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Storms That Hit

NHC AL021949 · Atlantic basin

Unnamed Hurricane of 1949

August 23, 1949 – September 1, 1949

Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated

Hurricane Unnamed 1949 storm peaked at Category 4 with 132 mph sustained winds and passed within 75 miles of 2,395 US cities, 364 of them while still at hurricane strength.

The 1949 storm in the record

HURDAT2 tracks the unnamed storm of 1949 (AL021949) for 10 days, from August 23, 1949 to September 1, 1949. Its first position, at 18.0°N 60.0°W, records it as a tropical storm; its last, at 53.0°N 17.0°W, as an extratropical cyclone. Its peak was 132 mph (115 knots), Category 4, on August 26, and its lowest central pressure was 954 millibars on August 26. It spent about 4 days at hurricane strength. HURDAT2 marks a landfall within 50 miles of a US city on this site: on August 26 at 132 mph (Category 4), 5 miles from Atlantis, FL. Its centre passed within 75 miles of 2,395 US cities, in 17 states and territories, most in Pennsylvania (436) and Florida (303), between August 26 and August 30. The strongest pass was 132 mph (Category 4) 1 mile from Atlantis, FL; the centre came closest to San Antonio, FL, less than a mile away. 364 of the cities had it at hurricane strength at the closest point, 67 at major-hurricane strength. It reached more US cities than 98% of the 737 storms on this site, and more than any other storm of 1949 on this site.

Peak strength
Category 4

132 mph

Cities within 75 mi
2,395
At hurricane strength
364

when closest

States
17
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Cities Unnamed 1949 storm passed near, strongest first

Florida (303)

and 243 more

Georgia (197)

and 137 more

South Carolina (112)

and 52 more

Pennsylvania (436)

and 376 more

Virginia (254)

and 194 more

North Carolina (223)

and 163 more

Maryland (185)

and 125 more

West Virginia (37)

Tennessee (7)

District of Columbia (1)

New York (270)

and 210 more

New Jersey (71)

and 11 more

Massachusetts (39)

Connecticut (6)

New Hampshire (90)

and 30 more

Vermont (74)

and 14 more

Maine (90)

and 30 more

Other storms of the 1949 season

All hurricanes and tropical storms →

About this record

The track is the National Hurricane Center's best-track record, revised after the season with every observation available. Strength at a city is the sustained wind on the track at the closest point, not the wind that city measured.