The 1879 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1879)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 50 kt in the North Atlantic between October 9, 1879 and October 16, 1879, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, 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
October 9, 1879 to October 16, 1879
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
6.8
Identifier
AL061879

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 9, 00:0014.2N 56.0W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 9, 06:0014.2N 57.2W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 9, 12:0014.3N 58.5W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 9, 18:0014.4N 59.9W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 10, 00:0014.6N 61.4W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 10, 06:0014.8N 63.2W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 10, 12:0015.0N 65.0W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 10, 18:0015.2N 66.4W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 11, 00:0015.4N 68.1W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 11, 06:0015.7N 70.0W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 11, 12:0016.0N 72.0W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 11, 18:0016.2N 73.6W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 12, 00:0016.7N 75.1W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 12, 06:0017.5N 76.8W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 12, 12:0018.1N 78.3W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 12, 18:0018.7N 79.3W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 13, 00:0019.2N 80.3W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 13, 06:0020.0N 81.1W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 13, 12:0020.4N 81.9W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 13, 18:0021.0N 82.6W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 14, 00:0021.7N 83.1W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 14, 06:0022.5N 83.5W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 14, 12:0023.2N 83.9W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 14, 18:0024.1N 84.1W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 15, 00:0024.9N 84.3W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 15, 06:0025.9N 84.5W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 15, 12:0026.8N 84.8W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 15, 18:0027.7N 85.1W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 16, 00:0028.7N 85.6W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 16, 06:0029.9N 86.4W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 16, 08:00 landfall30.4N 86.6W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 16, 12:0031.3N 87.1W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 16, 18:0033.0N 88.0W30 ktTropical depression

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.