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. Timeline The season began from the formation of the pre-Annette tropical depression on June 1, and ended with Tropical Storm Liza losing its circulation on November 15. This is a span of 167 days. In the eastern north Pacific, one storm formed in May, one each in June and July, six in August, two in September, and one in November. In the central north Pacific, one storm formed in each of September and November. This season is tied with the 1977 and 1996 seasons for fewest tropical storms to form in July. It also shares the record for busiest November in the central Pacific with the 1982 season. Systems Of this season's fourteen named tropical cyclones, twelve formed in the eastern Pacific and two in the central. Both central Pacific tropical cyclones were tropical storms. Of the eastern Pacific systems, four were tropical storms and eight were hurricanes. Of those eight hurricanes, four were major hurricanes because they peaked as Category 3 or higher on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale. Although these totals are below the modern long-term averages of fifteen named storms, nine hurricanes,