1960 Atlantic hurricane season

A short season under a strong Azores high

Gordon Dunn of the Weather Bureau office in Miami called 1960 subnormal in both frequency and intensity. His Monthly Weather Review summary counted seven tropical cyclones, four of them hurricanes, and only Donna of major strength, though he allowed that Ethel may have reached that level for a few hours. The site counts 8 tropical storms and 2 major hurricanes because the current best track includes a short-lived tropical storm of 1 to 3 September that reanalysts added in 2016, and it keeps Ethel at 100 kt, above the 96 kt major threshold. Accumulated cyclone energy in the site's archive calculation came to 72.9.

Dunn tied the year's pattern to the large-scale circulation. The Azores-Bermuda high held its strength from June through September, so every recurvature in the tropics and subtropics happened west of 70°W and all but two storms reached or formed in the Gulf of Mexico. In October, blocking pushed the subtropical ridge and the strongest westerlies south of their usual positions, and the tropical Atlantic stayed free of even weak disturbances. 1960 was also the year TIROS-1 went into orbit, opening the satellite era of hurricane tracking.

Floods in Texas, Abby in the Caribbean and Brenda up the coast

The first storm grew out of a fractured westerly trough in the Bay of Campeche on 22 June and moved inland southwest of Corpus Christi the night of 23 to 24 June with winds near 50 kt at peak in the archive. It then stalled. Rain of 5 to 15 inches fell from Corpus Christi to San Antonio, and Port Lavaca measured 29.76 inches from 23 to 26 June. Dunn reported that 15 people drowned in the high seas or the floods and put damage, mostly from flooding, at $3.6 million. The storm also set Kentucky's tropical cyclone rainfall record of 11.25 inches at Dunmor.

Hurricane Abby formed near Barbados on 9 July and followed one of the lowest-latitude July tracks on record. It passed over St. Lucia, where a collapsing roof killed six people and damage reached about $435,000 to property and banana and coconut crops. Abby struggled across the Caribbean, then regained hurricane strength and came ashore in southern British Honduras on 15 July. Its remnants crossed southern Mexico and, in Dunn's account, helped form Hurricane Celeste in the eastern Pacific.

Tropical Storm Brenda came ashore southwest of Cross City, Florida, on 28 to 29 July and ran up the coast to New England. Rain exceeded 13 inches around Tampa, and Cape Hatteras logged a sustained 58 mph wind. The Weather Bureau attributed no deaths directly to Brenda, though it linked some traffic deaths to the rain, and estimated property damage near $5 million. In mid-August Hurricane Cleo stayed small and offshore, reaching about 80 kt near southeastern New England with no known deaths.

Hurricane Donna from Africa to the Bahamas

Donna began as a disturbance off West Africa in late August. Dunn linked it to heavy rain at Dakar and the airliner crash there on 29 August, which killed 63 people. Reconnaissance first found the hurricane on 2 September near 14°N, 49°W, already with a well-formed eye. The eye crossed Barbuda and Sint Maarten on the evening of 4 September; Sint Maarten measured sustained winds of 110 kt and a pressure of 952 mb. The site's archive places Donna's peak of 125 kt on 7 September.

Donna passed about 85 miles north of San Juan, but its rain caused the season's worst loss of life. Floods on the morning of 6 September drowned 107 people in Puerto Rico, 84 of them at Humacao, according to Dunn, where residents had returned to homes on the river bed after the center passed and did not act on flood warnings. Seven people died on Sint Maarten, 5 on Anguilla and 7 in the Virgin Islands. In the southeastern Bahamas the eye crossed Mayaguana, Acklins, Fortune and Ragged islands, and Dunn reported no deaths there, though few substantial buildings survived in many villages.

Donna's run from the Keys to Maine

The eye crossed the middle Keys near Marathon early on 10 September. The reanalysis puts that landfall at Conch Key with 125 kt winds and 930 mb, Category 4, the same wind as the storm's peak. Donna then turned northwest and came ashore again near Marco Island at 105 kt, crossed the peninsula and left near Daytona Beach. Dunn reported a surge of up to 13 feet in the Keys and up to 11 feet on the southwest coast. The Everglades lost half or more of the largest mangrove stand in the world. Florida counted 13 deaths and $300 million in losses, in 1960 dollars.

Donna regained strength over the Atlantic and struck North Carolina near Sneeds Ferry on 12 September at 90 kt, Category 2, with an eye that Dunn measured at 50 to 80 miles across. It crossed Long Island near Brookhaven at 85 kt and 959 mb and reached Connecticut at 80 kt, before weakening through Maine. The reanalysis lowered the North Carolina and New York landfalls from Category 3 to 2. North Carolina had 8 deaths and more than 100 injuries.

Dunn wrote that Donna brought hurricane-force winds to Florida, the Middle Atlantic states and New England, and that its low death toll in the United States reflected timely warnings and continuous tracking by aircraft and land radar. Across its whole path, Donna caused at least 428 deaths and $980 million in damage in 1960 dollars. The Weather Bureau retired the name Donna after the season.

Ethel's collapse and a wandering Florence

Ethel formed in the central Gulf of Mexico and deepened fast on 14 September, when reconnaissance aircraft reported 140 kt winds and a pressure of 972 mb. The reanalysis cut its peak to 100 kt, the value the site uses, and cool, dry air weakened it overnight. Ethel reached the Mississippi coast near Biloxi on 15 September at 70 kt, Category 1. Dunn reported no deaths and damage near $1 million in 1960 dollars; later accounts give one death and $1.5 million.

Florence formed north of Puerto Rico on 17 September, weakened over the Bahamas and lingered over western Cuba before drifting across Florida and into the Pensacola area on 26 September. It barely reached tropical storm strength, but 3 to 6 inches of rain on ground soaked by Donna caused local flooding, and some southeastern Florida stations topped 30 inches for September.