The 1969 season

Hurricane Blanche (1969)

Hurricane Blanche reached Category 1 in the North Atlantic between August 10, 1969 and August 14, 1969, with a lowest pressure of 996 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Blanche, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1969 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
August 10, 1969 to August 14, 1969
Peak strength
Category 1, 75 kt (86 mph)
Lowest pressure
996 mb (29.41 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 79 km (49 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
2.1
Identifier
AL071969

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
Aug 10, 18:0026.3N 71.7W30 ktTropical depression
Aug 11, 00:0028.1N 71.7W35 ktTropical storm
Aug 11, 06:0030.2N 71.6W40 ktTropical storm
Aug 11, 12:0032.5N 71.1W50 ktTropical storm
Aug 11, 18:0035.5N 69.9W70 kt997 mbHurricane
Aug 12, 00:0039.0N 68.0W75 ktHurricane
Aug 12, 06:0042.0N 64.7W75 ktHurricane
Aug 12, 12:0044.3N 60.4W70 kt996 mbExtratropical
Aug 12, 18:0046.0N 54.9W65 ktExtratropical
Aug 13, 00:0047.1N 49.0W55 ktExtratropical
Aug 13, 06:0047.5N 43.0W40 ktExtratropical
Aug 13, 12:0047.5N 38.0W35 kt1008 mbExtratropical
Aug 13, 18:0047.0N 34.5W30 kt1009 mbExtratropical
Aug 14, 00:0047.0N 31.0W30 kt1008 mbExtratropical
Aug 14, 06:0046.5N 27.5W30 kt1008 mbExtratropical
Aug 14, 12:0044.0N 23.0W25 kt1010 mbExtratropical
Aug 14, 18:0041.0N 18.0W25 kt1011 mbExtratropical

Other North Atlantic storms of 1969

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.