The 1917 season

Unnamed hurricane (1917)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 4 in the North Atlantic between September 20, 1917 and September 30, 1917, with a lowest pressure of 928 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1917 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
September 20, 1917 to September 30, 1917
Peak strength
Category 4, 130 kt (150 mph)
Lowest pressure
928 mb (27.40 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
35.0
Fastest the center moved
19 kt (22 mph)
Identifier
AL041917

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.

Landfall

Time (UTC)WherePositionWindPressure
Sep 29, 02:00Fort Walton Beach, FL, 3 km away30.4N 86.6W100 kt (115 mph)949 mb

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
Sep 20, 00:0013.4N 57.1W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 06:0013.7N 58.3W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 12:0014.0N 59.5W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 20, 18:0014.3N 60.7W45 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 00:0014.7N 61.9W50 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 06:0015.1N 63.1W55 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 12:0015.5N 64.4W60 ktTropical storm
Sep 21, 18:0015.8N 66.1W65 ktHurricane
Sep 22, 00:0016.2N 67.9W70 ktHurricane
Sep 22, 06:0016.5N 69.9W75 ktHurricane
Sep 22, 12:0016.9N 71.6W80 ktHurricane
Sep 22, 18:0017.3N 73.1W85 ktHurricane
Sep 23, 00:0017.7N 74.5W85 ktHurricane
Sep 23, 06:0018.1N 75.9W90 ktHurricane
Sep 23, 12:0018.4N 77.2W90 ktHurricane
Sep 23, 18:0018.8N 78.2W95 ktHurricane
Sep 24, 00:0019.2N 79.0W95 ktHurricane
Sep 24, 06:0019.6N 79.6W100 ktHurricane
Sep 24, 12:0020.1N 80.2W100 ktHurricane
Sep 24, 18:0020.6N 80.8W105 ktHurricane
Sep 25, 00:0021.0N 81.3W110 ktHurricane
Sep 25, 06:0021.4N 81.9W120 ktHurricane
Sep 25, 12:0021.8N 82.5W130 kt928 mbHurricane
Sep 25, 18:0022.3N 83.2W130 ktHurricane
Sep 26, 00:0022.8N 83.9W120 ktHurricane
Sep 26, 06:0023.3N 84.6W120 ktHurricane
Sep 26, 12:0023.9N 85.2W120 ktHurricane
Sep 26, 18:0024.4N 86.0W120 ktHurricane
Sep 27, 00:0024.7N 87.0W115 ktHurricane
Sep 27, 06:0025.1N 88.1W115 ktHurricane
Sep 27, 12:0025.7N 88.9W110 ktHurricane
Sep 27, 18:0026.3N 89.2W110 ktHurricane
Sep 28, 00:0027.1N 89.4W105 ktHurricane
Sep 28, 06:0028.0N 89.2W105 ktHurricane
Sep 28, 12:0028.8N 88.8W105 ktHurricane
Sep 28, 18:0029.5N 87.9W100 ktHurricane
Sep 29, 00:0030.2N 86.9W100 kt949 mbHurricane
Sep 29, 02:00 landfall30.4N 86.6W100 kt949 mbHurricane
Sep 29, 06:0030.9N 86.0W75 ktHurricane
Sep 29, 12:0031.5N 85.2W55 ktTropical storm
Sep 29, 18:0031.9N 84.4W40 ktTropical storm
Sep 30, 00:0032.0N 83.2W35 ktTropical storm
Sep 30, 06:0032.0N 82.5W30 ktExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1917

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.