The 1938 season

Unnamed hurricane (1938)

Unnamed hurricane reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between January 1, 1938 and January 6, 1938.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed hurricane, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1938 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
January 1, 1938 to January 6, 1938
Peak strength
Category 1, 70 kt (81 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 1388 km (862 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
4.2
Fastest the center moved
19 kt (22 mph)
Identifier
AL011938

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
Jan 1, 12:0032.3N 40.6W40 ktExtratropical
Jan 1, 18:0032.3N 39.7W40 ktExtratropical
Jan 2, 00:0032.3N 38.8W45 ktExtratropical
Jan 2, 06:0032.3N 38.0W50 ktExtratropical
Jan 2, 12:0032.2N 37.1W50 ktExtratropical
Jan 2, 18:0032.0N 36.4W50 ktExtratropical
Jan 3, 00:0031.7N 35.8W50 ktExtratropical
Jan 3, 06:0030.4N 35.2W50 ktExtratropical
Jan 3, 12:0028.5N 34.8W50 ktExtratropical
Jan 3, 18:0027.5N 35.3W55 ktTropical storm
Jan 4, 00:0026.6N 35.9W55 ktTropical storm
Jan 4, 06:0025.7N 36.5W60 ktTropical storm
Jan 4, 12:0024.9N 37.6W65 ktHurricane
Jan 4, 18:0024.3N 39.2W70 ktHurricane
Jan 5, 00:0023.8N 40.8W70 ktHurricane
Jan 5, 06:0022.9N 41.8W65 ktHurricane
Jan 5, 12:0021.8N 42.5W60 ktTropical storm
Jan 5, 18:0020.6N 43.2W55 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 00:0019.3N 43.9W50 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 06:0018.0N 44.6W45 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 12:0016.8N 45.3W40 ktTropical storm
Jan 6, 18:0015.8N 46.0W35 ktTropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1938

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.