1962 Atlantic hurricane season

The quietest season in several decades

Gordon Dunn and his Miami staff counted five tropical cyclones in 1962, three of hurricane strength, the smallest number since 1939. The year had the fewest hurricane hours in 30 years except for 1946, no major hurricane and no storm in the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean. They reported no hurricane-force winds on the United States mainland and put the year's losses at four deaths, six injuries and about $2 million.

The site counts 7 tropical storms and 4 hurricanes because the current best track adds two systems the Weather Bureau did not name: a tropical storm off the Outer Banks from 30 June to 2 July and a hurricane that formed off the Carolinas on 28 November. Reanalysts judged that both might have had subtropical traits. Accumulated cyclone energy in the site's archive calculation came to 50.5.

Dunn could only guess at the cause. The westerlies ran well south of normal and blocking over Canada and Greenland was strong, so the subtropical easterlies never developed. July brought the coolest temperatures on record at stations in New England, Delaware and Iowa. Most storms seemed to grow down from upper-level vortices and struggled to switch from a cold core to a warm core, and none showed the compact eye and wall cloud of a classic hurricane.

A late first hurricane and a storm near the Azores

Alma began as a weak circulation that TIROS V spotted in the eastern Atlantic on 14 August and drifted about 3,000 miles before it deepened off southeast Florida on 26 August, the latest start to the named season since 1941. It stayed a hurricane for only 12 hours, on 28 August, north of the Virginia Capes. Waves sank more than 100 small boats on the Massachusetts coast, and damage came to less than $1 million in New England and $35,000 in North Carolina, with no deaths.

Tropical Storm Becky formed near the Cape Verde Islands on 27 August and turned north along a trough between 25°W and 30°W. Dunn called it the farthest east any observed storm had moved north since records began in 1886. A reconnaissance flight on 31 August near the Azores found no warm core. Tropical Storm Celia formed east of the Leeward Islands on 12 September, prompted a brief hurricane watch, fell apart under an upper trough and revived for about a day southeast of Bermuda.

Daisy and Ella off the East Coast

Daisy formed east of the Antilles on 29 September and kept a cold core for several days before becoming a hurricane on 3 October. It passed well west of Bermuda on 6 October with a central pressure of 965 mb in Dunn's account; the archive gives 957 hPa, the lowest of the season. Daisy reached Nova Scotia near Yarmouth late on 7 October after turning extratropical.

A nor'easter on 5 and 6 October and Daisy on 6 and 7 October together brought 65 hours of rain to New England, with 10 to 12 inches in Middlesex and Essex counties, Massachusetts. Dunn put damage from the combined storms at up to $10 million and damage attributed to Daisy alone at about $1.1 million, $600,000 of it from surf and waves, mostly in Maine. It caused one direct death and 22 traffic deaths on wet roads in New England, and rough seas killed six people in Nova Scotia.

Ella formed in the southeastern Bahamas on 14 October and briefly threatened North Carolina before an upper trough turned it northeast. The archive gives it the season's highest wind, 95 kt on 20 October, near the 90 kt that Dunn's staff estimated. Its eye widened to about 100 miles by 21 October. Two fishermen who left Charleston in a small boat on 18 October were never found. Ella also disrupted naval operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Depressions that did more damage than storms

Two depressions that never reached storm strength, and so fall outside the site's counts, caused the most harm on land. A late-August depression in the western Gulf of Mexico dropped 23.13 inches near Hackberry, Louisiana, and tornadoes in Cameron killed three people. A September depression off western Florida dropped 16.60 inches at Sarasota, flooded more than 5,000 houses and caused one death and $2.78 million in damage, in 1962 dollars.

The unnamed late-season hurricane grew inside a larger extratropical low south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, and the archive places its 80 kt peak on 1 December. It meandered for days, raising high tides and eroding beaches from Florida to Virginia, on shores still damaged by the March 1962 nor'easter. The archive ends its tropical stage on 4 December.