The 1861 season

Unnamed hurricane (1861)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between November 1, 1861 and November 3, 1861, with a lowest pressure of 999 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed hurricane. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

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Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
November 1, 1861 to November 3, 1861
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Lowest pressure
999 mb (29.50 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
4.0
Identifier
AL081861

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
Nov 1, 06:0025.5N 82.1W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 1, 08:00 landfall26.0N 81.8W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 1, 12:0027.2N 81.1W50 ktTropical storm
Nov 1, 18:0029.2N 80.1W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 2, 00:0031.2N 78.6W70 ktHurricane
Nov 2, 06:0033.2N 77.3W70 ktHurricane
Nov 2, 10:00 landfall34.7N 76.6W70 ktHurricane
Nov 2, 12:0035.2N 76.3W70 ktHurricane
Nov 2, 18:0037.0N 75.0W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 3, 00:0038.7N 73.8W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 3, 06:0040.3N 72.8W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 3, 08:00 landfall41.0N 72.3W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 3, 09:00 landfall41.2N 72.0W60 ktTropical storm
Nov 3, 12:0042.0N 71.5W50 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Nov 3, 18:0044.0N 70.0W50 kt999 mbTropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1861

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.