1962 Pacific hurricane season

Early satellites and a disputed total

The archive records nine tropical storms, two of them hurricanes, and accumulated cyclone energy of 32.9. A tenth track, from 30 June to 2 July, has no wind data and stays out of the counts. Other tallies reach 16 storms, then the most for any recorded season, by adding a set of central Pacific storms that early satellite imagery revealed, labelled with letters rather than names, most of which have no counterpart among the archive's tropical storms.

A cold phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which tends to suppress eastern Pacific activity, helps explain why no major hurricane was recorded from 1960 to 1966. The Naval Fleet Warning Central in Alameda, California, issued advisories for the basin that year.

Two hurricanes, two Mexican landfalls

Hurricane Valerie appeared on 24 June about 245 miles west of Acapulco and moved northwest along the coast with high seas and strong winds. It peaked at an estimated 85 mph, then turned northeast and struck near Mazatlán on 25 June, dissipating early the next day. The archive ranks Valerie as the strongest storm because it reached 75 kt first.

Hurricane Doreen, the last storm of the season, formed off southwestern Mexico on 1 October and also peaked at an estimated 85 mph. It passed closest to the tip of Baja California on 4 October, moved over Sinaloa later that day and dissipated on 5 October, bringing light rain to Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas.

Claudia's floods around Tucson

Tropical Storm Bernice struck Baja California on 6 September, and its remnants brought moderate rain to Arizona. Two weeks later Tropical Storm Claudia formed southwest of Acapulco on 20 September and crossed the Baja California peninsula twice before dissipating.

Claudia's moisture dropped 5 to 7 inches over the headwaters of the Santa Rosa, Jackrabbit and Brawley washes in 14 to 15 hours. The Santa Cruz River and its tributaries flooded a path about 100 miles long and up to 8 miles wide, inundating Marana and Sells in Pima County, and helicopters rescued 27 families from Fort Huachuca.

The floods caused one indirect death, an elderly woman an ambulance could not reach, and killed many cattle. Damage in Pima and Pinal counties exceeded $11 million in 1962 US dollars, much of it to crops, and Governor Paul Fannin declared a disaster.

Storms near Palmyra and Johnston Island

Satellite imagery showed a hurricane with a clear eye over the central Pacific on 24 August; it weakened over cooler water and in wind shear and was last seen about 200 miles south of Hilo on 2 September. In late September and October imagery revealed five more central Pacific storms. One passed about 200 miles north of Palmyra on 28 September, a location storms rarely reach, and another passed near Johnston Island during the Operation Dominic nuclear tests without reported impact.