User:Cuivienen/Hurricane Emmy (1976)
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| Category 2 hurricane (SSHS) | ||
|---|---|---|
 Hurricane Emmy seen from a Hurricane Hunter aircraft |
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| Formed | August 21, 1976 | |
| Dissipated | September 4, 1976 | |
| Highest winds |
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| Lowest pressure | 974 mbar (hPa) | |
| Damage | Minimal | |
| Fatalities | 68 indirect | |
| Areas affected |
Azores | |
| Part of the 1976 Atlantic hurricane season |
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Hurricane Emmy was the deadliest storm of the 1976 Atlantic hurricane season. It caused 68 deaths when a Venezuelan Air Force plane carrying a school choir to Europe crash-landed at the United States' Lajes Air Base on Terceira Island in the Azores during the storm.
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[edit] Storm history
Emmy formed from a tropical disturbance that left the coast of Africa between 15 August and 16 August. The disturbance was slow to organize, but began forming a tropical depression between 19 August and 20 August approximately 1000 miles east of the Windward Islands.[1] The system was investigated by a reconnaisance aircraft on 21 August, at which point the formation of a tropical depression was officially declared, though the system, with maximum sustained winds of 25 miles per hour (35 km/h) and a minimum central pressue of 1012 millibar (hPa) was exceptionally weak for a tropical depression.[1] The depression gradually strengthened as it moved to the west-northwest and was classified as tropical storm and named Emmy on 22 August.[1]
[edit] Impact
Despite the 68 casualties caused by Emmy, the name was not retired. However, when lists using male names were introduced before the 1979 season, the name Emmy was not included in any new list and has not been used since.
