EASTERN PACIFIC SEASON MAP
1956 Pacific hurricane season
12 recorded storms from May 18, 1956 to Oct 18, 1956
Last updated
The 1956 Pacific hurricane season produced 11 tropical storms and 7 hurricanes, none of them major. Activity began with a hurricane on 18 May and ended with a tropical storm on 18 October. A June hurricane that came ashore east-southeast of Manzanillo is the only storm with a detailed record. Read more
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| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 600 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 830 |
| Unnamed | – | — | Unclassified | — | 190 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 440 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 540 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 1,030 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 400 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 1,320 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 340 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 540 |
| Unnamed | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 1,380 |
| Unnamed | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 360 |
12 storms with an IBTrACS 1956 hurricane season record. Tracks are the archived center positions, first observation May 18, 1956, last Oct 18, 1956.
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
Seven hurricanes, all at 75 kt
The archive holds twelve tracks for 1956. Eleven reached tropical storm strength and seven reached hurricane strength, with accumulated cyclone energy of 47.9. A twelfth system, tracked on 9 and 10 June, has no wind data and stays out of the counts. The current best track lists the same eleven storms.
Every hurricane in the best track peaks at 75 kt and every tropical storm at 45 kt. Those uniform values come from a period when ships supplied nearly all observations, so they say little about how the storms compared.
An early start and a September cluster
A hurricane on 18 and 19 May opened the season, and three more storms followed by mid-June, including two hurricanes. July brought a hurricane and a tropical storm, and a hurricane ran from 22 to 25 August.
September produced a one-day tropical storm on the 3rd, a hurricane from 4 to 6 September and another from 12 to 17 September, the longest-lived hurricane of the year. A tropical storm in mid-October closed the season.
A June hurricane on the Mexican coast
A small low about 300 miles south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec became a hurricane by 12:00 UTC on 12 June, with ships nearby reporting gales. On 13 June the ship Portland Star measured a pressure of 29.06 inHg, about 984 hPa, and gusts above 115 mph. The storm turned north-northwest and came ashore about 150 miles east-southeast of Manzanillo, then weakened and was last noted on 14 June.
It raised 30-foot waves and brought heavy rain to Mexico. It gives no casualty or damage figures for the storm.
Further reading
QUICK ANSWERS
The 1956 season in brief
How many hurricanes were there in the 1956 Pacific hurricane season?
The archive records 7 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 1956 Pacific hurricane season?
Unnamed, with a peak one-minute sustained wind of 86 mph (Category 1) on May 18, 1956, 12:00 PM UTC.
How many Category 5 storms were there in 1956?
None. No storm in the 1956 Pacific hurricane season reached Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale in the archive.
When did the 1956 Pacific hurricane season start and end?
The first tropical-stage observation is on May 18, 1956 and the last on Oct 18, 1956, from 12 tracked storms in the archive.
What was the first hurricane of the 1956 Pacific hurricane season?
Unnamed, which reached hurricane strength (74 mph) on May 18, 1956, 12:00 PM 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 1956 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