Hurricane Barbara (1953)

Hurricane Barbara

Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
August 14 weather map featuring Hurricane Barbara
Formed	August 11, 1953
Dissipated	August 16, 1953
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 110 mph (175 km/h)
Lowest pressure	987 mbar (hPa); 29.15 inHg
Fatalities	9 total
Damage	$1.3 million (1953 USD)
Areas affected	U.S. East Coast
Part of the 1953 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Barbara was the second named tropical cyclone of the 1953 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming from a tropical wave on August 11 in the southern Bahamas, Barbara moved northward and attained hurricane status the next day. Ultimately peaking with winds corresponding to Category 2 status on the modern-day Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, Barbara moved ashore in eastern North Carolina and curved back out to sea. The storm passed to the southeast of the New England region and dissipated on August 16. Damage from the hurricane was fairly minor, totaling around $1.3 million (1953 USD, $11.6 million 2017 USD). Most of it occurred in North Carolina and Virginia from crop damage. The hurricane left several injuries, some traffic accidents, as well as seven fatalities in the eastern United States; at least two were due to electrocution from downed power lines. Offshore Atlantic Canada, a small boat sunk, killing its crew of two.

In the days preceding the storm's formation, a tropical wave moved westward across the Atlantic Ocean. The wave was initially weak as it tracked toward Cuba, but on August 10, there were indications of a closed circulation center over the eastern portion of the island. The low deepened a bit as it moved northward to a position near Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas on August 11, at which time the disturbance organized into a tropical storm. The storm intensified throughout the day, and on the morning of August 12, reconnaissance aircraft found winds of about 75 mph (120 km/h) in the northeastern section of the circulation, although the southwestern portion was still weak and disorganized. It is estimated that Barbara became a hurricane at around 1200 UTC.