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1938 New England hurricane

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1938 New England hurricane
Weather map from September 21 depicting the storm off the Mid-Atlantic coast
Meteorological history
FormedSeptember 9, 1938 (September 9, 1938)
ExtratropicalSeptember 22, 1938
DissipatedSeptember 23, 1938 (September 23, 1938)
Category 5 major hurricane
1-minute sustained (SSHWS/NWS)
Highest winds160 mph (260 km/h)
Lowest pressure<940 mbar (hPa); <27.76 inHg
Overall effects
Fatalities682 to 800 direct
Damage$306 million (1938 USD)
Areas affectedSoutheastern United States, Northeastern United States (particularly Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts), southwestern Quebec
IBTrACSEdit this at Wikidata
Part of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane)[1][2] was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near the coast of Africa on September 9, becoming a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale, before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane[3] on Long Island on Wednesday, September 21. It is estimated that the hurricane killed 682 people,[4] damaged or destroyed more than 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at $306 million ($4.7 billion in 2024).[5][6] .[7][8] Also, numerous others estimate the real damage between $347 million and almost $410 million.[9] Damaged trees and buildings were still seen in the affected areas as late as 1951.[10] It remains the most powerful and deadliest hurricane to ever strike New York and New England in history, perhaps eclipsed in landfall intensity only by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.[11]

The US Weather Bureau was not aware of the existience of the 1938 hurricane until it was northeast of Puerto Rico on September 16th. The storm developed into a tropical depression on September 9 off the coast of West Africa, but the United States Weather Bureau was unaware that a tropical cyclone existed until September 16 when ships reported strong winds and rough seas 350 miles northeast of San Juan; by then, it was already a well-developed hurricane and had tracked westward toward the southeastern Bahamas. It reached hurricane strength on September 15 and continued to strengthen to a peak intensity of 160 mph (260 km/h) near the southeastern Bahamas four days later, making it a Category 5-equivalent hurricane.[note 1] The storm was propelled northward, rapidly paralleling the East Coast before making landfalls on Long Island, New York and Connecticut as a Category 3 hurricane on September 21, with estimated sustained winds of 115 - 120 mph. After moving inland, it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone and dissipated over Ontario on September 23.

  1. ^ Voorhees, Josh (October 29, 2012). "Hurricane Sandy Isn't NYC's First Freak Superstorm". Slate Magazine. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  2. ^ "The Great Hurricane of 1938 - The Long Island Express". Archived from the original on September 25, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  3. ^ "The Great Hurricane of 1938 - The Long Island Express". Archived from the original on September 25, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  4. ^ Scotti, R. A. "Sudden Sea — The Great Hurricane of 1938". Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 2003. Archived from the original on January 2, 2007. Retrieved November 30, 2007.
  5. ^ "New England Numbers Hurricane of '38". NewEngland.com. Yankee Magazine. August 19, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  6. ^ Ian Webster. "$306,000,000 in 1938 is worth $6,734,734,468.09 today". CPI Inflation Calculator. Official Data Foundation. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  7. ^ An Actuary Reads the Newspaper (PDF). New York Annual Meeting October 18–21, 1998. Record of the Society of Actuaries. Vol. 24, no. 3. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  8. ^ Karen M. Clark (November 12, 2017). "A Hurricane Andrew Message for Insurers". Actuarial Review. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  9. ^ "Hurricane 1938 Aftermath". The PBS Network. Retrieved October 10, 2021.
  10. ^ Lane, F. W. (1966). The Elements Rage. p. 16. ISBN 0-8019-5088-0.
  11. ^ Lefebvre, Paul (October 19, 2016). "How a hurricane changed New England's forests" (PDF). The Chronicle. Barton, Vermont. pp. B1. review of book: 'Thirty-Eight, The Hurricane that Transformed New England', by Stephen Long 2016
  12. ^ Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale". Miami Regional Library. Miami, Florida: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved June 15, 2016.


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