A Reassessment of the 1916, 1918, 1927, 1928, and 1935 Hurricanes of the North Atlantic Basin

This research involves a reanalysis of the National Hurricane Center's Atlantic Basin Hurricane Database (HURDAT) for 1916, 1918, 1927, 1928, and 1935. Newly available meteorological records from shipping fleet logs (COADS) along with recently discovered historical documents were used to reassess tropical cyclone location and intensity. Tropical cyclone track and intensity alterations will be thoroughly discussed and emphasis will be placed on major hurricanes such as the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.

The overall results of the reanalysis process includes small modifications, on the order of one to two degrees of track shift and less than fifteen knots of intensity change, for tropical cyclones previously found in HURDAT. Some significant alterations in position (greater than three degrees of latitude or longitude) and intensity (greater than fifteen knots) were needed to correct inconsistencies within the HURDAT record. Only one storm was found to have no alterations in intensity. Three tropical storms previously documented in HURDAT were deleted: one in 1918 and two in 1916. Four undocumented tropical storms were added: one in 1918, one in 1927, and two in 1935. This increases the number of tropical cyclones for the study period to 41. However, the overall tropical activity, as expressed by the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index, remained nearly the same. This research is significant because it will strengthen and improve our understanding of hurricane climatology during the early Twentieth Century.