1949 Texas hurricane

Hurricane Ten

Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Map of the hurricane on October 4
Formed	September 27, 1949
Dissipated	October 7, 1949
(Extratropical after October 5)
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 110 mph (175 km/h)
Lowest pressure	965 mbar (hPa); 28.5 inHg
Fatalities	2 total
Damage	$6.7 million (1949 USD)
Areas affected	El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Belize, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois
Part of the 1949 Atlantic hurricane season 1949 Pacific hurricane season

The 1949 Texas hurricane was an intense tropical cyclone of the 1949 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming in the Pacific Ocean on September 27, the storm crossed into the Gulf of Mexico—one of only a handful of known storms to do so—and began to intensify. It ultimately peaked with winds corresponding to high-end Category 2 status on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale and made landfall near Freeport, Texas, on the morning of October 4. It rapidly weakened after moving inland and dissipated several days later. Damage from the storm was moderate, although the hurricane temporarily cut off the city of Galveston from the mainland. Rice crops suffered extensive damage, with losses estimated at up to $10 million (1949 USD, $101 million 2017 USD). Two people died due to the hurricane.

According to modern-day analysis, a tropical depression developed in the Pacific Ocean, south of El Salvador, early on September 27. It drifted northward across Central America and eastern Mexico before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico near Ciudad del Carmen on September 30. Weather reports had indicated low air pressures over the area for several days. It is relatively rare for a tropical cyclone to cross from the Pacific into the Atlantic, or vice versa, and this storm is among less than a dozen known to have officially done so. Only three other tropical cyclones have crossed from the eastern Pacific into the Gulf of Mexico.

The cyclone intensified into a tropical storm on October 1 and sped up slightly as it curved northwestward. A day later it became a hurricane. Subsequently, a period of rapid intensification took place, and as the cyclone approached the Texas coast on October 3, it attained peak winds of 110 miles per hour (177 km/h), equivalent to upper-end Category 2—almost Category 3—intensity. The storm moved ashore early the next day just east of Bay City with a barometric pressure estimated at 965 millibars (28.50 inHg). The storm is one of a relatively few October hurricanes to either impact or make landfall in Texas. After significantly weakening, it passed directly over Houston; the next storm to do so would be Hurricane Alicia in 1983.