1965 Pacific hurricane season

Ten storms, one hurricane

The archive tracks 11 systems between 4 June and 27 September, and 10 of them reached tropical storm strength; one July system has no recorded wind. All nine named tropical storms carry the same 45 kt peak in the archive, a flat value that reflects the thin observations of the time more than any real sameness. Accumulated cyclone energy came to 37.8, low for the basin. The current best track also counts 10 storms and 1 hurricane, so the agency and site tallies agree this year.

Forecasters leaned on ships and TIROS satellite pictures. Tropical Storm Doreen, the longest-lived system at 10 days, was first spotted on a TIROS image, and 13 ships reported winds from it as it wandered west into the central Pacific, where it dissipated on 31 August. The ship San Juan Prospector reported 40 kt winds and a 975 mb pressure near the storm, and the Kyoyu Maru later measured 60 kt just north of the center.

A crowded June off southern Mexico

Four storms formed between 4 and 30 June. Victoria began about 585 miles southwest of Acapulco and stayed at sea. Tropical Storm Wallie formed on 17 June west of Puerto Angel and decayed to a low just offshore before that low moved inland near Zihuatanejo on 18 June. Mexico reported its worst damage in eight years, with losses in the thousands of dollars and no deaths.

Ava and Bernice overlapped at the turn of July. Ava weakened to a depression within a day of naming, restrengthened and meandered south of Cabo San Lucas before dissipating on 5 July. Bernice drifted northeast and then east south of Puerto Angel for more than a week without reaching land. After an unnamed July system, only Claudia formed before late August, recurving harmlessly off the tip of Baja California.

Emily near California and Hazel at Mazatlán

Hurricane Emily formed on 30 August and became the season's first and only hurricane at 12 UTC on 31 August, when it reached its 80 kt peak. It weakened as it moved north and had fallen to a tropical depression by 3 September, three days before it reached Baja California. Emily raised concern in Southern California because the Navy's SEALAB II project was underway off La Jolla, and waves could have pushed the support ship Berkone off station. Isolated rainfall reached about an inch.

Tropical Storm Hazel grew from a disturbance southeast of Socorro Island, turned east-northeast and came ashore near Mazatlán on 26 September before becoming extratropical. Hazel killed six people in Mexico and left thousands homeless. The storm damaged Mazatlán's shrimp fleet, destroyed 55,000 acres of cotton, corn and sorghum in southern Sinaloa, and damaged or sank at least 50 boats. Damage reached $10 million in 1965 dollars, possibly more, which made Hazel the costliest storm of the year.

A skipped list and a retired name

Eastern Pacific storms then took names from four rotating lists. The year opened with the V and W names from list 2, and forecasters should have moved to the top of list 3 next. They returned to the A name of list 2 instead, which is why Ava through Hazel followed Wallie. The name Hazel was retired from eastern Pacific use after the season and replaced with Heather.