Tropical Storm Elsa (1976)

Basin

South Pacific

Dates

January 20, 1976 to January 26, 1976

Peak strength

Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph), ten-minute wind

Lowest pressure

980 mb (28.94 inHg)

Landfall

Yes

Accumulated cyclone energy

2.5

Identifier

SH121976

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.

• Unnamed tropical depressionSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Depression
• Tropical Depression CharlotteSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Depression
• Tropical Storm KimSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Storm45 kt · 990 mb
• Cyclone DavidSouth Pacific · 1976Cyclone85 kt · 955 mb
• Tropical Storm AlanSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Storm35 kt · 989 mb
• Cyclone FrancesSouth Pacific · 1976Cyclone70 kt · 965 mb
• Cyclone BethSouth Pacific · 1976Cyclone70 kt · 972 mb
• Cyclone ColinSouth Pacific · 1976Cyclone90 kt · 954 mb
• Tropical Storm DawnSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Storm50 kt · 988 mb
• Tropical Storm HopeSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Storm40 kt · 990 mb
• Tropical Depression GeorgeSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Depression
• Tropical Storm JanSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Storm55 kt · 980 mb
• Cyclone WatoreaSouth Pacific · 1976Cyclone90 kt · 970 mb
• Tropical Depression WatoreaSouth Pacific · 1976Tropical Depression

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. This storm’s winds are ten-minute averages from its regional agency. They read about 12 percent lower than the one-minute winds US agencies use, so a Saffir-Simpson category is not given for it.

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.