The 1879 season

Unnamed hurricane (1879)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 2 in the North Atlantic between August 19, 1879 and August 26, 1879, with a lowest pressure of 964 mb, and made landfall.

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 19, 1879 to August 26, 1879
Peak strength
Category 2, 90 kt (104 mph)
Lowest pressure
964 mb (28.47 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
9.7
Identifier
AL031879

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 19, 00:0016.7N 81.1W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 06:0017.1N 82.1W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 12:0017.5N 83.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 18:0018.0N 84.1W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 20, 00:0018.5N 85.4W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 06:0019.1N 86.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 12:0019.7N 87.6W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 18:0020.2N 89.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 00:0021.0N 90.3W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 06:0022.0N 91.5W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 12:0023.0N 92.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 21, 18:0024.0N 93.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 22, 00:0025.0N 93.5W80 ktHurricane
Aug 22, 06:0026.1N 93.8W80 ktHurricane
Aug 22, 12:0027.1N 94.0W90 ktHurricane
Aug 22, 18:0028.1N 94.2W90 ktHurricane
Aug 23, 00:0029.3N 94.4W90 kt964 mbHurricane
Aug 23, 02:00 landfall29.6N 94.4W90 kt964 mbHurricane
Aug 23, 06:0030.8N 94.2W70 kt974 mbHurricane
Aug 23, 12:0032.3N 93.8W50 kt988 mbTropical storm
Aug 23, 18:0033.5N 93.3W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 24, 00:0034.4N 92.6W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 24, 06:0035.2N 91.6W30 ktTropical depression
Aug 24, 12:0036.0N 90.5W30 ktTropical depression
Aug 24, 18:0036.8N 88.6W30 ktTropical depression
Aug 25, 00:0036.3N 87.8WTropical storm
Aug 25, 06:0037.0N 86.5WTropical storm
Aug 25, 12:0037.2N 84.1WTropical storm
Aug 25, 18:0037.3N 81.7WExtratropical
Aug 26, 00:0037.4N 79.3WExtratropical
Aug 26, 06:0037.5N 76.8WExtratropical

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.