The 1879 season

Unnamed hurricane (1879)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between August 8, 1879 and August 12, 1879.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1879 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
August 8, 1879 to August 12, 1879
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 243 km (151 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
5.5
Identifier
AL011879

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
Aug 8, 00:0031.0N 76.0WTropical storm
Aug 8, 06:0031.0N 76.0WTropical storm
Aug 8, 12:0031.1N 75.9WTropical storm
Aug 8, 18:0031.3N 75.8WTropical storm
Aug 9, 00:0031.5N 77.0W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 9, 06:0032.3N 75.9W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 9, 12:0033.0N 75.0W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 9, 18:0033.9N 73.9W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 10, 00:0034.8N 72.8W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 10, 06:0036.0N 71.3W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 10, 12:0037.0N 70.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 10, 18:0037.9N 68.8W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 11, 00:0039.0N 67.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 11, 06:0039.9N 66.1W70 ktHurricane
Aug 11, 12:0040.7N 65.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 11, 18:0041.7N 63.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 12, 00:0042.5N 61.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 12, 06:0043.2N 59.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 12, 12:0043.7N 57.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 12, 18:0044.0N 55.0W60 ktTropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1879

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.