The 1862 season

Unnamed hurricane (1862)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 2 in the North Atlantic between August 16, 1862 and August 21, 1862, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1862 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 16, 1862 to August 21, 1862
Peak strength
Category 2, 90 kt (104 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
10.0
Identifier
AL021862

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 16, 18:0023.9N 65.6WTropical storm
Aug 17, 00:0024.7N 66.6WTropical storm
Aug 17, 06:0025.4N 67.6WTropical storm
Aug 17, 12:0026.1N 68.6WTropical storm
Aug 17, 18:0027.3N 69.6WTropical storm
Aug 18, 00:0028.8N 71.5W90 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 06:0030.1N 71.5W90 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 12:0031.4N 71.4W90 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 18:0032.7N 71.3W90 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 00:0034.0N 70.6W90 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 06:0034.9N 70.0W90 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 12:0035.8N 68.8W90 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 18:0037.0N 67.1W90 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 00:0038.5N 64.6W90 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 06:0039.7N 62.5W90 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 12:0041.0N 60.0W80 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 18:0042.5N 57.0W80 ktHurricane
Aug 21, 00:0044.5N 53.0W80 ktHurricane
Aug 21, 06:0048.5N 53.2WExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1862

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.