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NHC AL071944 · Atlantic basin

Unnamed Hurricane of 1944 — the Great Atlantic Hurricane

September 9, 1944 – September 16, 1944

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

Hurricane Unnamed 1944 storm peaked at Category 5 with 161 mph sustained winds and passed within 75 miles of 1,140 US cities, 918 of them while still at hurricane strength.

The Great Atlantic Hurricane in the record

HURDAT2 tracks the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 for 7 days, from September 9, 1944 to September 16, 1944. Its first position, at 20.8°N 58.5°W, records it as a tropical storm; its last, at 52.0°N 47.0°W, as an extratropical cyclone. Its peak was 161 mph (140 knots), Category 5, on September 13, and its lowest central pressure was 918 millibars on September 13. It spent about 5 days at hurricane strength. HURDAT2 marks 2 landfalls within 50 miles of a US city on this site; they were on September 15 at 104 mph (Category 2), 7 miles from East Hampton, NY; on September 15 at 98 mph (Category 2), 4 miles from Charlestown, RI. Its centre passed within 75 miles of 1,140 US cities, in 11 states, most in Massachusetts (311) and New York (217), between September 14 and September 15. The strongest pass was 121 mph (Category 3) 73 miles from Beaufort, NC; the centre came closest to Warren, RI, less than a mile away. 918 of the cities had it at hurricane strength at the closest point, 36 at major-hurricane strength. It reached more US cities than 90% of the 737 storms on this site, and more than any other storm of 1944 on this site.

HURDAT2 lists this storm as AL071944 without a name; "Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944" is the name the National Hurricane Center uses on its Hurricanes in History page.

Peak strength
Category 5

161 mph

Cities within 75 mi
1,140
At hurricane strength
918

when closest

States
11

Cities Unnamed 1944 storm passed near, strongest first

North Carolina (11)

Virginia (11)

Maryland (7)

Delaware (10)

New Jersey (143)

and 83 more

New York (217)

and 157 more

Connecticut (173)

and 113 more

Massachusetts (311)

and 251 more

Rhode Island (49)

New Hampshire (75)

and 15 more

Maine (133)

and 73 more

Other storms of the 1944 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.