1909 Atlantic hurricane season

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**1909 Atlantic hurricane season**
Season summary map
First storm formed:	June 15, 1909
Last storm dissipated:	Nov. 14, 1909
Strongest storm:	#6, 8, 10 - 105 knots (120 mph)
Total storms:	11
Major storms (Cat. 3+):	4
Total damage:	$8 million (1901 USD) $164 million (2005 USD)
Total fatalities:	1,903

Atlantic hurricane seasons 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911

The 1909 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1909, and lasted until November 30, 1909. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin.

The 1909 season was an average but destructive season; eleven storms formed, of which six became hurricanes. Four of those hurricanes became major hurricanes with winds of greater than 111 miles per hour. The season started early, with 2 tropical storms and a hurricane. The first hit Nicaragua in mid-June. The second hit Texas as a Category 2 hurricane near Brownsville. The third hit southeast Florida in late June.

Activity continued through July, when a tropical depression formed over the southern Lesser Antilles in Mid-July. The storm attained tropical storm strength south of Jamaica, and reached hurricane strength near the western tip of Cuba. It ultimately hit near Freeport, Texas on July 21 as a Category 3 hurricane; with a 10-foot (3-meter) storm surge, this was the first test of Galveston's seawall.(Ellis, 102) Damage came to $2 million (1909 dollars) and 41 people died.

The 5th tropical storm of the season formed on August 6 and hit Mexico twice, first on the Yucatán Peninsula and then near the border between Veracruz and Tamaulipas. The 6th storm formed east of the Lesser Antilles on August 20. The storm went westward, hitting the Dominican Republic and Southeast Cuba. The storm strengthend to a Category 3 hurricane and hit the Northeast corner of the Yucatán Peninsula; a transmission on the hurricane from a vessel near the Peninsula became the first "ship report" to be used in a forecast.(Ellis, 102) After weakening, it regained strength and hit Tamaulipas as a major hurricane on August 27. The death toll from this storm was staggering. Floods and landslides killed an estimated 1,500 people. The 7th storm formed over the Bahamas on August 28, hit near Miami as a Tropical Storm, and went out to sea.

The 8th storm formed south of Hispaniola on September 13. It reached hurricane strength south of Cuba, and eventually hit southern Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane, making landfall at Berwick, Louisiana on 20 September with a 15 foot storm surge. It became known as the Grand Isle Hurricane, after its devastation of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Heading inland on a path in between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, it produced flooding in New Orleans in a pattern similar to that of Hurricane Katrina almost a century later, but low lying areas within the city limits at the time had little residential build up, the consequences of the flooding were much less severe than those of the more recent storm. It dissipated over Southern Missouri on September 22. This storm ranks as one of the deadliest to hit the U.S. with 350 being killed with damages estimated at over 5 million dollars (in 1909 dollars).

The 9th system formed north of the Isle of Youth and hit near Naples, Florida as a Tropical Depression on September 25. The system moved over Florida, strengthened to a 60 M.P.H. tropical storm, and dissipated. The 10th storm formed in the Southwest Caribbean Sea on October 6 and became a hurricane over the Northwest Caribbean Sea, an area known for developing strong storms such as Hurricane Mitch or Hurricane Gilbert. It became a major hurricane on the 9th, and hit western Cuba on the 11th. The storm moved through the Florida Keys as a Category 3 hurricane, and dissipated north of Bermuda on the 13th. Damage neared a million dollars in the Key West area and 12 railroad workers drowned. The final storm formed in the Southwest Caribbean Sea on November 8th, moved northeastward and became a hurricane near Jamaica. It hit northwest Haiti and moved out to sea. Some flooding occurred, but no other damage was reported.