The decade of the 1830s featured the 1830–1839 Atlantic hurricane seasons. While data is not available for every storm that occurred, some parts of the coastline were populated enough to give data of hurricane occurrences. Each season was an ongoing event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation in the Atlantic basin. Most tropical cyclone formation occurs between June 1 and November 30.
I. A hurricane moved from Trinidad to western Cuba between August 3 and August 9.
II. First noted in the Leeward Islands on August 11, a hurricane moved into the Caribbean in the middle of August. It moved west-northwestward, and approached the coast of Florida. It came close to present-day Daytona Beach on August 15, but recurved northeastward before landfall, although land was not spared from effects. It made landfall near Cape Fear on the 16th and went out to sea that night, eventually well to the north of Bermuda just offshore the Canadian Maritimes. The hurricane broke a three month drought, but caused heavy crop damage in the process.
III. A hurricane tracked north of the Leeward Islands on August 19 through the southwest and western Atlantic by August 26.
IV. A hurricane moved from north of Puerto Rico on September 29 to well northeast of Bermuda on October 1.
V. A tropical storm struck South Carolina on October 6.[1]
I. A tropical storm made landfall in northeast Florida on June 10.
II. A hurricane moved from south of Barbados to the Yucatán Peninsula between June 22 and June 28.
III. The Great Barbados Hurricane was an intense Category 4 hurricane that left cataclysmic damage across the Caribbean and Louisiana in 1831. Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, Santiago Cuba, and Martinique saw damage from the storm. The storm completely destroyed, St. Johns Parish church and the town of Les Cayes, Haiti. It left 2,500 people dead and $7 million dollars (1831 dollars) in damage.
IV. A strong tropical storm/hurricane struck western Louisiana between August 27 and August 30.[1]
V. A hurricane hit near the mouth of the Rio Grande, causing heavy rain over Texas and Mexico.
I. Early in the season, a hurricane moved through the Bahamas around June 5, causing 52 deaths. The gale began June 6 at 8 p.m. at Bermuda from the northeast, with the center passing quite close to the island as the wind shifted to southwest at 10:30 p.m. The storm lasted until 3 a.m. on June 7. Two schooners were damaged during the system. (from Beware the Hurricane)
II. On August 12, this hurricane was noted near Key West. The cyclone moved across the eastern Gulf of Mexico striking northwest Florida, then recurving through the Southeast to move through South Carolina by August 18.
III. On August 21 a tropical storm was witnessed to the west-southwest of Cape Verde in the eastern tropical Atlantic.
IV. Between August 23 and August 27, a hurricane moved from the central Leeward Islands to the east of Jamaica.
V. On October 14, a tropical storm moved into South Carolina.[1]
A hurricane passed offshore of Norfolk in late August, keeping ships at harbor but causing no damage.
I. On September 4 a hurricane hit South Carolina, causing 37 deaths. It moved through North Carolina and Virginia, capsizing the ship E. Pluribus Unum. The crew made it safely to shore.
II. A hurricane struck the island of Dominica on September 20, bringing heavy winds and a 12 ft storm surge that devastated the capital of Roseau; 230 people are believed to have been killed by the hurricane's onslaught. Then the hurricane made its second landfall at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on the 23rd. About 170 sailors died when their ships sank in the Ozama River. On land the hurricane disrupted the funeral service of Padre Ruiz, a Roman Catholic priest. A total of 400 people were killed from the hurricane.
III. Also in September, a hurricane hit south Texas, causing heavy damage.
A hurricane was first detected near Antigua on August 12. It moved over Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Cuba, causing at least 3 casualties. It moved across the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico, hitting near the mouth of the Rio Grande on August 18. There, it destroyed small villages, caused strong storm surge, and killed 18 people.
Jay Barnes in "Florida's Hurricane History" pg 56, noted a hurricane, possibly the same, that smashed Cape Florida and Key Biscayne, creating the Norris Cut and knocking over the Ponce de Leon lighthouse. From there, the storm entered the Gulf of Mexico and took a hard northeast tack, damaging Fort Brooke in Tampa, terrorizing the city, and then ambling northward into Georgia and the Carolinas, making the trip "all the way into New England."
