Hurricane Gracie
| Category 4 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS) | |
Radar image of Hurricane Gracie taken by the United States Navy
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| Formed | September 20, 1959 |
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| Dissipated | September 30, 1959 |
| Highest winds |
1-minute sustained: 140 mph (220 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 950 mbar (hPa); 28.05 inHg |
| Fatalities | 22 direct |
| Damage | $14 million (1959 USD) |
| Areas affected | Bahamas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia |
| Part of the 1959 Atlantic hurricane season | |
Hurricane Gracie was a major hurricane that formed in September 1959, the strongest during the 1959 Atlantic hurricane season and the most intense to strike the United States since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. The system was first noted as an area of thunderstorms east of the Lesser Antilles which moved just north of the Greater Antilles, quickly intensifying into a hurricane on September 22. Gracie was a storm that was very difficult to forecast, with its movement unpredictable. After five days of erratic motion, Gracie became a major hurricane which struck South Carolina, and weakened as it moved up the Appalachians, bringing much needed rain to a drought-plagued region. Much of the destruction related with Gracie was centered on Beaufort, South Carolina. Gracie became an extratropical cyclone on September 30 while moving through the Eastern United States.
An area of squally weather was first noted a few hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles on September 18. The convective area organized into a tropical depression near the north coast of Hispaniola on September 20. After moving west-northwestward for a day, it turned northeastward, where upper level winds were very favorable and steering currents were very weak. On September 22 Gracie was named as a tropical depression before it developed into Tropical Storm Gracie, followed by reaching hurricane strength later that night. It turned to the east on September 25, and turned back west to west-northwest on September 27 as a stable anticyclone built in to its north.
Gracie quickly strengthened and reached its peak of 140 mph (230 km/h) winds on September 29, but cooler air and land interaction weakened it slightly to a 130 mph (215 km/h) Category 4 major hurricane at the time of its landfall at 1625 UTC over St. Helena Sound near the south end of Edisto Island in South Carolina. After landfall, Gracie moved inland and north and became extratropical on September 30.
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