The 1976 season

Cyclone Wally (1976)

Cyclone Wally peaked at 75 kt in the South Indian between February 22, 1976 and February 27, 1976, with a lowest pressure of 973 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Cyclone Wally, 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
South Indian
Dates
February 22, 1976 to February 27, 1976
Peak strength
Cyclone, 75 kt (86 mph), ten-minute wind
Lowest pressure
973 mb (28.73 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
SH161976

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
Feb 22, 12:0016.4S 125.0ETropical storm
Feb 22, 18:0016.4S 123.8ETropical storm
Feb 23, 00:0016.5S 122.8ETropical storm
Feb 23, 06:0016.7S 122.1ETropical storm
Feb 23, 12:0016.9S 121.4ETropical storm
Feb 23, 18:0016.9S 120.4ETropical storm
Feb 24, 00:0017.0S 119.4ETropical storm
Feb 24, 06:0017.4S 118.4ETropical storm
Feb 24, 12:0017.9S 117.4ETropical storm
Feb 24, 18:0018.4S 116.2ETropical storm
Feb 25, 00:0018.9S 115.0ETropical storm
Feb 25, 06:0019.7S 114.1ETropical storm
Feb 25, 12:0020.7S 113.3ETropical storm
Feb 25, 18:0021.7S 112.6ETropical storm
Feb 26, 00:0022.7S 112.2ETropical storm
Feb 26, 06:0023.7S 112.2ETropical storm
Feb 26, 12:0024.6S 112.4ETropical storm
Feb 26, 18:0025.7S 112.6ETropical storm
Feb 27, 00:0027.0S 112.9ETropical storm
Feb 27, 06:0028.5S 114.1ETropical storm
Feb 27, 12:0030.1S 116.2ETropical storm

Other South Indian 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.