1950 Atlantic hurricane season

A late start and crowded weather maps

Grady Norton of the Weather Bureau office in Miami wrote that the tropical Atlantic stayed remarkably quiet until 12 August, without even an easterly wave worth noting. From then until 16 September six hurricanes followed one another with barely a pause, and for much of that stretch two or three ran at once. After 14 days without a new hurricane, a second family of six began on 1 October. The site's archive places the first tropical-stage observation on 12 August and the last on 12 November, and gives the year an accumulated cyclone energy of 211.3.

Norton had never seen so many twins and triplets on one map. Two hurricanes ran together from 27 to 31 August, and from 2 to 6 September Charlie, Dog and Easy were all active, two in the western Atlantic and one near Cuba and the eastern Gulf. Pairs appeared again from 1 to 5 October and in mid-October. Slow movement, blocking highs, sharp turns and loops made the tracks hard to follow, and Norton called 1950 the most exhausting season his forecasters and reconnaissance crews had known.

Twelve storms in 1951, sixteen today

The January 1951 Monthly Weather Review summary listed 12 storms, 11 of them hurricanes, and noted that 11 hurricanes was the most then reported for one season. Norton added that Baker reached hurricane force twice with a weak wave stage between, so it could be counted as two hurricanes. The site's archive, built on the current best track, holds 16 tropical storms, 11 hurricanes and 6 major hurricanes of 96 kt or more.

The extra storms came from later research. A tropical storm that crossed the southern Azores in October was left out of the Monthly Weather Review summary and added to the Atlantic database in 1959. Storm Mike, noted by the Air Weather Service in late October, joined the database only through the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project in 2014. Two further unnamed storms, one in late October in the eastern Atlantic and a large November system northeast of Bermuda, rest on ship reports. Reanalysis also lowered the season's accumulated cyclone energy from an earlier 243 to 211.

Names were new as well. 1950 was the first season in which Atlantic storms received official names, taken from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet, so the season ran from Able to Mike.

Able, Baker and Charlie

Hurricane Able, the season's first hurricane, reached hurricane strength on 14 August north of the Leeward Islands and peaked in the archive at 110 kt. Aircraft recorded winds of about 140 mph and a pressure near 953 mb at sea. Able passed east of Cape Hatteras on the night of 19 August and moved into Nova Scotia on 21 August, the only land to feel hurricane-force winds. Nine people died in traffic accidents on rain-slick roads in New England.

Hurricane Baker crossed Antigua on the night of 21 August with winds reported at 90 to 120 mph, then faded to a squally wave near Puerto Rico. A new centre formed south of Cuba on 25 August, crossed western Cuba into the Gulf and regained hurricane force. Aircraft and ships estimated its strongest winds at about 115 mph south of the Alabama coast on 30 August, and it came ashore between Mobile and Pensacola that night with coastal winds of 75 to 85 mph. The Weather Bureau put property and crop damage at about $2,550,000, in 1950 dollars, from near Mobile to St. Marks, and recorded one death from fallen live wires in Birmingham.

Hurricane Charlie stayed over the open Atlantic. It stalled near 34° N, 56° W on 30 August, drifted west, then turned northeast and became extratropical southeast of Nova Scotia. The archive gives it a peak of 95 kt.

Hurricane Dog, the Atlantic giant

Hurricane Dog was first found on 30 August, when the S. S. Sibrodin reported gales and falling pressure near 16.5° N, 57° W. It passed close to Antigua and Barbuda on 1 September. Residents of Antigua, where winds were estimated above 130 mph and hurricane force lasted six hours, called it the worst hurricane in the island's history. Two people drowned when their small boat capsized, and the Weather Bureau put damage on the islands at more than $1,000,000 in 1950 dollars.

Dog then turned north over open water. In 1950 aircraft estimated winds above 160 knots and waves of 100 feet. The current record is lower: the archive peak is 125 kt, Category 4, on 5 September, and the operational estimate is now regarded as too high. Blocked about 200 miles southwest of Bermuda on 8 September, Dog drifted west for two days before heading north.

