The 1881 season

Unnamed hurricane (1881)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between August 16, 1881 and August 22, 1881, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Unnamed hurricane. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

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Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
August 16, 1881 to August 22, 1881
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
6.7
Identifier
AL041881

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 16, 00:0020.2N 87.0W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 16, 06:0021.1N 86.3W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 16, 12:0022.0N 85.5W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 16, 18:0022.9N 84.5W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 17, 00:0023.5N 83.1W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 17, 06:0024.0N 81.8W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 17, 12:0024.5N 80.5W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 17, 18:0025.7N 78.6W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 00:0027.0N 76.6W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 06:0028.3N 75.1W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 12:0029.5N 74.0W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 18, 18:0030.6N 72.9W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 00:0031.8N 71.8W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 06:0033.2N 70.6W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 19, 12:0034.5N 69.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 18:0035.8N 68.1W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 00:0037.0N 66.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 06:0038.3N 64.8W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 12:0039.3N 63.3W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 18:0040.0N 61.3W70 ktHurricane
Aug 21, 00:0041.0N 59.0W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 06:0041.8N 56.7W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 12:0042.5N 54.5W60 ktExtratropical
Aug 21, 18:0043.0N 51.5W60 ktExtratropical
Aug 22, 00:0045.8N 48.7WExtratropical
Aug 22, 06:0047.4N 45.8WExtratropical
Aug 22, 12:0049.0N 43.0WExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1881

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.