0021.4N 145.2E30 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 7, 12:0021.7N 145.1E35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 7, 18:0022.0N 145.0E35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 8, 00:0022.3N 144.8E35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 8, 06:0022.6N 144.7E35 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 8, 12:0022.8N 144.5E40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 8, 18:0023.2N 143.5E40 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 00:0023.5N 142.4E40 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 06:0023.6N 141.3E40 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 12:0023.7N 140.1E40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 18:0024.0N 138.7E40 kt1010 mbMixed
Sep 10, 00:0024.2N 137.1E35 kt1012 mbMixed
Sep 10, 06:0024.8N 135.7E15 kt1012 mbTropical storm
Sep 10, 12:0026.4N 136.7E1012 mbTropical storm
Sep 10, 18:0027.5N 136.0E1012 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 00:0028.4N 135.2E1014 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 06:0029.4N 134.8E1012 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 12:0030.2N 134.3E1014 mbTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1960

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.