1926 Miami Hurricane

Hurricane Seven

Category 4 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Surface weather analysis of the storm over South Florida on September 18
Formed	11 September 1926 (1926-09-11)
Dissipated	22 September 1926 (1926-09-23)
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 150 mph (240 km/h)
Lowest pressure	930 mbar (hPa); 27.46 inHg (estimated)
Fatalities	372–539+
Damage	$78.58 million (1926 USD) (Costliest U.S. hurricane when adjusted for wealth normalization)
Areas affected	Turks and Caicos Islands, The Bahamas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
Part of the 1926 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1926 Miami hurricane, commonly called the "Great Miami" hurricane, was a large and intense tropical cyclone that devastated the Greater Miami area and caused extensive damage in the Bahamas and the U.S. Gulf Coast in September 1926, accruing a US$78.58 million damage toll that remains the costliest in U.S. history when adjusted using inflation, population, and wealth normalization, yielding a cost of nearly US$165 billion. As a result of the destruction in Florida, the hurricane represented an early start to the Great Depression in the aftermath of the state's 1920s land boom.

The tropical cyclone is believed to have formed in the central Atlantic Ocean on September 11. Steadily strengthening as it tracked west-northwestward, the tropical storm reached hurricane intensity the next day. As a result of scattered observations at open sea, however, no ship encountered the storm until September 15, by which time the cyclone had reached major hurricane intensity north of the Virgin Islands. Strengthening continued up until the following day, when the storm reached peak intensity with a strength equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. This intensity was maintained as the storm tracked across the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas to landfall near Miami on September 18.

The cyclone caused immense destruction throughout the islands and across southern Florida. The storm destroyed hundreds of structures in its path over the islands, leaving thousands of residents homeless. At least 17 deaths occurred on the islands, though many others—some related only indirectly to the storm—were reported in the aftermath. Upon striking South Florida, the cyclone generated hurricane-force winds over a broad swath of the region, causing widespread and severe structural damage from both wind and water. Most of the deaths occurred near Lake Okeechobee, when a large storm surge breached muck dikes and drowned hundreds of people.