Unnamed tropical storm (1956)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 35 kt in the South Pacific between January 16, 1956 and January 17, 1956.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, 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: South Pacific
Dates: January 16, 1956 to January 17, 1956
Peak strength: Tropical Storm, 35 kt (40 mph)
Landfall: No; closest approach 509 km (316 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy: 0.2
Identifier: SH101956

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)	Position	Wind	Status
Jan 16, 00:00	18.0S 153.0E	10 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 16, 06:00	18.1S 153.1E	15 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 16, 12:00	18.2S 153.2E	20 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 16, 18:00	18.3S 153.3E	20 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 17, 00:00	18.5S 153.5E	25 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 17, 06:00	19.1S 154.1E	30 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 17, 12:00	19.6S 154.6E	35 kt	Tropical storm
Jan 17, 18:00	19.8S 154.8E	35 kt	Tropical storm

Other South Pacific 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.