The 1889 season

Unnamed hurricane (1889)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between May 15, 1889 and May 23, 1889, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1889 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 15, 1889 to May 23, 1889
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
5.9
Identifier
AL011889

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
May 15, 12:0019.0N 68.0WTropical storm
May 15, 18:0019.7N 68.3WTropical storm
May 16, 00:0020.4N 68.6WTropical storm
May 16, 06:0021.5N 64.1W35 ktTropical storm
May 16, 12:0021.7N 64.8W40 ktTropical storm
May 16, 18:0021.9N 65.2W40 ktTropical storm
May 17, 00:0022.1N 65.7W45 ktTropical storm
May 17, 06:0022.4N 66.3W50 ktTropical storm
May 17, 12:0022.8N 67.0W50 ktTropical storm
May 17, 18:0023.3N 67.8W50 ktTropical storm
May 18, 00:0023.9N 68.6W50 ktTropical storm
May 18, 06:0024.5N 69.5W50 ktTropical storm
May 18, 12:0025.3N 70.4W50 ktTropical storm
May 18, 18:0026.2N 71.4W50 ktTropical storm
May 19, 00:0027.3N 72.6W50 ktTropical storm
May 19, 06:0028.3N 73.8W50 ktTropical storm
May 19, 12:0029.2N 74.8W55 ktTropical storm
May 19, 18:0029.9N 75.4W55 ktTropical storm
May 20, 00:0030.5N 75.5W55 ktTropical storm
May 20, 06:0031.2N 75.3W60 ktTropical storm
May 20, 12:0031.9N 74.9W65 ktHurricane
May 20, 18:0032.8N 74.1W70 ktHurricane
May 21, 00:0033.7N 73.1W70 ktHurricane
May 21, 06:0034.6N 72.0W60 ktTropical storm
May 21, 12:0035.8N 70.8W55 ktExtratropical
May 21, 18:0037.1N 70.2W45 ktExtratropical
May 22, 00:0038.4N 69.8W35 ktExtratropical
May 22, 06:0040.0N 67.7WExtratropical
May 22, 12:0041.2N 66.3WExtratropical
May 22, 18:0042.9N 64.5WExtratropical
May 23, 00:0044.9N 62.5WExtratropical
May 23, 06:0047.0N 61.8WExtratropical
May 23, 12:0049.0N 61.2WExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1889

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.