The 1977 season

Hurricane Dorothy (1977)

Hurricane Dorothy reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between September 26, 1977 and September 30, 1977, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Dorothy, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1977 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
September 26, 1977 to September 30, 1977
Peak strength
Category 1, 75 kt (86 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 130 km (81 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.4
Fastest the center moved
30 kt (35 mph)
Identifier
AL101977

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
Sep 26, 18:0028.5N 71.5W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Sep 27, 00:0029.5N 69.8W20 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Sep 27, 06:0030.2N 67.9W30 kt1005 mbTropical depression
Sep 27, 12:0030.9N 65.8W40 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 27, 18:0031.9N 63.6W45 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 28, 00:0033.2N 61.8W50 kt996 mbTropical storm
Sep 28, 06:0034.4N 60.8W60 kt992 mbTropical storm
Sep 28, 12:0035.5N 59.7W65 kt988 mbHurricane
Sep 28, 18:0037.0N 58.8W70 kt984 mbHurricane
Sep 29, 00:0038.3N 57.0W75 kt980 mbHurricane
Sep 29, 06:0040.0N 55.5W70 kt984 mbHurricane
Sep 29, 12:0042.0N 54.0W65 kt988 mbHurricane
Sep 29, 18:0044.5N 53.0W60 kt990 mbExtratropical
Sep 30, 00:0047.0N 51.0W50 kt995 mbExtratropical
Sep 30, 06:0049.5N 48.5W45 kt1000 mbExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1977

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.