The 1966 season

Cyclone Nellie (1966)

Cyclone Nellie reached Category 1 in the South Indian between March 21, 1966 and March 28, 1966, with a lowest pressure of 987 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Cyclone Nellie, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1966 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
South Indian
Dates
March 21, 1966 to March 28, 1966
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Lowest pressure
987 mb (29.15 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 675 km (419 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.1
Identifier
SH321966

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
Mar 21, 06:0010.0S 99.3E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 21, 12:0010.0S 97.3E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 21, 18:0010.4S 95.4E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 22, 00:0011.0S 93.6E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 22, 06:0011.6S 92.5E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 22, 12:0012.5S 92.0E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 22, 18:0013.1S 91.3E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 23, 00:0013.6S 90.5E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 23, 06:0014.2S 89.9E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 23, 12:0014.7S 89.7E60 ktTropical storm
Mar 23, 18:0015.3S 89.8E70 ktTropical storm
Mar 24, 00:0015.8S 90.0E40 ktTropical storm
Mar 24, 06:0016.4S 90.2E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 24, 12:0017.1S 90.4E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 24, 18:0017.8S 90.7E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 25, 00:0018.5S 91.1E20 ktTropical storm
Mar 25, 06:0019.2S 91.6E20 ktTropical storm
Mar 25, 12:0019.7S 92.1E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 25, 18:0020.3S 92.6E10 ktTropical storm
Mar 26, 00:0020.9S 93.2E30 ktTropical storm
Mar 26, 06:0021.8S 94.1E35 ktTropical storm
Mar 26, 12:0022.8S 95.7E30 ktTropical storm
Mar 26, 18:0023.8S 97.2E25 ktTropical storm
Mar 27, 00:0024.8S 98.4E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 27, 06:0025.8S 99.5E10 ktTropical storm
Mar 27, 12:0026.8S 100.1E15 ktTropical storm
Mar 27, 18:0027.7S 100.3ETropical storm
Mar 28, 00:0028.7S 100.8ETropical storm

Other South Indian storms of 1966

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.