THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE OF SEPTEMBER 1-12, 1900 



By F>. B. Garriott, 

 Professor of Meteorology, U. S. WeatJier Buremi 



The United States Weather Bureau at Washiugtou will shortly 

 issue a hulletin on West Indian hurricanes, which contains a chron- 

 ological record of more than four hundred tropical storms. The 

 record begins with a storm which visited the island of Cuba May 

 19-21, 1494, and describes many of the great hurricanes which have 

 swept the Antilles and the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America 

 during the last two hundred years. It is a recital of appalling dis- 

 asters on land and sea, and presents as its crowning horror the hur- 

 ricane which caused a loss of more than 5,000 human lives and a 

 destruction of property to the estimated value of $20,000,000 at Gal- 

 veston, Texas, September 8, 1900. A detailed description of this 

 hurricane can be given only when more complete reports are received 

 from ))oints along its path. SuflEicient data are, however, at hand to 

 permit a summary of its more prominent features. The track of the 

 hurricane and the general meteorological conditions which attended 

 it on the mornings of September 5, 8, and 11 are shown on the 

 accompanying charts. 



The presence of a disturbance in the vicinity of the Windward 

 Islands of the West Indies was indicated by reports of the closing 

 days of August. During the first three days of September this dis- 

 turbance moved westward over the Caribbean Sea, and on the night 

 of the 4th reourved northward over west-central Cuba. By the 

 morning of September 6 its center had reached the southern Florida 

 Peninsula. Thus far in its course the disturbance had followed a 

 normal path, and its only notable feature was excessive rainfalls in 

 Jamaica and eastern Cuba. During September 6 the storm made an 

 abnormal recurve to the westward, increased in intensity, and caused 

 severe gales from the western Bahamas over Florida. Passing west- 

 ward over the Gulf of Mexico, the storm center reached the Texas 

 coast late in tlie afternoon of September 8, where it recurved north- 

 ward and passed directl}' over Galveston a fully developed hurricane. 



The maximum wind velocit}' recorded at Galveston was 96 miles 

 an hour from the northeast at 6.15 p. m., 75th meridian time, and 



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