The 1940 season

Unnamed tropical storm (1940)

Unnamed tropical storm peaked at 55 kt in the North Atlantic between May 19, 1940 and May 27, 1940.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Unnamed tropical storm, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1940 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
May 19, 1940 to May 27, 1940
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 55 kt (63 mph)
Landfall
No; closest approach 164 km (102 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
4.7
Identifier
AL011940

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 19, 12:0022.0N 71.0W35 ktTropical storm
May 19, 18:0022.7N 71.3W35 ktTropical storm
May 20, 00:0023.4N 71.5W35 ktTropical storm
May 20, 06:0024.2N 71.7W35 ktTropical storm
May 20, 12:0025.0N 71.9W40 ktTropical storm
May 20, 18:0026.0N 72.1W40 ktTropical storm
May 21, 00:0027.0N 72.2W45 ktTropical storm
May 21, 06:0028.0N 72.3W45 ktTropical storm
May 21, 12:0029.0N 72.4W50 ktTropical storm
May 21, 18:0030.1N 72.5W50 ktTropical storm
May 22, 00:0031.5N 72.7W55 ktTropical storm
May 22, 06:0033.5N 72.8W55 ktTropical storm
May 22, 12:0035.0N 72.8W55 ktTropical storm
May 22, 18:0035.6N 72.6W55 ktTropical storm
May 23, 00:0035.9N 72.3W50 ktTropical storm
May 23, 06:0036.0N 71.9W50 ktTropical storm
May 23, 12:0036.0N 71.5W50 ktTropical storm
May 23, 18:0036.0N 71.1W45 ktTropical storm
May 24, 00:0035.9N 70.7W40 ktTropical storm
May 24, 06:0035.7N 70.3W40 ktTropical storm
May 24, 12:0035.7N 69.8W35 ktTropical storm
May 24, 18:0036.2N 69.2W35 ktTropical storm
May 25, 00:0036.7N 68.5W35 ktTropical storm
May 25, 06:0037.3N 67.9W35 ktTropical storm
May 25, 12:0037.9N 67.3W30 ktExtratropical
May 25, 18:0038.5N 66.7W30 ktExtratropical
May 26, 00:0039.1N 66.2W30 ktExtratropical
May 26, 06:0039.6N 65.7W30 ktExtratropical
May 26, 12:0040.2N 65.2W30 ktExtratropical
May 26, 18:0041.1N 64.3W30 ktExtratropical
May 27, 00:0042.2N 63.1W25 ktExtratropical
May 27, 06:0043.5N 61.5W20 ktExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1940

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.