The 1961 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1961)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at unknown kt in the South Pacific between March 11, 1961 and March 19, 1961.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed tropical depression. 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
South Pacific
Dates
March 11, 1961 to March 19, 1961
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Landfall
No; closest approach 1847 km (1148 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
SH251961

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
Mar 11, 12:0013.7S 155.1WTropical storm
Mar 11, 18:0013.7S 154.9WTropical storm
Mar 12, 00:0014.0S 154.4WTropical storm
Mar 12, 06:0014.5S 153.3WTropical storm
Mar 12, 12:0015.2S 152.3WTropical storm
Mar 12, 18:0016.2S 151.8WTropical storm
Mar 13, 00:0017.3S 151.6WTropical storm
Mar 13, 06:0018.2S 151.5WTropical storm
Mar 13, 12:0019.0S 151.6WTropical storm
Mar 13, 18:0019.7S 151.9WTropical storm
Mar 14, 00:0020.2S 152.5WTropical storm
Mar 14, 06:0020.3S 153.8WTropical storm
Mar 14, 12:0020.0S 155.0WTropical storm
Mar 14, 18:0019.0S 155.1WTropical storm
Mar 15, 00:0018.1S 154.9WTropical storm
Mar 15, 06:0017.8S 154.5WTropical storm
Mar 15, 12:0017.6S 154.0WTropical storm
Mar 15, 18:0017.5S 153.4WTropical storm
Mar 16, 00:0017.5S 152.8WTropical storm
Mar 16, 06:0017.9S 152.2WTropical storm
Mar 16, 12:0018.6S 151.5WTropical storm
Mar 16, 18:0019.4S 151.1WTropical storm
Mar 17, 00:0020.2S 151.3WTropical storm
Mar 17, 06:0021.0S 152.1WTropical storm
Mar 17, 12:0021.7S 152.9WTropical storm
Mar 17, 18:0022.4S 153.8WTropical storm
Mar 18, 00:0023.0S 154.6WTropical storm
Mar 18, 06:0023.5S 155.3WTropical storm
Mar 18, 12:0024.0S 155.8WTropical storm
Mar 18, 18:0024.6S 156.1WTropical storm
Mar 19, 00:0025.3S 156.3WTropical storm

Other South 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.