The 1961 season

Typhoon Elsie (1961)

Typhoon Elsie reached Category 1 in the Western Pacific between July 6, 1961 and July 16, 1961, with a lowest pressure of 975 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Typhoon Elsie. 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
July 6, 1961 to July 16, 1961
Peak strength
Category 1, 80 kt (92 mph)
Lowest pressure
975 mb (28.79 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
4.7
Identifier
WP091961

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
Jul 6, 12:009.8N 146.9E1010 mbMixed
Jul 6, 18:0010.0N 146.0E1008 mbMixed
Jul 7, 00:0010.5N 145.5E1010 mbMixed
Jul 7, 06:0011.0N 145.0E1008 mbMixed
Jul 7, 12:0011.4N 144.3E1010 mbMixed
Jul 7, 18:0011.5N 143.3E1008 mbMixed
Jul 8, 00:0011.8N 141.7E1008 mbMixed
Jul 8, 06:0012.4N 140.3E1008 mbMixed
Jul 8, 12:0012.9N 139.5E1008 mbMixed
Jul 8, 18:0013.5N 138.8E1008 mbMixed
Jul 9, 00:0013.7N 137.4E1008 mbMixed
Jul 9, 06:0013.7N 135.8E1008 mbMixed
Jul 9, 12:0013.4N 134.0E1008 mbMixed
Jul 9, 18:0013.6N 132.3E1008 mbMixed
Jul 10, 00:0014.1N 131.0E1008 mbMixed
Jul 10, 06:0015.0N 130.0E1008 mbMixed
Jul 10, 12:0016.0N 128.7E1008 mbMixed
Jul 10, 18:0016.6N 126.9E1006 mbTropical storm
Jul 11, 00:0017.2N 125.5E1006 mbTropical storm
Jul 11, 06:0018.1N 124.5E1006 mbTropical storm
Jul 11, 12:0019.5N 124.0E1004 mbTropical storm
Jul 11, 18:0019.9N 123.8E1002 mbTropical storm
Jul 12, 00:0020.1N 123.7E1000 mbTropical storm
Jul 12, 06:0020.4N 123.4E1000 mbTropical storm
Jul 12, 12:0020.8N 123.1E70 kt996 mbTropical storm
Jul 12, 18:0021.2N 122.7E75 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jul 13, 00:0021.4N 122.3E80 kt985 mbTropical storm
Jul 13, 06:0021.6N 121.8E80 kt975 mbTropical storm
Jul 13, 12:0021.7N 121.4E80 kt975 mbTropical storm
Jul 13, 18:0021.8N 120.9E70 kt975 mbTropical storm
Jul 14, 00:0022.2N 120.5E70 kt985 mbTropical storm
Jul 14, 06:0022.2N 119.8E60 kt985 mbTropical storm
Jul 14, 12:0021.9N 119.1E50 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jul 14, 18:0022.4N 118.0E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Jul 15, 00:0022.9N 116.4E30 kt994 mbTropical storm
Jul 15, 06:0023.9N 115.1E25 kt994 mbMixed
Jul 15, 12:0025.0N 114.3E996 mbMixed
Jul 15, 18:0026.3N 112.8E998 mbMixed
Jul 16, 00:0027.5N 111.5E1000 mbMixed

Other Western Pacific storms of 1961

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.