The 1976 season

Tropical Storm Dottie (1976)

Tropical Storm Dottie peaked at 45 kt in the North Atlantic between August 18, 1976 and August 21, 1976, with a lowest pressure of 996 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Dottie, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1976 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
August 18, 1976 to August 21, 1976
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
996 mb (29.41 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.0
Fastest the center moved
22 kt (25 mph)
Identifier
AL081976

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.

Rainfall

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 457 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 10.68 inches (271 mm).

StationTotalPosition
FORT LAUDERDALE10.68 in (271 mm)26.10N 80.20W
FORT LAUDERDALE EXPERIMENT ST9.18 in (233 mm)26.08N 80.25W
MIAMI 12 SSW8.35 in (212 mm)25.65N 80.30W
TAMIAMI TRAIL 40 MI BEND7.82 in (199 mm)25.77N 80.82W
SOUTHPORT 5 N7.35 in (187 mm)34.00N 78.02W
ROYAL PALM RANGER STN7.29 in (185 mm)25.38N 80.60W
KEY WEST NAS5.63 in (143 mm)24.58N 81.68W
FORT MYERS PAGE FIELD5.58 in (142 mm)26.58N 81.87W
FLAMINGO RANGER STA5.32 in (135 mm)25.15N 80.92W
HOMESTEAD EXP STN5.17 in (131 mm)25.50N 80.50W
MIAMI INTL AP5.11 in (130 mm)25.78N 80.32W
TAVERNIER4.83 in (123 mm)25.00N 80.52W

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Aug 18, 00:0026.0N 84.0W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 18, 06:0025.3N 83.3W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 18, 12:0024.7N 82.7W20 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 18, 18:0024.5N 82.5W20 ktTropical depression
Aug 19, 00:0024.6N 82.2W25 ktTropical depression
Aug 19, 06:0024.8N 82.0W30 kt1003 mbTropical depression
Aug 19, 12:0025.0N 81.7W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Aug 19, 18:0026.6N 80.1W35 kt1006 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 00:0028.2N 80.0W40 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 06:0029.6N 80.0W45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 12:0030.6N 80.0W40 kt999 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 18:0032.0N 80.0W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Aug 21, 00:0033.0N 80.0W35 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Aug 21, 06:0033.3N 80.0W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 21, 12:0033.5N 80.0W20 kt1015 mbTropical depression

Other North Atlantic 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.

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