Which hurricane was the first to be observed by satellite in 1961?

The first hurricane to be observed by satellite in 1961 was Hurricane Esther. The storm became the first hurricane discovered through satellite imagery during the early years of weather observation from space.

On September 10, 1961, the Television Infrared Observation Satellite detected a concentrated area of thunderstorms southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Meteorologists recognized that the disturbance could develop into a tropical cyclone, and a tropical depression formed that day. Esther became a named storm on September 11 and reached hurricane strength soon afterward.

Esther later intensified into a major hurricane, reaching Category 3 strength on the modern Saffir–Simpson scale. It passed north of the Caribbean, brushed near Long Island and Nantucket, crossed Cape Cod, and made a final landfall near Rockland, Maine, on September 26.

The wording can be confusing: Esther was the first hurricane discovered by satellite imagery, not necessarily the first tropical cyclone ever photographed from space. Limited early satellite technology made imagery difficult to interpret, so aircraft reconnaissance still played an important role in confirming the storm’s development.