Unnamed tropical storm (1887)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 50 kt in the North Atlantic between May 17, 1887 and May 21, 1887, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1887 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: May 17, 1887 to May 21, 1887
Peak strength: Tropical Storm, 50 kt (58 mph)
Landfall: Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy: 3.8
Identifier: AL021887

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)	Position	Wind	Status
May 17, 00:00	15.6N 76.9W	35 kt	Tropical storm
May 17, 06:00	16.0N 77.2W	35 kt	Tropical storm
May 17, 12:00	16.5N 77.5W	40 kt	Tropical storm
May 17, 18:00	17.1N 77.9W	40 kt	Tropical storm
May 18, 00:00	17.7N 78.3W	45 kt	Tropical storm
May 18, 06:00	18.3N 78.6W	45 kt	Tropical storm
May 18, 12:00	18.9N 78.7W	50 kt	Tropical storm
May 18, 18:00	19.5N 78.7W	50 kt	Tropical storm
May 19, 00:00	20.3N 78.4W	50 kt	Tropical storm
May 19, 06:00	21.3N 78.0W	40 kt	Tropical storm
May 19, 12:00	22.0N 77.5W	35 kt	Tropical storm
May 19, 18:00	22.6N 77.0W	35 kt	Tropical storm
May 20, 00:00	23.2N 76.5W	40 kt	Tropical storm
May 20, 06:00	23.6N 75.8W	45 kt	Tropical storm
May 20, 12:00	24.0N 74.8W	45 kt	Tropical storm
May 20, 18:00	24.5N 73.8W	50 kt	Tropical storm
May 21, 00:00	25.2N 72.8W	50 kt	Tropical storm
May 21, 06:00	26.1N 71.8W	50 kt	Tropical storm
May 21, 12:00	27.1N 70.8W	45 kt	Tropical storm
May 21, 18:00	28.2N 70.3W	35 kt	Tropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1887

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.