The 1856 season

Unnamed hurricane (1856)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between August 12, 1856 and August 16, 1856.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1856 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
August 12, 1856 to August 16, 1856
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 84 km (52 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
3.9
Identifier
AL021856

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
Aug 12, 18:0010.8N 52.5WTropical storm
Aug 13, 00:0012.1N 56.1W70 ktHurricane
Aug 13, 06:0012.1N 57.3W70 ktHurricane
Aug 13, 12:0012.1N 58.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 13, 18:0012.1N 60.1W70 ktHurricane
Aug 14, 00:0012.1N 61.8W70 ktHurricane
Aug 14, 06:0012.1N 63.2W70 ktHurricane
Aug 14, 12:0012.1N 64.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 14, 18:0012.1N 65.6W70 ktHurricane
Aug 15, 00:0015.5N 70.4WTropical storm
Aug 15, 06:0016.2N 72.3WTropical storm
Aug 15, 12:0016.6N 73.9WTropical storm
Aug 15, 18:0017.0N 75.5WTropical storm
Aug 16, 00:0017.0N 77.5WTropical storm
Aug 16, 06:0017.0N 79.0WTropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1856

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.