1957 Pacific hurricane season

A busier year with a Hawaiian flavour

The archive holds fourteen tracks for 1957. Thirteen reached tropical storm strength, nine became hurricanes and two reached major hurricane strength of 96 kt or more; a fourteenth system in October has no wind data and stays out of the counts. The current best track also counts 13 storms, a moderately active year.

Five of the thirteen storms formed in or crossed into the central Pacific. The National Weather Bureau in Honolulu named those storms: Kanoa from a Hawaiian name, and Della and Nina from the western Pacific typhoon list. Storms east of 140°W went unnamed.

Kanoa and Della's long track

Hurricane Kanoa began south of Manzanillo on 15 July and ran west under a strong ridge north of Hawaii. Advisories stopped on 18 July for lack of reports and resumed on 21 July, when the ship Cape Horn confirmed hurricane strength; the best track nonetheless lists it as a Category 1 hurricane throughout. Reconnaissance from Oahu found a 40-mile-wide eye the next day. Kanoa weakened to a disturbance before reaching Hawaii, where its remnants brought useful rain until 26 July.

Hurricane Della formed southeast of Hawaii on 1 September and passed about 10 miles south of French Frigate Shoals on 4 September with gusts to 110 mph. It crossed the International Date Line on 9 September, where it became a typhoon and strengthened further, then turned back east and became extratropical on 17 September. Della traveled about 5,000 miles, the longest known for a Pacific hurricane at the time.

The archive places Della's 120 kt peak on 13 September, west of the Date Line, and its lowest pressure at 960 hPa, the season's lowest; the Eastern Pacific best track gives Della a 125 mph peak. Because the site uses Della's whole merged track, Della ranks as the season's strongest storm here, while tallies that consider only Eastern Pacific records name the October Mazatlán hurricane the strongest.

Acapulco, Navojoa and Mazatlán

Two August hurricanes stayed at sea. One reached 90 kt far offshore and became extratropical near 39.8°N; the other paralleled Baja California before losing its identity on 15 August. On 17 September a hurricane appeared off southern Mexico and made landfall near Acapulco with winds of about 85 mph. Seven people died in the region, including a U.S. citizen electrocuted by a downed line.

An October hurricane crossed Baja California early on 5 October and made a second landfall near Navojoa later that day, then became extratropical over New Mexico. At least two people died when a home collapsed. The storm ruined cotton crops in Sonora and Baja California Sur and washed away bridges.

The season's other major hurricane formed southwest of Sonora on 20 October. Late on 21 October it strengthened from 50 mph to 140 mph in about six hours and held that strength for six more hours before landfall near Mazatlán. It killed eight people, brought down the local baseball stadium and sank many shrimp trawlers, with damage estimated at US$8 million in 1957 dollars.

Hurricane Nina in December

Hurricane Nina formed southwest of Hawaii on 29 November, well after the usual season, and tracked north-northeast before turning west across the islands with winds of about 85 mph. It dissipated over open water on 6 December, the last day of storm activity in the archive.

Waves up to 35 feet damaged as many as 50 homes in Hawaii, about 12 of them destroyed on Kauai. One person was electrocuted on land and three people were lost when the sampan Setsu Maru sank east of Niihau, and Nina's damage came to about $100,000 in 1957 US dollars.