The 1976 season

Tropical Storm Clara (1976)

Tropical Storm Clara peaked at 40 kt in the Western Pacific between August 2, 1976 and August 8, 1976, with a lowest pressure of 985 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Clara. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
August 2, 1976 to August 8, 1976
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph)
Lowest pressure
985 mb (29.09 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.7
Identifier
WP141976

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
Aug 2, 00:0015.0N 118.0E15 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 06:0015.6N 117.7E15 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 12:0016.0N 117.4E15 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 2, 18:0016.2N 116.9E15 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 3, 00:0016.5N 116.5E20 kt1004 mbMixed
Aug 3, 06:0017.0N 116.1E20 kt1004 mbMixed
Aug 3, 12:0017.5N 115.8E20 kt1004 mbMixed
Aug 3, 18:0018.0N 115.5E25 kt1002 mbMixed
Aug 4, 00:0018.5N 115.2E30 kt1002 mbMixed
Aug 4, 06:0018.8N 114.8E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 12:0019.0N 114.3E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 4, 18:0019.1N 114.1E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 00:0019.3N 114.0E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 06:0019.6N 114.1E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 12:0019.9N 114.2E30 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 5, 18:0020.2N 114.2E35 kt992 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 00:0020.5N 114.0E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 06:0020.9N 113.6E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 12:0021.5N 113.1E40 kt985 mbTropical storm
Aug 6, 18:0022.1N 112.3E35 kt990 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 00:0022.7N 111.1E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 7, 06:0023.0N 109.0E20 ktTropical storm
Aug 7, 12:0023.0N 107.0E15 ktMixed
Aug 7, 18:0022.2N 106.0E15 ktTropical storm
Aug 8, 00:0021.2N 105.0E15 ktTropical storm
Aug 8, 06:0020.9N 104.0E15 ktTropical storm
Aug 8, 12:0021.0N 103.0E10 ktTropical storm

Other Western Pacific storms of 1976

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.