1916 Texas hurricane

The 1916 Texas hurricane was an intense and quick-moving tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Jamaica and South Texas in August 1916. A Category 4 hurricane upon landfall in Texas, it was the strongest tropicalcyclone to strike the United States in three decades. Weather observations were limited for most of the storm’s history, so much of its evolution has been inferred from scant data analyzed by the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project in 2008. The hurricane caused 37 fatalities and inflicted USD 11. 8 million in damage.

About 1916 Texas hurricane in brief

The 1916 Texas hurricane was an intense and quick-moving tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Jamaica and South Texas in August 1916. A Category 4 hurricane upon landfall in Texas, it was the strongest tropicalcyclone to strike the United States in three decades. Throughout its eight-day trek across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane caused 37 fatalities and inflicted USD 11. 8 million in damage. Weather observations were limited for most of the storm’s history, so much of its evolution has been inferred from scant data analyzed by the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project in 2008. The hurricane was first definitively detected as a tropical storm east of Barbados on August 12, based on a 40-mph wind measurement from a nearby ship. A possible precursor disturbance may have originated as early as August 8 near Africa, but observations were inconclusive in determining the formation of a tropical cyclones. The storm reached major hurricane intensity just north of the Yucatán Peninsula on August 17, and reports on the developing hurricane proliferated as the storm neared the Texas coast. By August 18, the storm reached Category 4 intensity in the western Gulf ofMexico; the first outer bands began reaching the coast near Corpus Christi that morning. During the evening of August 16, the center of the hurricane made landfall near Baffin Bay, Texas with maximum sustained winds of 130mph. It quickly weakened over southwestern Texas and dissipated near New Mexico by August 20.

In terms of tropical pressure, the 1916 Texas hurricane was stronger than any other tropical hurricane that made landfall in the U.S. since 1886. It was larger than average on average upon landfall, with a 29-mi radius of wind surge and a central pressure of 9.32mbar. These parameters made it the strongest hurricane of the 1916 Atlantic hurricane season. Neither the strongest winds nor the lowest pressure were directly measured, and instead extrapolated from peripheral data. Several other researchers have used wind and storm surge models to model the storm, using wind and surge relationships to make their predictions. The U. S. Weather Bureau says the hurricane followed an average course for the type of August hurricanes that pass through the Yucaatán Channel, but maintained an unusually brisk forward speed throughout its life. It is estimated that the storm strengthened into a hurricane on August 15 while located south of Hispaniola. There were no other observations of similarly gusty winds or low air pressures over the next three days while the system traced out the southern periphery of the Azores High westward into the eastern Caribbean Sea. On August 17, the system reached the equivalent of a major hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson scale and intensified further into a Category 4 hurricane. On the morning of August 18, it reached Category 3 intensity. It then weakened to Category 2 intensity. On August 19, it weakened to a Category 3 hurricane and made landfall on the Texas Coast.

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