The 1881 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1881)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 60 kt in the North Atlantic between September 18, 1881 and September 24, 1881.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1881 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 18, 1881 to September 24, 1881
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 60 kt (69 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 225 km (140 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
5.3
Identifier
AL071881

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 18, 00:0035.3N 68.0W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 06:0036.3N 68.0W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 12:0037.5N 67.5W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 18, 18:0038.3N 66.5W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 00:0039.2N 65.3W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 06:0040.3N 63.5W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 12:0041.0N 62.0W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 19, 18:0041.7N 60.2W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 00:0042.3N 58.8W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0043.0N 56.9W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0043.7N 55.0W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0044.4N 53.3W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0045.0N 51.2W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0045.8N 49.2W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0046.3N 47.5W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0046.9N 46.0W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 22, 00:0047.5N 44.0W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 22, 06:0048.0N 42.0W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 22, 12:0048.5N 40.3W50 ktExtratropical
Sep 22, 18:0049.0N 38.3W50 ktExtratropical
Sep 23, 00:0049.5N 36.0W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 23, 06:0050.3N 33.7W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 23, 12:0051.0N 31.5W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 23, 18:0051.6N 29.6W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 24, 00:0052.2N 27.5W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 24, 06:0052.8N 25.7W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 24, 12:0053.5N 23.5W40 ktExtratropical
Sep 24, 18:0054.0N 21.5W40 ktExtratropical

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.