The 1956 season

Tropical Storm Ethel (1956)

Tropical Storm Ethel peaked at 50 kt in the North Atlantic between September 11, 1956 and September 14, 1956, with a lowest pressure of 999 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Ethel, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1956 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

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The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
September 11, 1956 to September 14, 1956
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Lowest pressure
999 mb (29.50 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 229 km (142 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.2
Identifier
AL061956

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Sep 11, 18:0023.5N 75.7W25 ktTropical depression
Sep 12, 00:0024.0N 75.5W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 12, 06:0024.8N 74.9W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 12, 12:0025.7N 74.1W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 12, 18:0026.6N 73.2W50 kt999 mbTropical storm
Sep 13, 00:0027.3N 72.7W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 13, 06:0027.8N 72.3W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 13, 12:0028.2N 72.0W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 13, 18:0028.6N 71.8W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 14, 00:0029.0N 71.7W30 ktTropical depression
Sep 14, 06:0029.4N 71.7W25 ktTropical depression

Other North Atlantic storms of 1956

What this means

A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Sources

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.