Storms of 1977

Clara | Dorothy | Evelyn

On September 5, 1977, a depression was located just north of Charleston, South Carolina. This depression drifted east-northeastward during the next 36 hours, slowly becoming better organized. The depression was located a short distance south of Cape Hatteras late on September 6 when it accelerated and began strengthening. Clara reached storm intensity by the 8^th while the centre was 370 kilometres east of Cape Hatteras. Hurricane Clara began weakening as it turned to the southeast and traversed a tight loop before accelerating northeastward.

Clara briefly threatened Bermuda on September 10 while a minimal tropical storm, but no gales were reported from the island. The storm was absorbed in an extratropical low pressure system on the 11^th several hundred kilometres northeast of Bermuda. There are no known casualties or damages in connection with Clara.

On the afternoon of September 25, 1977, a low pressure system developed within disturbed weather and became a tropical depression on the 26^th to the north of the Bahamas. The depression, by this time, was moving northeastward and it strengthened to become a tropical storm on the morning of the 27^th.

Dorothy reached hurricane force on the morning of the 28^th. Hurricane Dorothy had a maximum storm strength estimated at 980 millibars and maximum winds of 138 kilometres per hour (75 knots) on September 28. Tropical characteristics were lost as Dorothy moved over colder waters. The remnants were absorbed by a frontal low pressure system to the east of Newfoundland on September 30.

The only problems in connection with Dorothy were in the form of a threat to the North Atlantic shipping lanes.

Hurricane Evelyn had its origin as a tropical wave that interacted with an upper level cold low on October 12, 1977, in the southwest North Atlantic. By the 13^th, a depression had formed 740 kilometres south of Bermuda. The depression headed toward Bermuda, and early on the 14^th it was determined that Evelyn had become a tropical depression. After crossing Bermuda, Evelyn accelerated north-northeastward and was upgraded to a hurricane on the 15^th. Meanwhile, an intense non-tropical storm to the west was paralleling Evelyn’s track. Even after this front was merging with the storm, a ship reported 126 kilometres per hour (68 knots) winds near the southwest tip of Newfoundland on the 15^th.

The storm weakened rapidly as it crossed western Newfoundland, and no reports of damage or casualties were received.