A hurricane hit the Cayman Islands during this season.
I. On July 9 and 10, a tropical storm impacted Barbados.[2]
II. On July 26 a storm hit Martinique and Barbados. The system became a hurricane, moving ashore southern Florida before moving through the northeast Gulf of Mexico and through Alabama by August 5.[2] It caused 57 deaths.
III. A hurricane was noted in the Atlantic north of the Bahamas on August 1, before moving northwest to the Florida/Georgia border and dissipating well inland by August 5.[2]
Initially passing by Antigua on August 1, a hurricane hit Puerto Rico on August 2 causing 141 deaths. It entered in the east in Humacao at 5 and six pm, and left thru Vega Baja and Dorado ten to twelve hours later. The eye passed very near San Juan and the barometric pressure (available for the first time in Puerto Rico) was 28.00 inches in San Juan. All of the ships in the Bay of San Juan were sunk. The worst damages occurred in the north eastern part of the island.[3] Thereafter, the cyclone moved northwest to the Florida/Georgia border before recurving through the western Carolinas on August 7.[2]
V. A tropical system was observed east of the West Indies on August 13. It moved through the islands, and passed the Bahamas on August 16. As it was recurving, it hit the North Carolina coast on August 18. It slowly moved over land, causing 48 hours of strong winds, and moved back offshore into the Atlantic on August 20, bypassing southern New England by August 22.[2] This storm is known as the Calypso Hurricane.
VI. A tropical storm moved east of Bermuda between August 21 and August 25.[2]
VII. A hurricane moved east-northeast out of the Gulf of Mexico on August 31, striking Apalachee Bay and moved just offshore the Carolinas by September 2.[2]
VIII. A tropical storm formed near the northern Bahamas on August 13 before moving northeast through the western Atlantic ocean on August 15.[2]
IX. A tropical storm moved across St. Augustine, Florida, affecting northeast Florida between September 24 and September 26.[2]
XI. A tropical storm crossed central Cuba on October 26, moving north-northeast offshore the coast of the Southeast United States through October 29.[2]
X. The 10th known tropical storm in the 1837 season, nicknamed Racer's Storm, was first observed in the Western Caribbean during late September. It moved across the Yucatán Peninsula and the western Gulf of Mexico, where it moved near Brownsville, Texas on October 2. It remained near the coast for 3 days before recurving to the east, hitting near Louisiana and Pensacola before moving out to sea on October 11.[2] This hurricane caused 105 deaths.
I. On September 7, a hurricane hit near Cape Florida, causing 38 deaths.
II. A late season hurricane hit the east coast of Mexico on November 1, sinking 2 U.S. ships.
I. A hurricane hit Charleston, South Carolina on August 28. It passed over North Carolina and Virginia before going out to sea on the 30th.
II. This cyclone is known as Reid's Hurricane. The system moved from east of the West Indies into the southwest Atlantic. Swells were noted as early as September 9 at Bermuda. During late on the September 11 and early on September 12, this hurricane struck Bermuda. The storm tide was measured as 11 feet/3.3 meters. Thousands of trees were downed. The tower on Tower Hill was levelled. Damage done to private property totalled 8000 pounds sterling (1839 pounds). This cyclone later swept western Ireland as an extratropical storm, which they called The Great Wind of 1839. WRONG THE GREAT wIND OF 1839 OCCURRED ON JANUARY 6 SO COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE THIS STORM. SEE CARR P. (1993) THE NIGHT OF THE BIG WIND, WHITE ROW PRESS, BELFAST. This was one of the first hurricanes to be studied by William Reid in person, in this case as governor of the island the year after his publication of "The Law of Storms". (from Beware the Hurricane)
III. During the middle of September, a hurricane approached the coast of Louisiana. It struck near Lake Charles, then known as Charley's Lake, on September 15.
IV. A late season hurricane hit Galveston, Texas on November 5.
