2016 North Atlantic hurricane season
Hurricane Matthew 2016
Matthew turned north from the southern Caribbean and struck Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas before following the southeastern United States coast. Its wind, surge and inland flooding produced damage across a long route.
Drag to pan. Pinch or Ctrl/⌘ + scroll to zoom. Keyboard: plus or minus to zoom, arrow keys to pan, and 0 to show the full track.
167 mph
Oct 4, 2016 during the tropical stage
Full archive record, including non-tropical stages if present
Along the recorded center positions
STORM HISTORY
A sharp turn from the southern Caribbean
Matthew became a tropical storm near the Lesser Antilles on September 28 and a hurricane the next day. Rapid intensification brought sustained winds to an archived maximum of 145 knots at the start of October 1. The hurricane then turned north while remaining a powerful Category 4 system.
Matthew struck Haiti's Tiburon Peninsula on October 4 and eastern Cuba later that day. In Haiti, wind and flooding devastated communities and disrupted communications. The storm strengthened again on its northwestward path through the Bahamas, where Grand Bahama received a direct hit.
Along the United States coast
Matthew paralleled Florida's Atlantic coast while gradually weakening, leaving more than a million customers without power in the state. It made its final landfall near McClellanville, South Carolina, on October 8 as a Category 1 hurricane.
Although the center remained near the coast, heavy rain spread far inland across the Carolinas and Virginia, causing widespread flooding. Matthew moved back over the Atlantic and became extratropical on October 9 as it turned away from Cape Hatteras.
IMPACT
Reported impact
| Deaths | 603 |
|---|---|
| Areas affected | Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, The Bahamas, United States, Windward Islands |
US impacts by state
Selected NOAA Storm Events records for hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge events during this storm's archived track. Deaths and injuries include reported direct and indirect impacts. These records are incomplete, particularly for indirect deaths, and are not storm-wide totals. Other hazards and impacts outside the US are excluded.
| State or territory | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage (event-year USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 10 | 2 | Not fully reported |
| Georgia | 3 | 4 | Not fully reported |
| North Carolina | 1 | 1 | Not fully reported |
| South Carolina | 0 | 0 | Not fully reported |
Property damage is reported in dollars of the event year, without inflation adjustment; crop damage is excluded. A missing value is not zero. These figures do not replace the storm-wide estimates elsewhere on this page.
Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database.
Further reading
NOAA IBTrACS v04r01 historical track archive
Official report (PDF) — National Hurricane Center, Tropical Cyclone Report.
QUICK ANSWERS
Matthew in brief
What was Hurricane Matthew's highest wind speed?
167 mph, the highest one-minute sustained wind in its tropical stage, recorded on Oct 1, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC.
What category was Hurricane Matthew?
Category 5 at its peak on the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale, first reaching Category 5 on Oct 1, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC. Other agencies classify storms differently.
What was Hurricane Matthew's lowest pressure?
934 mb, the minimum central pressure recorded during its tropical stage, on Oct 4, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC.
When did Hurricane Matthew occur?
The archived track runs from Sep 28, 2016, 12:00 PM UTC to Oct 10, 2016, 12:00 AM UTC, with the tropical stage from Sep 28, 2016, 12:00 PM UTC to Oct 9, 2016, 09:00 AM UTC.
Where did Hurricane Matthew form?
In the North Atlantic basin, in the 2016 season. Its first archived position is 13.4°N, 59.8°W on Sep 28, 2016, 12:00 PM UTC.
Did Hurricane Matthew make landfall?
The archive places its center over land at 3 recorded positions; the strongest is 150 mph on Oct 4, 2016, 11:00 AM UTC. Positions are six-hourly, so this is not a landfall chronology.
How many people died in Hurricane Matthew?
603 deaths are recorded by Wikidata.
METHODOLOGY
Data sources and limitations
The map and summary are generated from NOAA's IBTrACS v04r01 archive. Wind and category use US-agency records; minimum pressure is calculated during the tropical stage, with the archive's pressure source retained. Category 5 refers to the Saffir–Simpson one-minute wind scale; local agencies may use different classifications. Coastlines use Natural Earth's 1:10m land data.
Track distance adds great-circle distances between consecutive observations, excluding gaps over 12 hours. This track has no gaps over 12 hours. The line shows the storm's center, not its size, rainfall or flood extent. Converted wind speeds are rounded to the nearest whole unit.
Archive retrieved
NOAA IBTrACS archive and Field documentation
Sources & methodology