Track map & timeline · Eastern Pacific · September 9–17, 1966
TD TS Cat 1 2 3 4 5 · dashed = post-tropical / remnant low. Click any point or table row to jump there.
01 · The story
Hurricane Helga (1966) was a Category 1 hurricane of the 1966 Eastern Pacific season. It formed on September 9, 1966, 317 mi SW of Ciudad Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán, Mexico, reached its peak of 86 mph (139 km/h) on September 12, 1966, and never made landfall. It rapidly intensified by 34 mph in 24 hours (to 86 mph on September 12, 1966). The storm lasted 8.0 days and travelled about 1,808 miles (2,908 km).
02 · Intensity
03 · Impact
| City | Distance to center | When (UTC) | Storm strength then |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico | direct hit | Sep 16 · 15:00 UTC | TD 29 mph |
| Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico | 71 mi | Sep 17 · 12:00 UTC | TD 29 mph |
Distance from the city to the storm’s center, interpolated hourly between official fixes. Damaging winds, surge and rain reach far beyond the center.
04 · Timeline
| Date · UTC | Status | Wind | Pressure | Position | Nearest place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 9 12:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 14.4°N 105.2°W | open ocean |
| Sep 9 18:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 14.3°N 106.3°W | open ocean |
| Sep 10 00:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 14.4°N 107.3°W | open ocean |
| Sep 10 06:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 14.7°N 108.1°W | open ocean |
| Sep 10 12:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 15.0°N 108.8°W | open ocean |
| Sep 10 18:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 15.4°N 109.5°W | open ocean |
| Sep 11 00:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 15.8°N 110.2°W | open ocean |
| Sep 11 06:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 16.0°N 111.0°W | open ocean |
| Sep 11 12:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 16.2°N 111.9°W | open ocean |
| Sep 11 18:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 16.9°N 112.9°W | open ocean |
| Sep 12 00:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 17.7°N 113.9°W | open ocean |
| Sep 12 06:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 18.3°N 114.6°W | open ocean |
| Sep 12 12:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 19.0°N 115.3°W | open ocean |
| Sep 12 18:00 | Cat 1 | 86 mph | — | 19.8°N 115.8°W | open ocean |
| Sep 13 00:00 | Cat 1 | 86 mph | — | 20.6°N 116.1°W | open ocean |
| Sep 13 06:00 | Cat 1 | 86 mph | — | 21.5°N 116.3°W | open ocean |
| Sep 13 12:00 | Cat 1 | 86 mph | — | 22.5°N 116.3°W | open ocean |
| Sep 13 18:00 | Cat 1 | 86 mph | — | 23.3°N 116.3°W | open ocean |
| Sep 14 00:00 | Cat 1 | 86 mph | — | 24.1°N 116.2°W | open ocean |
| Sep 14 06:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 24.6°N 116.1°W | open ocean |
| Sep 14 12:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 25.0°N 115.9°W | open ocean |
| Sep 14 18:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 25.6°N 115.5°W | 186 mi SSW of Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| Sep 15 00:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 26.1°N 114.9°W | 139 mi SSW of Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| Sep 15 06:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 26.4°N 114.0°W | 108 mi S of Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| Sep 15 12:00 | TS | 52 mph | — | 26.7°N 113.0°W | 63 mi SW of Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| Sep 15 18:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 26.8°N 112.4°W | 38 mi SSW of Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| Sep 16 00:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 27.0°N 111.7°W | 42 mi SE of Santa Rosalía, Baja California Sur, Mexico |
| Sep 16 06:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 27.2°N 111.0°W | 50 mi S of Heroica Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico |
| Sep 16 12:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 27.3°N 110.3°W | 17 mi WSW of Pueblo Yaqui, Sonora, Mexico |
| Sep 16 18:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 27.5°N 109.4°W | 30 mi N of Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico |
| Sep 17 00:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 27.8°N 108.6°W | 62 mi W of San Juanito, Chihuahua, Mexico |
| Sep 17 06:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 27.9°N 107.8°W | 13 mi WSW of San Juanito, Chihuahua, Mexico |
| Sep 17 12:00 | TD | 29 mph | — | 28.0°N 107.0°W | 29 mi SSW of Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico |
⬇ Download track data (CSV) · public-domain NOAA best track
Questions
No — the NOAA best-track record shows no landfall for Helga. Its closest approach to a major city was 8 miles from Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico.
At its peak on September 12, 1966, Helga was a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 86 mph (139 km/h).
8.0 days, from September 9, 1966 to September 17, 1966, including 36 hours at hurricane strength. It travelled about 1,808 miles.
The 6-hourly positions, winds, pressure and wind radii are available as CSV on this page (track.csv) — they come from the NOAA National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 database and are in the public domain.
This site was built by Digital Dynamics Kft.
This archive is our own work, built from openly available data — the NOAA best-track records, the replay engine, the wind-field rendering and the map tiles served from our own servers in the European Union. If your business generates data — measurements, machines, orders, customers — we are happy to turn it into a clear, interactive interface.
But this is not all we build:
Or anything else that can be programmed — just get in touch.
See our work → or write: info@digitaldynamics.hu