The 1976 season

Tropical Storm Hope (1976)

Tropical Storm Hope peaked at 40 kt in the South Pacific between March 9, 1976 and March 19, 1976, with a lowest pressure of 990 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Hope. 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
South Pacific
Dates
March 9, 1976 to March 19, 1976
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 40 kt (46 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
990 mb (29.23 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.6
Identifier
SH201976

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 9, 12:0013.0S 166.0ETropical storm
Mar 9, 18:0014.2S 166.4ETropical storm
Mar 10, 00:0015.4S 166.7ETropical storm
Mar 10, 06:0016.6S 166.8ETropical storm
Mar 10, 12:0017.8S 166.7ETropical storm
Mar 10, 18:0018.9S 166.2ETropical storm
Mar 11, 00:0020.0S 165.4E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 11, 06:0021.1S 164.5ETropical storm
Mar 11, 12:0022.3S 163.5E40 kt990 mbTropical storm
Mar 11, 18:0023.8S 162.8ETropical storm
Mar 12, 00:0025.0S 162.0ETropical storm
Mar 12, 06:0025.3S 160.7EMixed
Mar 12, 12:0025.3S 159.4E996 mbMixed
Mar 12, 18:0025.4S 158.1E996 mbMixed
Mar 13, 00:0025.4S 156.9E996 mbMixed
Mar 13, 06:0025.8S 156.8E996 mbMixed
Mar 13, 12:0025.9S 156.5E998 mbMixed
Mar 13, 18:0025.9S 156.3E998 mbMixed
Mar 14, 00:0026.0S 156.0E1000 mbMixed
Mar 14, 06:0026.9S 155.8E1000 mbMixed
Mar 14, 12:0028.2S 156.1E1000 mbMixed
Mar 14, 18:0029.8S 156.4E1002 mbMixed
Mar 15, 00:0031.0S 157.0E1002 mbMixed
Mar 15, 06:0031.2S 157.4E1000 mbMixed
Mar 15, 12:0031.1S 157.8E1000 mbMixed
Mar 15, 18:0031.1S 158.1E998 mbMixed
Mar 16, 00:0031.1S 158.5E998 mbMixed
Mar 16, 06:0031.1S 159.1E998 mbMixed
Mar 16, 12:0031.1S 159.7E998 mbMixed
Mar 16, 18:0031.3S 160.4EMixed
Mar 17, 00:0031.8S 161.0E40 kt990 mbMixed
Mar 17, 06:0032.5S 161.1EMixed
Mar 17, 12:0033.2S 160.8E40 kt990 mbMixed
Mar 17, 18:0033.8S 160.4EMixed
Mar 18, 00:0034.2S 159.9E1000 mbMixed
Mar 18, 06:0034.3S 159.7E1002 mbMixed
Mar 18, 12:0034.4S 159.4E1002 mbMixed
Mar 18, 18:0034.5S 159.2E1004 mbMixed
Mar 19, 00:0034.5S 159.0E1006 mbMixed

Other South 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. 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.

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.