1960 U.S. Weather Bureau Hurricane Tracking Chart

An interesting c. 1960 chart devised by the U.S. Weather Bureau, forerunner to the National Weather Service. The map was created to track hurricanes through the Atlantic and Caribbean. The map is significant as part of a national effort to leverage the general public in weather recording and prediction.

A Closer Look

The map covers from Maine and Nova Scotia down the East Coast of the United States and to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, with cities, state and international borders, and countries labeled. Latitude and longitude lines are drawn at five-degree intervals, with dots noting the intervening degrees, forming a sort of grid helpful in locating a hurricane. The chart was meant to be used in conjunction with U.S.W.B. radio and television advisories and would allow the user to visualize the projected or actual path of a hurricane. Text appears below and to the right of the map, mostly consisting of warnings and guidelines for emergency preparedness and avoiding bodily harm during a hurricane.

Publication History and Census

This chart was issued by the U.S.W.B., most likely around the year 1960, when the bureau began distributing hurricane tracking charts to the public. We are unable to locate any other examples of this map in institutional collections or on the market. Similar types of maps were issued around the same time by insurance companies and other businesses using data and maps from the U.S.W.B. (for example, a 1946 'Hurricane Map,' previously sold by us as HurricaneMap-mcgregor-1946), but we do not locate any hurricane-related maps issued directly by the U.S.W.B. in the OCLC.