Major Hurricane Mystery: Unraveling the Truth Behind the 1888 Category 3 Miami Beach Hurricane

The official National Hurricane Center historical database called HURDAT2 includes a Category 3 hurricane making landfall in what today is Miami Beach, Florida on August 16, 1888. The accompanying analysis text indicates that the storm could have been stronger. The storm is counted in the climatology of major hurricanes that have hit Greater Miami in the past 150 years. As a resident of Miami Beach and with an interest in history, however, I thought that a storm of that magnitude should have had a significant and lasting impact on the barrier island and been part of the local lore, even though there were only scattered settlements in South Florida at that time. An examination of the historical record from the National Archives, contemporaneous books and news reports, and scattered observations revealed that indeed a hurricane hit South Florida on that date, but it didn't hit Miami Beach and it wasn't a Category 3. This talk unravels the hurricane mystery of the alleged 1888 Miami Beach hurricane.