1861 Atlantic hurricane season
| 1861 Atlantic hurricane season |
Season summary map
|
| Seasonal boundaries |
| First system formed |
July 6, 1861 |
| Last system dissipated |
November 3, 1861 |
| Strongest storm |
|
| Name |
One and Three
|
| • Maximum winds |
105 mph (165 km/h) |
| Seasonal statistics |
| Total storms |
8 |
| Hurricanes |
6 |
| Total fatalities |
At least 22 |
| Total damage |
Unknown |
|
|
Atlantic hurricane seasons
1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863
|
| Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
July 6 – July 12 |
| Peak intensity |
105 mph (165 km/h) (1-min) |
| Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
August 13 – August 17 |
| Peak intensity |
90 mph (150 km/h) (1-min) 978 mbar (hPa) |
| Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
August 25 – August 30 |
| Peak intensity |
105 mph (165 km/h) (1-min) 958 mbar (hPa) |
| Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
September 17 – September 17 |
| Peak intensity |
80 mph (130 km/h) (1-min) |
| Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
September 27 – September 28 |
| Peak intensity |
80 mph (130 km/h) (1-min) 985 mbar (hPa) |
| Tropical storm (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
October 6 – October 9 |
| Peak intensity |
70 mph (110 km/h) (1-min) |
| Tropical storm (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
October 7 – October 7 |
| Peak intensity |
60 mph (95 km/h) (1-min) |
| Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS) |
|
|
| Duration |
November 1 – November 3 |
| Peak intensity |
80 mph (130 km/h) (1-min) 985 mbar (hPa) |
The 1861 Atlantic hurricane season occurred during the first year of the American Civil War and had some minor impacts on associated events. Eight tropical cyclones are believed to have formed during the 1861 season; the first storm developed on July 6 and the final system dissipated on November 3. Six of the eight hurricanes attained Category 1 hurricane status or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, of which three produced hurricane-force winds in the United States. No conclusive damage totals are available for any storms. Twenty-two people died in a shipwreck off the New England coast, and an undetermined number of crew members went down with their ship in the July hurricane. Based on maximum sustained winds, the first and third hurricanes are tied for the strongest of the year, although the typical method for determining that record—central barometric air pressure—is not a reliable indicator due to a general lack of data and observations.
Four tropical storms from 1861 had been previously identified by scholars and hurricane experts, but three more were uncovered in modern-day reanalysis. Known tracks for most of the systems are presumed to be incomplete, despite efforts to reconstruct the paths of older tropical cyclones. Three systems completely avoided land. They all had an effect on shipping, in some cases inflicting severe damage on vessels. A storm in September, referred to as the "Equinoctial Storm", hugged the East Coast of the United States and produced rainy and windy conditions both along the coast and further inland. The last storm of the season followed a similar track, and affected a large Union fleet of ships sailing to South Carolina for what would become the Battle of Port Royal. Two vessels were sunk and several others had to return home for repairs. Ultimately the expedition ended in a Union success.
Prior to the advent of modern tropical cyclone tracking technology, notably satellite imagery, many hurricanes that did not affect land directly went unnoticed, and storms that did affect land were not recognized until their onslaught. As a result, information on older hurricane seasons was often incomplete. Modern-day efforts have been made and are still ongoing to reconstruct the tracks of known hurricanes and to identify initially undetected storms. In many cases, the only evidence that a hurricane existed was reports from ships in its path. Judging by the direction of winds experienced by ships, and their location in relation to the storm, it is possible to roughly pinpoint the storm's center of circulation for a given point in time. This is the manner in which three of the eight known storms in the 1861 season were identified by hurricane expert José Fernández Partagás's reanalysis of hurricane seasons between 1851 and 1910. Partagás also extended the known tracks of most of the other tropical cyclones previously identified by scholars. The information Partagás and his colleague uncovered was largely adopted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic hurricane reanalysis in their updates to the Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT), with some slight adjustments. HURDAT is the official source for such hurricane data as track and intensity, although due to a sparsity of available records at the time the storms existed, listings on some storms are incomplete.
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