The 1962 season

Typhoon Carla:Clara (1962)

Typhoon Carla:Clara reached Category 1 in the Western Pacific between September 18, 1962 and September 23, 1962, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Typhoon Carla:Clara, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1962 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
September 18, 1962 to September 23, 1962
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.7
Identifier
WP191962

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 18, 06:0015.3N 120.9E1007 mbMixed
Sep 18, 12:0015.6N 119.5E1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 18, 18:0016.0N 118.6E1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 00:0016.8N 118.3E30 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 06:0017.1N 117.5E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 12:0017.2N 117.0E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 19, 18:0017.2N 116.5E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 00:0017.2N 116.3E30 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0017.3N 115.8E40 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0017.3N 115.0E40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0017.5N 113.9E50 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0017.7N 112.7E55 kt995 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0018.0N 111.4E70 kt985 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0018.5N 110.2E60 kt985 mbTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0018.9N 109.0E50 kt988 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 00:0019.3N 107.9E50 kt988 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 06:0019.8N 106.8E55 kt988 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 12:0020.2N 106.0E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 22, 18:0020.7N 104.9E25 kt995 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 00:0021.3N 103.9E20 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 06:0021.1N 102.4E1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 23, 12:0021.3N 101.6E1004 mbTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1962

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.