1968 Atlantic hurricane season

A record June, then 13 hurricane days

Arnold Sugg and Paul Hebert of the National Hurricane Center wrote that two hurricanes and a tropical storm in June 1968 equaled a record set in 1886; only 20 June hurricanes had occurred since then. Despite that start the season logged just 13 hurricane days, the lowest in two decades apart from 1962. September 1968 became only the 12th September since 1886 without a hurricane.

They could not explain June from the large-scale pattern, since the 700 mb heights looked unfavorable, and pointed instead to local conditions such as weak vertical wind shear and low-level inflow near the developing storms. From August into September the westerlies dipped below 30°N and heights stayed low over the Atlantic. Their forecasting rule: blocking highs at high latitudes that push the westerlies south do not favor tropical storms.

The site counts 9 tropical storms and accumulated cyclone energy of 46.6. The count includes a tropical storm the reanalysis added that reached Long Island on 11 September at 55 kt, and a September system that the archive carries only as subtropical. The current best-track tally reaches five hurricanes by including that subtropical storm, whose peak winds equaled Category 1; the site's count of 4 hurricanes does not include it. The archive also lists four depressions and a late-November subtropical depression.

Abby, Brenda and Candy

Abby formed in the northwestern Caribbean on 1 June, crossed western Cuba and came ashore near Punta Gorda, Florida, on 4 June at 55 kt, a tropical storm, in the reanalysis. It stalled near Cape Kennedy and reached hurricane strength offshore, then moved inland again north of Jacksonville on 6 June. Titusville measured 13.86 inches of rain, and Sugg and Hebert called Abby one of the most beneficial storms ever to affect Florida because it broke a spring drought. Their table lists six deaths in Florida.

Brenda began as a depression in the Florida Straits, drifted up the peninsula and became a hurricane for about a day around 23 June, passing 200 miles north of Bermuda. Tropical Storm Candy formed off the Mexican coast and came ashore near Port Aransas, Texas, on 23 June at 60 kt. It produced 19 tornadoes or funnel clouds and up to 11 inches of rain at Point Comfort, with property losses of about $1 million and east Texas crop damage near $2 million. The two overlapped in late June, and two tropical storms would not be active together in June again until 2023.

Dolly far north and a September without hurricanes

Dolly began as a depression off southeast Florida on 9 August and moved east-northeast on a uniform track about 2,600 miles long. It lost hurricane strength, then regained it near 40°N, which Sugg and Hebert thought was probably the farthest north any tropical storm had become a hurricane. Dolly became extratropical north of the Azores on 16 August without harming anyone.

Tropical Storm Edna left Africa on 10 September but never became a hurricane. Tropical Storm Frances formed east of the Bahamas on 23 September, and an upper low that formed at the same time steered it east and cut its life short.

Gladys crosses Cuba and Florida

Gladys grew out of one of three disturbances in the western Caribbean and became a tropical storm on 15 October. The reanalysis keeps it a tropical storm as it crossed western Cuba, where radio Havana reported flash floods and a tobacco crop nearly wiped out. Sugg and Hebert attributed one Cuban death to Gladys; later accounts give six deaths around Havana.

Gladys passed west of the Dry Tortugas and moved north through the eastern Gulf, holding minimal hurricane strength because much of its circulation lay over land. Its eye contracted to about 10 nautical miles, and the reanalysis places landfall north of Homosassa near 0400 UTC on 19 October at 85 kt, the storm's peak. Clearwater Beach had gusts near 100 mph and tides reached an estimated 6.5 feet. Three motorists died fleeing the storm, and Florida damage came to $6.7 million, almost all of it structural.

Gladys crossed the peninsula near Ocala, left near St. Augustine and passed Cape Hatteras early on 20 October, where its rain helped break a severe drought. One death in Nova Scotia was attributed to its remnants.