Near the end of the year, Hester became a Category 5 typhoon on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale south of Guam.

Hester was first tracked by the JTWC and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) at 1800 UTC of December 27, 1952.

[2] JMA downgraded the system to a tropical depression at 1200 UTC of January 5, and declared it extratropical twelve hours later.

[4] Due to the storm, a Pan American flight flew directly from Wake Island to Manila instead of stopping at Guam.

[6] The northwest quadrant of Hester passed over Enewetak at 5:13 p.m in Marshall Islands Time (5:13 a.m UTC) on December 28, 1952.

[9] The nearby atoll of Ujelang, received stronger winds than Enewetak, as it was closer to the center of Hester.

[7] Hester passed south of Guam by 130 miles (210 km), and no damage to military facilities were reported.

[10] The only damage reported were crops being lashed by the waves on the south side of the island,[8] and a new section of highway near Ylig River was washed away.

Two shore wave recorders installed by the University of California, Berkeley, located in Tarague Beach and Ylig River, were destroyed.