The 1870 season

Unnamed hurricane (1870)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 2 in the North Atlantic between October 17, 1870 and October 22, 1870, and made landfall.

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
October 17, 1870 to October 22, 1870
Peak strength
Category 2, 90 kt (104 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
9.8
Identifier
AL091870

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
Oct 17, 00:0015.1N 81.3WTropical storm
Oct 17, 06:0015.6N 81.9WTropical storm
Oct 17, 12:0016.0N 82.5WTropical storm
Oct 17, 18:0016.5N 83.1WTropical storm
Oct 18, 00:0016.9N 83.7WTropical storm
Oct 18, 06:0017.4N 84.3WTropical storm
Oct 18, 12:0017.8N 84.8WTropical storm
Oct 18, 18:0018.4N 85.1WTropical storm
Oct 19, 00:0019.5N 84.1W90 ktHurricane
Oct 19, 06:0019.9N 84.0W90 ktHurricane
Oct 19, 12:0020.4N 84.0W90 ktHurricane
Oct 19, 18:0021.1N 83.9W90 ktHurricane
Oct 20, 00:0022.0N 83.7W90 ktHurricane
Oct 20, 06:0023.1N 83.5W80 ktHurricane
Oct 20, 12:0024.3N 83.1W80 ktHurricane
Oct 20, 14:00 landfall24.7N 82.8W80 ktHurricane
Oct 20, 18:0025.5N 82.3W80 ktHurricane
Oct 20, 20:00 landfall26.0N 81.8W80 ktHurricane
Oct 21, 00:0026.7N 81.1W70 ktHurricane
Oct 21, 06:0027.9N 79.7W60 ktTropical storm
Oct 21, 12:0029.1N 78.1W70 ktHurricane
Oct 21, 18:0030.3N 76.6W70 ktHurricane
Oct 22, 00:0031.4N 75.4W70 ktHurricane
Oct 22, 06:0032.5N 74.0W70 ktHurricane
Oct 22, 12:0033.5N 72.6W70 ktHurricane
Oct 22, 18:0034.5N 71.1W70 ktHurricane

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.