The 1974 season

Hurricane Maggie (1974)

Hurricane Maggie reached Category 4 in the Eastern Pacific between August 26, 1974 and September 1, 1974, with a lowest pressure of 934 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Maggie, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1974 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
Eastern Pacific
Dates
August 26, 1974 to September 1, 1974
Peak strength
Category 4, 120 kt (138 mph)
Lowest pressure
934 mb (27.58 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 489 km (304 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
17.1
Fastest the center moved
10 kt (12 mph)
Identifier
EP131974

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
Aug 26, 00:0011.5N 105.0W35 ktTropical storm
Aug 26, 06:0012.0N 105.4W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 26, 12:0012.6N 105.7W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 26, 18:0013.5N 106.0W65 ktHurricane
Aug 27, 00:0014.4N 106.4W65 ktHurricane
Aug 27, 06:0014.8N 106.7W70 ktHurricane
Aug 27, 12:0015.2N 107.1W80 ktHurricane
Aug 27, 18:0015.8N 107.7W110 kt934 mbHurricane
Aug 28, 00:0016.4N 108.4W110 ktHurricane
Aug 28, 06:0016.8N 109.0W120 ktHurricane
Aug 28, 12:0017.2N 109.6W120 ktHurricane
Aug 28, 18:0017.8N 110.4W120 ktHurricane
Aug 29, 00:0018.3N 111.3W120 ktHurricane
Aug 29, 06:0018.6N 112.0W110 ktHurricane
Aug 29, 12:0018.7N 112.6W110 ktHurricane
Aug 29, 18:0018.8N 113.3W75 ktHurricane
Aug 30, 00:0018.8N 114.0W65 ktHurricane
Aug 30, 06:0018.8N 114.5W65 ktHurricane
Aug 30, 12:0018.8N 115.0W65 ktHurricane
Aug 30, 18:0018.9N 115.4W65 ktHurricane
Aug 31, 00:0019.0N 115.7W65 ktHurricane
Aug 31, 06:0019.2N 116.6W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 31, 12:0019.4N 117.5W55 ktTropical storm
Aug 31, 18:0019.6N 118.4W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 1, 00:0019.8N 119.2W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 1, 06:0019.9N 119.5W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 1, 12:0020.2N 119.7W35 ktTropical storm

Other Eastern Pacific storms of 1974

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.