EASTERN PACIFIC SEASON MAP
1961 Pacific hurricane season
11 recorded storms from Jun 9, 1961 to Nov 12, 1961
Last updated
The 1961 Pacific hurricane season produced 10 tropical storms and 2 hurricanes, none of them major. Both hurricanes struck Guerrero near Zihuatanejo: Iva in June and Tara in November. Tara killed at least 436 people in one of the deadliest eastern Pacific disasters on record. Read more
Drag to pan. Pinch or Ctrl/⌘ + scroll to zoom. Keyboard: plus or minus to zoom, arrow keys to pan, and 0 to show the whole map.
| Iva | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 670 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joanne | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 310 |
| Kathleen | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 230 |
| Liza | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 1,730 |
| Unnamed | – | 30 | Tropical depression | — | 160 |
| Naomi | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 280 |
| Orla | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 740 |
| Pauline | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 310 |
| Rebecca | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 430 |
| Simone | – | 52 | Tropical storm | — | 540 |
| Tara | – | 86 | Cat 1 | — | 520 |
11 storms with an IBTrACS 1961 hurricane season record. Tracks are the archived center positions, first observation Jun 9, 1961, last Nov 12, 1961.
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
Liza, full archive record
Mapped, but outside the counts above
SEASON HISTORY
Madeline, Simone and the storm count
The archive records 10 tropical storms, two of which became hurricanes, with accumulated cyclone energy of 25.2. The current best track counts nine named storms. The difference comes from Tropical Storm Simone, which the archive still carries at 45 kt but which the best track dropped as a tropical cyclone in 2019.
Simone grew from the remnants of the Atlantic's Hurricane Hattie, which crossed into the Pacific on 1 November and received the name that day. The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis committee later described it as a broad Central American gyre without a well-defined center. It moved ashore in Mexico on 3 November and dissipated. A July system named Madeline was downgraded to a depression in post-analysis; the archive holds it at 26 kt, outside the counts.
A busy July, then open water
Hurricane Iva appeared on 9 June about 280 miles southwest of Puerto Ángel, curved north and came ashore near Zihuatanejo on 11 June with its peak winds of about 85 mph. It became extratropical within six hours. Iva ranks as the season's strongest storm in the archive because it reached 75 kt first; Tara later matched it.
July brought Joanne, Kathleen and Liza, all tropical storms that stayed at sea, plus Madeline. Naomi in August and Orla in September also stayed offshore, though Orla came close to Baja California. Pauline and Rebecca each lasted only from 3 to 4 October.
Hurricane Tara and Nuxco
Hurricane Tara formed on 10 November about 230 miles off Mexico and strengthened to about 85 mph before making landfall in Guerrero near Zihuatanejo. It struck ground already soaked by ten days of rain and dissipated on 12 November. 1961 was the first year on record with two November storms, and no season repeated that until 2006.
Acapulco escaped with light damage, but the coast farther west suffered badly, and the town of Nuxco in Tecpan de Galeana municipality took the worst of the deaths and destruction. Tara killed at least 436 people across Mexico, with some estimates reaching 500, and damage above US$16 million in 1961 dollars.
Further reading
QUICK ANSWERS
The 1961 season in brief
How many hurricanes were there in the 1961 Pacific hurricane season?
The archive records 2 hurricanes (one-minute winds of 74 mph or more) among 10 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 1961 Pacific hurricane season?
Iva, with a peak one-minute sustained wind of 86 mph (Category 1) on Jun 9, 1961, 12:00 PM UTC.
How many Category 5 storms were there in 1961?
None. No storm in the 1961 Pacific hurricane season reached Category 5 on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale in the archive.
When did the 1961 Pacific hurricane season start and end?
The first tropical-stage observation is on Jun 9, 1961 and the last on Nov 12, 1961, from 11 tracked storms in the archive.
What was the first hurricane of the 1961 Pacific hurricane season?
Iva, which reached hurricane strength (74 mph) on Jun 9, 1961, 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 1961 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