EASTERN PACIFIC SEASON MAP
1955 Pacific hurricane season
6 recorded storms from Jun 6, 1955 to Oct 16, 1955
Last updated
The 1955 Pacific hurricane season produced 6 tropical storms and 2 hurricanes, with no major hurricane. A hurricane opened the season off Mexico on 6 June and another closed it on 16 October. Both October storms reached land, and the second caused a deadly flood in Jalisco. Read more
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6 storms with an IBTrACS 1955 hurricane season record. Tracks are the archived center positions, first observation Jun 6, 1955, last Oct 16, 1955.
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
No tropical-stage pressure in the archive
Unnamed, full archive record
Mapped, but outside the counts above
SEASON HISTORY
Six storms in a sparse record
The archive records six tropical storms, two of which reached hurricane strength, and accumulated cyclone energy of just 19.9. Both hurricanes peak at 75 kt and the four tropical storms at 45 kt. The current best track counts the same six systems, and Eastern Pacific records from before the satellite era of the 1960s are unreliable.
The first hurricane lasted from 6 to 8 June, and a tropical storm followed from 8 to 11 June. After a July storm, the basin produced nothing until 1 September, when a tropical storm formed and moved away from Mexico while weakening.
Hurricane Janet's Pacific afterlife
The remnants of the Atlantic's Hurricane Janet crossed into the Pacific in early October and reorganized into the season's fifth tropical storm. A ridge over Texas turned it northwest on 1 October before a shortwave off the West Coast pushed it north and then east. It made landfall on Baja California Sur on 3 October at unchanged tropical storm strength, crossed into the Gulf of California and dissipated the next day.
The remnants moved into Sonora and spread rain across Arizona and New Mexico. Tatum and Lovington, New Mexico, each recorded more than 3 inches.
The Atenquique flood
The last hurricane of the season struck southwestern Mexico in mid-October, with the archive tracking it for barely a day, from 15 to 16 October. Heavy rain flooded Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán, and floods killed 40 people in Atenquique, Jalisco.
Further reading
QUICK ANSWERS
The 1955 season in brief
How many hurricanes were there in the 1955 Pacific hurricane season?
The archive records 2 hurricanes (one-minute winds of 74 mph or more) among 6 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 1955 Pacific hurricane season?
Unnamed, with a peak one-minute sustained wind of 86 mph (Category 1) on Jun 6, 1955, 12:00 AM UTC.
How many Category 5 storms were there in 1955?
None. No storm in the 1955 Pacific hurricane season reached Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale in the archive.
When did the 1955 Pacific hurricane season start and end?
The first tropical-stage observation is on Jun 6, 1955 and the last on Oct 16, 1955, from 6 tracked storms in the archive.
What was the first hurricane of the 1955 Pacific hurricane season?
Unnamed, which reached hurricane strength (74 mph) on Jun 6, 1955, 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 1955 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