La Manzanilla.info Message Board Archives

Re: 1959 hurricane

Posted by Bret B on October 2, 2014, 10:23 am, in reply to "1959 hurricane"
187.148.175.45

Hi Deanna, it's great to hear from you! You got me interested in digging into this one also. You're right that the official NHC track data shows the October 1959 hurricane coming ashore right in our bay halfway between La Manz and Boca as a Cat 5 hurricane with winds of 140 knots / 161 mph / 259 kph!

I can't believe that anyone of the few people that lived here back then could have survived those winds and the probable deadly storm surge. Also hard to believe is their data showing it maintained exactly the same wind speed and central pressure at its next recorded data point located almost all the way to Autlan! No way could it maintain its strength through all those mountains.

NHC data points from Unisys archives ( http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/1959/15/track.dat )

Chart ( http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/1959/15/track.gif )


I don't know how the NHC gets its data for these historical storms before satellites: ship reports and land-based reports I guess. I can't believe there was any reliable weather station closer than Manzanillo back then. That station recorded 155 mph winds according to the Wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Mexico_hurricane ), so it must have been within a few miles of the center at landfall.

I haven't been able to get any good stories yet from my few neighbors who were here in La Manz then. But I did dig up a detailed personal account from someone who was in Manzanillo during the storm. He describes what is possibly the eye of the hurricane passing over. From the Manzanillo historical archives (in Spanish): http://www.manzanillo.gob.mx/ayuntamiento/archivo_historico . Click on "Pasajes de la Historia". The last of these stories shows some photos of the damage and then this person's letter to his mother with his account: http://www.manzanillo.gob.mx/2009___component/archivo/pasaje18.htm

We might not ever know for sure, but I'm leaning toward a landfall closer to Manzanillo than La Manz...
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