The 1888 season

Unnamed hurricane (1888)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 3 in the North Atlantic between August 14, 1888 and August 24, 1888, and made landfall. It killed 12 people, as Wikidata records it.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1888 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

Open the live map with storms, cones and warnings

The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
August 14, 1888 to August 24, 1888
Peak strength
Category 3, 110 kt (127 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
19.1
Fastest the center moved
39 kt (45 mph)
Identifier
AL031888

Deaths and damage

The sources count different things and are not added together.

Wikidata

12 deathsno damage figure

A community-maintained total, usually direct and indirect deaths together and damage worldwide. Joined to this storm by its IBTrACS serial, not by name.

Landfalls

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Aug 16, 19:00Miami Beach, FL, 3 km away25.8N 80.1W110 kt (127 mph)
Aug 19, 16:00Dulac, LA, 32 km away29.1N 90.7W95 kt (109 mph)

Landfall points the US agencies flagged in the best track. The nearest town is named from the site’s gazetteer, not from the report.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Aug 14, 12:0023.0N 71.0W35 ktTropical storm
Aug 14, 18:0023.3N 72.1W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 15, 00:0023.8N 73.4W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 15, 06:0024.1N 74.5W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 15, 12:0024.3N 75.5W70 ktHurricane
Aug 15, 18:0024.6N 76.5W80 ktHurricane
Aug 16, 00:0024.8N 77.4W90 ktHurricane
Aug 16, 06:0025.1N 78.2W100 ktHurricane
Aug 16, 12:0025.3N 79.0W110 ktHurricane
Aug 16, 18:0025.7N 79.9W110 ktHurricane
Aug 16, 19:00 landfall25.8N 80.1W110 ktHurricane
Aug 17, 00:0026.2N 80.9W85 ktHurricane
Aug 17, 06:0026.6N 82.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 17, 12:0026.9N 83.3W80 ktHurricane
Aug 17, 18:0027.1N 84.7W90 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 00:0027.1N 86.2W95 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 06:0027.2N 87.6W95 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 12:0027.3N 88.6W95 ktHurricane
Aug 18, 18:0027.6N 89.4W95 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 00:0027.9N 90.0W95 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 06:0028.3N 90.4W95 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 12:0028.8N 90.6W95 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 16:00 landfall29.1N 90.7W95 ktHurricane
Aug 19, 18:0029.3N 90.8W85 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 00:0029.9N 90.9W75 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 06:0030.7N 91.0W70 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 12:0031.8N 91.0W65 ktHurricane
Aug 20, 18:0033.2N 90.8W60 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 00:0034.8N 90.1W55 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 06:0036.5N 87.8W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 12:0038.0N 85.0W45 ktTropical storm
Aug 21, 18:0039.3N 81.3W45 ktTropical storm
Aug 22, 00:0040.6N 76.5W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 22, 06:0041.9N 71.8W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 22, 12:0043.2N 68.1W50 ktExtratropical
Aug 22, 18:0044.7N 65.3W50 ktExtratropical
Aug 23, 00:0046.2N 62.8W50 ktExtratropical
Aug 23, 06:0047.7N 60.5W50 ktExtratropical
Aug 23, 12:0049.2N 59.0W45 ktExtratropical
Aug 23, 18:0050.6N 57.1W45 ktExtratropical
Aug 24, 00:0051.8N 55.8W40 ktExtratropical
Aug 24, 06:0053.0N 55.0W40 ktExtratropical
Aug 24, 12:0054.0N 54.0W35 ktExtratropical
Aug 24, 18:0055.2N 53.0W35 ktExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1888

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.