The 1866 season

Unnamed hurricane (1866)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between September 17, 1866 and September 22, 1866.

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
September 17, 1866 to September 22, 1866
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1037 km (644 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.5
Identifier
AL041866

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
Sep 17, 00:0012.1N 26.7WTropical storm
Sep 17, 06:0012.4N 27.0WTropical storm
Sep 17, 12:0012.7N 27.3WTropical storm
Sep 17, 18:0013.3N 27.6WTropical storm
Sep 18, 00:0013.8N 27.9WTropical storm
Sep 18, 06:0014.3N 28.2WTropical storm
Sep 18, 12:0015.0N 29.5W70 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 18:0015.3N 29.2WTropical storm
Sep 19, 00:0015.8N 29.9WTropical storm
Sep 19, 06:0016.3N 30.7WTropical storm
Sep 19, 12:0016.8N 31.3WTropical storm
Sep 19, 18:0017.8N 32.3WTropical storm
Sep 20, 00:0018.8N 33.3WTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0019.8N 34.3WTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0020.8N 35.3WTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0021.6N 35.7WTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0022.3N 36.0WTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0022.9N 35.1WTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0023.5N 34.2WTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0024.1N 33.3WTropical storm
Sep 22, 00:0024.7N 32.4WTropical 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.