Dog passed well off Cape Cod on 12 September, and Nantucket recorded gusts near hurricane force. Winds on the New England coast stayed below hurricane strength, yet the Weather Bureau reported $2,000,000 in damage, in 1950 dollars, and 12 deaths, 11 of them in capsized boats. Newspapers linked five more deaths to heavy rain in the Mid-Atlantic states, and two shipwrecks off Canada killed 12. Dog holds the longest record in the archive this year, 438 hours.

Easy loops over Cedar Keys

Hurricane Easy formed south of the Isle of Pines on 1 September, crossed Cuba near Havana and ran up the west Florida coast 30 to 50 miles offshore. About 70 miles northwest of Tampa it made the first of two loops, and on 5 September its calm centre moved over Cedar Keys from the southeast and then away to the south. The town sat under hurricane-force winds from 0600 to 1800 EST, with two and a half hours of calm in between, and its winds peaked at 125 mph. Easy then drifted south, swung east and turned north across Florida, four abrupt changes of course in three days.

Half the houses in Cedar Keys, a fishing village of about 1,000 people, were destroyed or left unfit to live in, and the fishing fleet was lost. Cedar Keys measured 24.50 inches of rain in three days. Yankeetown measured 38.70 inches in 24 hours, then the largest 24-hour total on record in the United States. The Weather Bureau estimated flood, tide and wind damage at about $3,300,000 in 1950 dollars, low because the area was sparsely settled, and reported two people killed by fallen live wires. The archive peak is 105 kt, Category 3.

Fox and the October family

Hurricane Fox, found by aircraft about 1,000 miles east of Puerto Rico on 10 September, stayed small but reached about 140 mph as it curved north more than 300 miles east of Bermuda. The archive gives Fox the season's lowest pressure, 946 hPa, on 15 September, and a peak of 120 kt. When it faded on 17 September, the Atlantic had its first day without a tropical cyclone in 36 days.

Hurricane George formed from a strong easterly wave southeast of Bermuda, came within 90 to 100 miles of the island on 2 October and swung west of it, then peaked near 39° N, 65° W on 4 October. Tropical Storm How crossed the western Gulf and entered Mexico north of Tampico on 4 October. Hurricane Item, small and fast, came ashore just south of Veracruz on 10 October with a 110 mph wind reported in the city; the Weather Bureau received no damage or casualty figures, while newspapers reported about $1.5 million damage in Veracruz in 1950 dollars and 15 injuries. Hurricane Jig stayed at sea east of Bermuda.

King over Miami, Love fades in the Gulf

Hurricane King formed off Honduras and crossed Cuba near Camagüey on the night of 16 October as a small hurricane. Cuba had seven deaths and $2 million damage, in 1950 dollars. North of Cuba King deepened fast: between 0900 EST on 17 October and midnight its pressure fell 33.2 mb to 955.0 mb as the centre crossed Miami, and its eye shrank from 20 miles to 5. Norton reported sustained winds of 122 mph with gusts near 150 mph, and lightning and thunder near the centre.

The main damage strip across greater Miami was only about 14 miles wide, sharp enough that many people first blamed tornadoes, and Norton called it the worst wind to strike Miami since 1926. Florida damage reached $27.75 million in 1950 dollars, $15 million of it in the Miami area, and three people died in the state and one in Georgia. Warnings went out 18 hours ahead of the winds, though Norton noted that many residents did not protect their windows.

Hurricane Love grew from a trough ahead of King south of Louisiana on 18 October, looped through the central Gulf and reached hurricane strength, with aircraft reporting 75 to 85 knots on 20 October. Dry air then wrapped around its centre, and Love reached the Florida Big Bend on 21 October with only moderate gales. The archive gives it a 70 kt peak.

A record year for hurricane hunters

The Miami hurricane centre issued 270 advisories in 1950 and coordinated enough others to take the total past 300. The Navy flew 60 reconnaissance missions into hurricanes and the Air Force slightly more, about 130 in all, the most in any season since routine flights began in 1943. The Weather Bureau also used radar for the first time that year to watch hurricanes about 200 miles from land.