Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635
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| Category 4 hurricane (SSHS) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Formed | August 1635 | |
| Dissipated | August 25, 1635 | |
| Highest winds |
|
|
| Lowest pressure | ≤ 930 mbar (hPa; 27.47 inHg) (Estimated [1]) |
|
| Fatalities | 46+ direct | |
| Damage | Unknown | |
| Areas affected |
Virginia, Long Island, New England, other areas? (Information scarce) | |
| Part of the 1635 Atlantic hurricane season |
||
The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 was a severe hurricane that hit the Jamestown Settlement and the Massachusetts Bay Colony during August of 1635.
Contents |
[edit] Storm history
The hurricane was likely a Cape Verde-type hurricane, considering its intensity. It may have taken a similar track to the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 and Hurricane Edna of 1954. It is first mentioned on August 24, 1635, in Jamestown, Virginia [1]. Though it did affect Jamestown as a major hurricane, no references to damage by the hurricane can be found, probably because the hurricane was evidently moving rapidly more and more east of the settlement. The storm's eye is believed to have passed between Boston and Plymouth. Although neither the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale nor the equipment necessary to measure the storm's characteristics had yet been invented, contemporary descriptions are consistent with a Category 4 hurricane, and it was a strong Category 3 hurricane at landfall with 125 mph (205 km/h) winds and a central pressure of 938 mbar at the Long Island landfall and 939 mbar at the mainland landfall - the lowest ever for a Northeast landfall.[2]
[edit] Impact
Much of the area between Providence and the Piscataqua River was damaged by the hurricane; some damage was still noticeable 50 years later. A letter from Governor William Bradford said that the storm drowned seventeen Native Americans and toppled or destroyed thousands of trees; many houses were also flattened. From an account by Antony Thacher, it also states that there were twenty-three people aboard a little bark named the "Watch and Wait" and owned by a Mr. Isaac Allerton. The boat sank, and Thacher and his wife were the only ones to survive the shipwreck. Thus the island off Cape Ann-where Thacher survived-was named in his honor and is still known as Thacher's Island.
In Narragansett Bay, the tide was fourteen feet above the ordinary tide and drowned eight Native Americans fleeing from their wigwams. The highest ever such recorded value for a New England Hurricane...a twenty-foot storm tide was recorded in some areas. The town of Plymouth (Massachusetts) suffered severe damage with houses blown down and the wind cut great mile-long sections of complete blowdown outside Plymouth and other eastern Massachusetts rural areas. The Boston Massachusetts area did not suffer from the tide as did areas just to its south. The nearest surge swept over the low-lying tracts of Dorchester, ruining the farms and landscape (from accounts of William Bradford and John Winthrop.
In a recent re-analysis of data from the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 by scientists of the Atmospheric Oceanic Meteorological Laboratory's Hurricane Re-analysis project [B.R. J Jarvinen, B. R., 2006 "Storm Tides in Twelve Tropical Cyclones (including Four Intense New England Hurricanes)." Report for FEMA/National Hurricane Center, 99pp.] reanalyzes the hurricane as being a category four hurricane when it made landfall along the Eastern coast of Long Island, New York, and Category Three at subsequent landfall along the border of Rhode Island and Connecticut. In addition, the hurricane is noted for potentially causing the highest storm surge along the Eastern Coast of the United States in recorded history: near the head of Narragansett Bay with a value of approximately 20 feet. Also, the study indicates that this hurricane was very likely the most intense hurricane to ever impact the New England region in recorded history. In addition, reconstruction of the track and intensity using storm surge modelling indicates that the hurricane potentially had an intensity of 938 mb when it made landfall near Long Island.
[edit] See also
- List of tropical cyclones
- List of Atlantic hurricanes
- List of New England hurricanes
- Angel Gabriel (ship)
[edit] References
- Woods Hole Currents: Digging Into Hurricanes
- Timeline: U.S. Storm Disasters
- Hurricane timeline: 1495 to 1800
- Seventeenth Century Virginia Hurricanes
[edit] External links
- The Great Hurricane of 1635 and the Legend of Thacker Island by Keith C. Heidorn
