EASTERN PACIFIC SEASON MAP
1954 Pacific hurricane season
11 recorded storms from Jun 18, 1954 to Nov 1, 1954
Last updated
The 1954 Pacific hurricane season produced 11 tropical storms and 4 hurricanes, with no major hurricane. Activity ran from 18 June to 1 November, with a busy September that brought five storms. Most systems stayed offshore, but an October tropical storm caused deadly flooding in eastern Mexico and Guatemala. Read more
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| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 700 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 1,270 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 1,710 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 1,380 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 2,190 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 970 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | 981 | 1,270 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 1,460 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 830 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 380 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 1,870 |
11 storms with an IBTrACS 1954 hurricane season record. Tracks are the archived center positions, first observation Jun 18, 1954, last Nov 1, 1954.
Tropical-stage US-agency wind of 39 mph or more
74 mph or more, one-minute sustained
110 mph or more, Saffir–Simpson scale
158 mph or more at any tropical-stage observation
86 mph
Unnamed, Sep 19, 1954
Unnamed, full archive record
Mapped, but outside the counts above
SEASON HISTORY
Counting storms with ships and radiosondes
The archive records 11 tropical storms, four of which reached hurricane strength, and accumulated cyclone energy of 84.4. Each hurricane carries a flat 75 kt peak and each tropical storm 45 kt. The lowest pressure in the archive, 981 hPa, belongs to a mid-September tropical storm. The current best track counts the same eleven storms, below average against modern norms.
Forecasters in 1954 depended on ship reports and coastal stations to find storms. No more than eight Mexican coastal cities sent regular observations, and only Empalme in Sonora and Mazatlán in Sinaloa launched radiosondes, so the low count partly reflects what observers could see.
From Guatemala to a crowded September
The first storm formed about 210 miles southwest of Guatemala City on 18 June, tracked northwest along the Mexican coast and was last noted off Lázaro Cárdenas on 22 June. In July a hurricane made landfall on the Baja California Peninsula; its moisture brought 2 inches of rain to the deserts of southern California and flooded nearly 8 miles of U.S. Route 66.
Another hurricane ran from 25 July to 1 August. September then produced four tropical storms in overlapping succession, from the 2nd through the 27th, followed by a hurricane from 27 September to 1 October. The last hurricane of the year lasted from 26 October to 1 November.
Floods along the Pánuco River
A short-lived tropical storm from 12 to 14 October had a central pressure no lower than 1000 mbar on surface maps, yet its rain reached as far north as Tampico. Flooding along the Pánuco River left 160 people homeless, cut power and water, largely destroyed the towns of Pánuco and Revenadero and drowned crops and livestock.
Floods killed five people in coastal towns near Tampico, and an unidentified disease killed 35 more in the storm's wake. Guatemala also flooded, with thousands left homeless.
Further reading
QUICK ANSWERS
The 1954 season in brief
How many hurricanes were there in the 1954 Pacific hurricane season?
The archive records 4 hurricanes (one-minute winds of 74 mph or more) among 11 tropical storms, with 0 major hurricanes reaching 110 mph. Counts use US-agency winds during the tropical stage.
What was the strongest storm of the 1954 Pacific hurricane season?
Unnamed, with a peak one-minute sustained wind of 86 mph (Category 1) on Jul 12, 1954, 12:00 AM UTC.
How many Category 5 storms were there in 1954?
None. No storm in the 1954 Pacific hurricane season reached Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale in the archive.
When did the 1954 Pacific hurricane season start and end?
The first tropical-stage observation is on Jun 18, 1954 and the last on Nov 1, 1954, from 11 tracked storms in the archive.
What was the first hurricane of the 1954 Pacific hurricane season?
Unnamed, which reached hurricane strength (74 mph) on Jul 12, 1954, 12:00 AM UTC.
METHODOLOGY
Data sources and limitations
The map and totals are generated from NOAA's IBTrACS v04r01 archive. A storm belongs to this page when the archive lists it in the Eastern Pacific basin for the 1954 season, so a December storm whose track ends in January stays with its season. Storms that cross between basins appear on the page of their archive basin only.
Counts use US-agency one-minute winds during the tropical stage: 34 kt for a tropical storm, 64 kt for hurricane strength and 96 kt for major intensity, on the Saffir–Simpson scale in every basin. Local agencies classify storms differently, and official season summaries can differ from the archive. Accumulated cyclone energy sums squared winds at six-hourly synoptic times, counting observations in the calendar year. Storms with no US-agency wind are mapped but cannot enter the counts.
The map frame is the same for every Eastern Pacific season, so a track that leaves it is cut at the edge. Lines show each storm's center, not its size, rainfall or flood extent. Coastlines use Natural Earth's 1:10m land data.
Archive retrieved
NOAA IBTrACS archive and Field documentation
Sources & methodology