The 1950 season

Hurricane Item (1950)

Hurricane Item reached Category 2 in the North Atlantic between October 8, 1950 and October 11, 1950, with a lowest pressure of 980 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Item, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1950 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
October 8, 1950 to October 11, 1950
Peak strength
Category 2, 90 kt (104 mph)
Lowest pressure
980 mb (28.94 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
5.9
Fastest the center moved
9 kt (10 mph)
Identifier
AL091950

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
Oct 11, 04:00Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico, 20 km away18.9N 95.9W90 kt (104 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
Oct 8, 06:0023.3N 90.4W35 ktTropical storm
Oct 8, 12:0023.3N 91.0W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 8, 18:0023.1N 91.6W45 ktTropical storm
Oct 9, 00:0022.4N 92.2W45 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Oct 9, 06:0021.8N 92.7W50 ktTropical storm
Oct 9, 12:0021.3N 93.2W55 ktTropical storm
Oct 9, 18:0020.8N 93.8W65 ktHurricane
Oct 10, 00:0020.5N 94.3W75 kt990 mbHurricane
Oct 10, 06:0020.2N 94.7W80 ktHurricane
Oct 10, 12:0019.8N 95.1W85 ktHurricane
Oct 10, 18:0019.4N 95.4W90 kt980 mbHurricane
Oct 11, 00:0019.1N 95.7W90 ktHurricane
Oct 11, 04:00 landfall18.9N 95.9W90 ktHurricane
Oct 11, 06:0018.8N 95.9W75 ktHurricane
Oct 11, 12:0018.5N 96.0W40 ktTropical storm
Oct 11, 18:0018.2N 96.0W25 ktTropical depression

Other North Atlantic storms of 1950

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.