| 1972 Pacific hurricane season | |
|---|---|
 Season summary map | |
| Seasonal boundaries | |
| First system formed | June 1, 1972 |
| Last system dissipated | November 20, 1972 |
| Strongest storm | |
| Name | Celeste |
| • Maximum winds | 130 mph (215 km/h) (1-minute sustained) |
| • Lowest pressure | 940 mbar (hPa; 27.76 inHg) |
| Seasonal statistics | |
| Total depressions | 20 |
| Total storms | 14 |
| Hurricanes | 9 |
| Major hurricanes (Cat. 3+) | 4 |
| Total fatalities | 1 |
| Total damage | At least $75,000 (1972 USD) |
| Related articles | |
The 1972 Pacific hurricane season was an ongoing event in tropical cyclone meteorology. There were few notable storms this year. Only one person was killed and storm effects were almost not serious at all. The most notable systems were Hurricane Celeste and Joanne. Celeste was the strongest storm of the season, and caused heavy damage to Johnston Atoll. Hurricane Joanne brought gale-force winds to the Continental United States and caused flooding in Arizona and northern Mexico, which killed one person. The only other system to directly impact land was Hurricane Annette.
The season began on May 15, 1972, in the east Pacific, and on June 1, 1972, in the central Pacific. It ended on November 30, 1972. These dates conventionally delimit the period of time when tropical cyclones form in the east Pacific Ocean. This season had a below average number of storms. There were twenty tropical cyclones, four of which were in the central Pacific. Of those, four were tropical storms, eight were hurricanes, and four were major hurricanes that reached Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. In the central Pacific, two tropical storms and two tropical depressions formed. One of the depressions and one of the storms crossed the International Date Line to become typhoons in the 1972 Pacific typhoon season.