The 1866 season

Unnamed hurricane (1866)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 2 in the North Atlantic between July 11, 1866 and July 16, 1866, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1866 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
July 11, 1866 to July 16, 1866
Peak strength
Category 2, 90 kt (104 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
14.3
Identifier
AL011866

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
Jul 11, 12:0028.0N 87.3W90 ktHurricane
Jul 11, 18:0028.0N 87.8W90 ktHurricane
Jul 12, 00:0028.0N 88.3W90 ktHurricane
Jul 12, 06:0028.0N 88.8W90 ktHurricane
Jul 12, 12:0028.1N 89.3W90 ktHurricane
Jul 12, 18:0028.1N 89.9W90 ktHurricane
Jul 13, 00:0028.1N 90.5W90 ktHurricane
Jul 13, 06:0028.1N 91.1W90 ktHurricane
Jul 13, 12:0028.2N 91.7W90 ktHurricane
Jul 13, 18:0028.2N 92.3W90 ktHurricane
Jul 14, 00:0028.2N 92.9W90 ktHurricane
Jul 14, 06:0028.2N 93.5W90 ktHurricane
Jul 14, 12:0028.3N 94.1W90 ktHurricane
Jul 14, 18:0028.3N 94.7W90 ktHurricane
Jul 15, 00:0028.4N 95.3W90 ktHurricane
Jul 15, 06:0028.5N 95.9W90 ktHurricane
Jul 15, 12:00 landfall28.5N 96.5W90 ktHurricane
Jul 15, 18:0028.6N 97.1W60 ktTropical storm
Jul 16, 00:0028.6N 97.7W40 ktTropical storm
Jul 16, 06:0031.0N 98.7WTropical storm
Jul 16, 12:0031.8N 99.3WTropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1866

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.