1972 Pacific hurricane season

Few storms, long tracks

The current best track counts 14 named storms, 12 from the eastern Pacific and 2 from the central Pacific, with 8 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes in the east. The site's 9 hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes add Hurricane Ruby, which formed near the equator in the central Pacific in November and whose merged track peaks at 110 kt after it crossed the date line. Although the storm count ran below the modern average, accumulated cyclone energy reached 151.0, because so many hurricanes lasted a week or more. 1972 was, at the time, the busiest known season in the central north Pacific.

Hurricane Annette opened the year on 1 June, reached hurricane strength on 4 June and weakened to a tropical storm before it came ashore southeast of Manzanillo on 7 June. It brought days of rain and no reported deaths or damage. The basin then went quiet: only Tropical Storm Bonny formed in July, one of the fewest July totals of the satellite era.

Celeste and Johnston Atoll

Hurricane Celeste formed on 6 August, became a hurricane on 10 August and crossed into the central Pacific, where it peaked at 115 kt and 940 mb on 14 August. On 9 August, while Celeste was still young, the sailing vessel Regina Marina flooded and sent a distress call; a hurricane hunter spotted it and other ships towed it to safety, and two people aboard were treated for injuries.

Celeste passed close to Johnston Atoll and became the first recorded hurricane to hit the island. The station measured its highest sustained winds in thirteen years of records and, at the time, its lowest pressure. Roofs lost tiles, wind sandblasted most buildings, and the Program 437 anti-satellite system was destroyed. Evacuations meant no casualties. Celeste lasted 16.25 days, then a record for a Pacific hurricane, and the archive gives it 390 recorded hours.

An August parade toward Hawaii

A satellite image from 18 August caught Celeste, Diana, Estelle and Fernanda at once. Hurricane Diana crossed into the central Pacific heading for the islands and prompted a tropical storm warning before it weakened and turned northwest. It dropped up to 10 inches of rain northeast of Hilo, and surf at Vacationland on the Big Island swept four homes off their foundations. Damage to the worst-hit home reached $75,000 in 1972 dollars, excluding furnishings.

Hurricane Fernanda briefly reached major strength on 24 August and entered the central Pacific as a tropical storm, weakening north of Kauai on 1 September; a flash flood in the Kohala Mountains may have come from it. Hurricane Gwen peaked at 110 kt and 941 mb while paralleling the Mexican coast, and its surf reached California. Hurricane Hyacinth also reached 110 kt at the end of August, recurved and came ashore north of San Diego on 6 September as a nearly spent depression, the first California landfall since 1939.

Joanne carries gales into Arizona

Hurricane Joanne formed south of Mexico on 30 September and peaked at 85 kt on 2 October. It then slowed, recurved and came ashore near Laguna Chapala on the Baja California Peninsula as a tropical storm. Joanne kept a closed circulation across the Gulf of California and brought tropical storm force winds to Arizona, the first time on record. It dissipated over Sonora on 7 October.

Rain topped 5 inches on the Mogollon Rim and flooded areas around Clifton, Duncan and Safford. San Felipe recorded 9.45 inches, the highest total in Mexico. Joanne caused one indirect death: a young man in Phoenix was electrocuted when he tried to move a downed power line from his car.

A busy November near the date line

The central Pacific ended the year with a burst that tied its record for November. Hurricane Ruby formed close to the equator on 11 November, turned west, and became a typhoon just after crossing the date line, the first to do so since 1967. It peaked east of Taongi Atoll on 16 November. In the east, Tropical Storm Liza formed south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, moved east and degenerated within a day.