The 1873 season

Unnamed hurricane (1873)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between September 12, 1873 and September 21, 1873, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1873 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 12, 1873 to September 21, 1873
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
5.4
Identifier
AL031873

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 12, 12:0013.0N 64.0WTropical storm
Sep 12, 18:0013.4N 65.2WTropical storm
Sep 13, 00:0013.7N 66.3WTropical storm
Sep 13, 06:0014.0N 67.4WTropical storm
Sep 13, 12:0014.3N 68.5WTropical storm
Sep 13, 18:0014.7N 69.7WTropical storm
Sep 14, 00:0015.0N 70.9WTropical storm
Sep 14, 06:0015.3N 72.1WTropical storm
Sep 14, 12:0015.6N 73.2WTropical storm
Sep 14, 18:0015.9N 74.4WTropical storm
Sep 15, 00:0016.1N 75.5WTropical storm
Sep 15, 06:0016.3N 76.6WTropical storm
Sep 15, 12:0016.5N 77.7WTropical storm
Sep 15, 18:0017.0N 79.1WTropical storm
Sep 16, 00:0017.5N 80.5WTropical storm
Sep 16, 06:0018.0N 81.9WTropical storm
Sep 16, 12:0018.5N 83.2WTropical storm
Sep 16, 18:0019.3N 84.0WTropical storm
Sep 17, 00:0020.1N 84.7WTropical storm
Sep 17, 06:0020.9N 85.4WTropical storm
Sep 17, 12:0021.7N 86.1WTropical storm
Sep 17, 18:0022.6N 86.2WTropical storm
Sep 18, 00:0022.7N 89.9W70 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 06:0023.5N 89.9W70 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 12:0024.5N 89.6W70 ktHurricane
Sep 18, 18:0025.7N 88.9W70 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 00:0026.8N 87.8W70 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 06:0027.9N 86.6W70 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 12:0029.1N 85.1W70 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 15:00 landfall29.9N 84.4W70 ktHurricane
Sep 19, 18:0030.7N 83.4W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 00:0032.5N 80.6W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0033.5N 77.8W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0034.2N 74.5W70 ktHurricane
Sep 20, 18:0034.5N 70.3W70 ktHurricane
Sep 21, 00:0039.1N 66.1WTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0042.0N 59.9WTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0044.8N 54.4WTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0047.8N 49.0WExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1873

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.