The 1970 season

Tropical Storm Felice (1970)

Tropical Storm Felice peaked at 60 kt in the North Atlantic between September 12, 1970 and September 19, 1970, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Felice, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1970 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
North Atlantic
Dates
September 12, 1970 to September 19, 1970
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 60 kt (69 mph)
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.8
Fastest the center moved
19 kt (22 mph)
Identifier
AL131970

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.

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Sep 16, 02:00Bolivar Peninsula, TX, 8 km away29.5N 94.5W60 kt (69 mph)994 mb

Landfall points the US agencies flagged in the best track. The nearest town is named from the site’s gazetteer, not from the report.

Rainfall

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 1,954 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 6.73 inches (171 mm).

StationTotalPosition
GALVESTON6.73 in (171 mm)29.30N 94.80W
SANGER6.31 in (160 mm)33.37N 97.17W
BURDETTE6.25 in (159 mm)35.82N 89.95W
PERRIN6.03 in (153 mm)33.72N 96.67W
DENTON 2 SE5.88 in (149 mm)33.20N 97.10W
ROANOKE5.84 in (148 mm)33.00N 97.23W
BLYTHEVILLE5.80 in (147 mm)35.92N 89.90W
WASHINGTON SP5.79 in (147 mm)30.32N 96.17W
VALLEY VIEW5.63 in (143 mm)33.48N 97.15W
RIPLEY5.51 in (140 mm)35.75N 89.53W
OSCEOLA5.50 in (140 mm)35.72N 89.98W
DENISON DAM5.41 in (137 mm)33.82N 96.57W

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Sep 12, 00:0025.4N 77.5W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 12, 06:0025.4N 77.7W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 12, 12:0025.4N 78.0W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 12, 18:0025.3N 78.3W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 00:0025.3N 78.5W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 06:0025.2N 79.1W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 12:0025.0N 80.0W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 13, 18:0024.8N 81.0W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 14, 00:0024.4N 82.0W30 kt1011 mbTropical depression
Sep 14, 06:0024.2N 83.0W30 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Sep 14, 12:0024.5N 84.1W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Sep 14, 18:0025.4N 85.3W35 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 00:0026.4N 86.6W45 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 06:0027.2N 88.4W50 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 12:0028.0N 90.2W55 kt998 mbTropical storm
Sep 15, 18:0028.7N 92.2W60 kt990 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 00:0029.3N 94.0W60 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 02:00 landfall29.5N 94.5W60 kt994 mbTropical storm
Sep 16, 06:0029.9N 95.5W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 16, 12:0030.6N 96.4W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 16, 18:0031.4N 97.0W30 kt1003 mbTropical depression
Sep 17, 00:0032.2N 97.5W30 kt1001 mbTropical depression
Sep 17, 06:0033.0N 97.6W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 17, 12:0033.6N 97.2W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 17, 18:0034.2N 96.5W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 18, 00:0034.7N 95.7W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 18, 06:0035.0N 94.5W25 ktExtratropical
Sep 18, 12:0035.2N 93.3W25 ktExtratropical
Sep 18, 18:0035.3N 92.3W20 ktExtratropical
Sep 19, 00:0035.5N 91.3W20 ktExtratropical
Sep 19, 06:0035.5N 90.4W15 ktExtratropical
Sep 19, 12:0035.8N 89.8W15 ktExtratropical
Sep 19, 18:0036.2N 89.2W15 ktExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1970

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.