1945 Homestead hurricane

Hurricane Nine
1945 Homestead hurricane

Category 4 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Surface weather analysis of the hurricane on September 16
Formed	September 12, 1945
Dissipated	September 20, 1945
(Extratropical after September 18)
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 130 mph (215 km/h)
Lowest pressure	949 mbar (hPa); 28.02 inHg
Fatalities	26 total
Damage	$60 million (1945 USD)
Areas affected	Leeward Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Florida, Georgia, The Carolinas
Part of the 1945 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1945 Homestead hurricane was the most intense tropical cyclone to strike the U.S. state of Florida since 1935. The ninth tropical storm, third hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season, it developed east-northeast of the Leeward Islands on September 12. Moving briskly west-northwestward, the storm became a major hurricane on September 13. The system moved over the Turks and Caicos Islands the following day and then Andros on September 15. Later that day, the storm peaked as a Category 4 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale with winds of 130 mph (215 km/h). Late on September 15, the hurricane made landfall on Key Largo and then in southern Miami-Dade County, and across Homestead, FL where much damage was done and winds were clocked at Homestead Army Air Corps Base at 145 mph.

Thereafter, the hurricane began to weaken while moving across Florida, falling to Category 1 intensity only several hours after landfall late on September 15. Eventually, it curved north-northeastward and approached the east coast of Florida again. Late on September 16, the storm emerged into the Atlantic near St. Augustine and weakened to a tropical storm early on the following day. The cyclone made another landfall near the Georgia-South Carolina state line later on September 17. The system continued to weaken and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone near the border of North Carolina and Virginia early on September 18.