Atlantic Hurricanes in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
Jose Fernández-Partagás
Private consultant, Coral Gables, Florida
Henry F. Diaz
NOAA/ERL/CDC, Boulder, CO
Abstract
A historical revision of Atlantic tropical cyclones for the period 1851-
90 is presented. This work was undertaken with the aim of improving knowledge of
the tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic basin, which occurred
during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Another aim of the study was
to develop more reliable figures regarding cyclone frequency variations than
those that were currently available. The 40-yr period covered by this study
spans the 20 year (1851-70) prior to the founding of a U.S. meteorological
service as part of the U.S. Signal Service and the approximately 20 yr (1871-90)
that military personnel of that service took care of the of ficial
meteorological affairs in the country, prior to the establishment of a
civilian U.S. Weather Bureau within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The
period 1851-90 was found to be particularly attractive from a research
standpoint because it covered the time elapsed from 1855, the last year
included in the storm catalog prepared by Poey, which is used in the cyclone
list shown by Tannehill, to 1878, the year the Signal Service began to
systematically trace all West Indian hurricanes.
A comparison of hurricane activity, in terms of the total number of storms, is
made between the 40-yr period of 1851-90, and the corresponding period in the
twentieth century. Even after taking into account the large differences in the
observational network during these two periods, a century apart, there is some
suggestion that the earlier period was relatively less active.
Henry F. Diaz
NOAA-CIRES
Climate Diagnostics Center
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Updated: Jul 8, 2004 16:17:32 MDT
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/people/henry.f.diaz/hfd_abs.dir/atl_hurr.html