The 1871 season

Unnamed tropical depression (1871)

Unnamed tropical depression peaked at unknown kt in the North Atlantic between October 15, 1871 and October 21, 1871, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical depression, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1871 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
October 15, 1871 to October 21, 1871
Peak strength
Tropical Depression
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
0.0
Identifier
1871289N15294

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 15, 18:0014.5N 65.7WTropical storm
Oct 16, 00:0015.5N 66.0WTropical storm
Oct 16, 06:0016.5N 66.3WTropical storm
Oct 16, 12:0017.5N 66.5WTropical storm
Oct 16, 18:0018.6N 66.7WTropical storm
Oct 17, 00:0019.6N 67.0WTropical storm
Oct 17, 06:0020.7N 67.3WTropical storm
Oct 17, 12:0021.7N 67.5WTropical storm
Oct 17, 18:0022.8N 67.8WTropical storm
Oct 18, 00:0023.8N 68.0WTropical storm
Oct 18, 06:0024.9N 68.3WTropical storm
Oct 18, 12:0025.9N 68.5WTropical storm
Oct 18, 18:0027.0N 68.7WTropical storm
Oct 19, 00:0028.2N 68.9WTropical storm
Oct 19, 06:0029.7N 68.9WTropical storm
Oct 19, 12:0031.2N 68.5WTropical storm
Oct 19, 18:0033.0N 67.6WTropical storm
Oct 20, 00:0034.8N 66.5WTropical storm
Oct 20, 06:0036.8N 64.0WTropical storm
Oct 20, 12:0039.0N 61.8WExtratropical
Oct 20, 18:0042.5N 57.5WExtratropical
Oct 21, 00:0045.0N 53.2WExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1871

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.