The 1870 season

Unnamed hurricane (1870)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between September 17, 1870 and September 20, 1870, with a lowest pressure of 969 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1870 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
September 17, 1870 to September 20, 1870
Peak strength
Category 1, 80 kt (92 mph)
Lowest pressure
969 mb (28.61 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 227 km (141 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
7.4
Identifier
AL051870

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, 00:0030.2N 68.1W80 ktHurricane
Sep 17, 06:0031.0N 68.6W80 ktHurricane
Sep 17, 12:0031.9N 69.0W80 ktHurricane
Sep 17, 18:0033.0N 69.5W80 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 00:0034.3N 69.8W80 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 06:0035.9N 69.5W80 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 12:0037.3N 69.0W80 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 18:0039.3N 67.1W80 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 00:0040.8N 64.1W80 kt969 mbHurricane
Sep 19, 06:0041.8N 60.9W80 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 12:0042.8N 57.4W70 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 18:0044.5N 53.0W70 ktHurricane
Sep 20, 00:0047.0N 47.7W70 ktExtratropical
Sep 20, 06:0049.5N 41.9W70 ktExtratropical
Sep 20, 12:0052.1N 37.0W70 ktExtratropical
Sep 20, 18:0055.0N 33.7W70 ktExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1870

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.