The 1981 season

Hurricane Floyd (1981)

Hurricane Floyd reached Category 3 in the North Atlantic between September 3, 1981 and September 12, 1981, with a lowest pressure of 975 mb.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Hurricane Floyd, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1981 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 3, 1981 to September 12, 1981
Peak strength
Category 3, 100 kt (115 mph)
Lowest pressure
975 mb (28.79 inHg)
Landfall
No; closest approach 155 km (96 mi)
Accumulated cyclone energy
13.8
Fastest the center moved
23 kt (26 mph)
Identifier
AL141981

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
Sep 3, 12:0016.2N 60.3W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Sep 3, 18:0016.7N 61.1W20 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Sep 4, 00:0017.3N 61.9W20 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Sep 4, 06:0018.0N 62.6W20 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Sep 4, 12:0018.6N 63.3W30 kt1006 mbTropical depression
Sep 4, 18:0019.0N 64.0W35 kt1004 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 00:0019.5N 64.7W45 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 06:0020.1N 65.5W50 kt1000 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 12:0020.9N 66.2W60 kt999 mbTropical storm
Sep 5, 18:0021.7N 67.1W70 kt997 mbHurricane
Sep 6, 00:0022.6N 67.7W80 kt994 mbHurricane
Sep 6, 06:0023.6N 68.6W85 kt991 mbHurricane
Sep 6, 12:0024.5N 69.1W90 kt988 mbHurricane
Sep 6, 18:0025.5N 69.1W95 kt985 mbHurricane
Sep 7, 00:0026.4N 69.1W100 kt981 mbHurricane
Sep 7, 06:0027.5N 68.9W100 kt978 mbHurricane
Sep 7, 12:0028.4N 68.5W100 kt975 mbHurricane
Sep 7, 18:0029.3N 67.8W100 kt975 mbHurricane
Sep 8, 00:0029.9N 67.2W95 kt989 mbHurricane
Sep 8, 06:0030.6N 66.5W90 kt995 mbHurricane
Sep 8, 12:0031.4N 65.6W85 kt998 mbHurricane
Sep 8, 18:0032.0N 64.7W60 kt1003 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 00:0032.9N 63.0W50 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 06:0033.7N 60.7W45 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 12:0034.2N 58.5W45 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 9, 18:0033.8N 56.3W40 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 10, 00:0033.5N 54.0W40 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 10, 06:0033.6N 51.3W40 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Sep 10, 12:0034.0N 48.7W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 10, 18:0034.0N 46.4W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 00:0033.8N 44.1W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 06:0034.5N 41.7W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 12:0035.5N 39.7W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 11, 18:0036.6N 38.3W40 kt1008 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 00:0037.6N 36.9W40 kt1009 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 06:0039.0N 35.2W40 kt1009 mbTropical storm
Sep 12, 12:0040.6N 33.4W35 kt1009 mbTropical storm

Other North Atlantic storms of 1981

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.