100th anniversary of the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane

The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 made landfall in Miami on the morning of September 18, 1926.

I am publishing this post one month ahead of the anniversary to share some new wind speed maps I created, which I hope can be useful to the community as the centennial approaches.

Miami-Dade County has had 12 major hurricanes (Category 3+) pass within 20 miles in the past century. There were two in 1926, including the Great Miami Hurricane, then the others were in 1929, 1935, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1950 (King), 1960 (Donna), 1965 (Betsy), 1992 (Andrew), and 2005 (Wilma).  That's an average return period of 8.3 years, but clearly, they aren't bound to that average.  Four of the twelve occurred in just six years from 1945-1950. Luckily, there have been zero in the past 21 years.

Tracks of the 12 major hurricanes that passed within 20 miles of Miami-Dade County from 1926-2025.

But even with that infamous list of storms, the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 keeps its place in history. If any of them were to occur this year, the Great Miami Hurricane would still rank as the most destructive and costly.  Some might wonder why 1992's Andrew doesn't top that list... it was very small and the extreme winds in the eyewall missed downtown Miami. The 1926 hurricane was also extremely intense, but much larger and the eyewall passed directly over Miami. In 2026, the impact from an identical hurricane would be unimaginable and unsurpassed.

Please peruse this webpage I created to showcase the new surface wind maps, and reach out to me with any questions you may have:

Great Miami Hurricane of 1926

One of the surface wind field maps available at https://bmcnoldy.earth.miami.edu/tropics/miami26/. Several storm parameters needed to be carefully estimated using what data are available. The decay of wind speed over land is intentionally smoothed, and modern urban areas in the land use dataset are handled to approximate what it may have been one century ago.

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Bertha bringing unsettled weather to northern Gulf coast

Shortly after my previous post, Invest 91L was upgraded to Tropical Depression Two, then late Monday night, it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Bertha... the second named storm of the season.

It has barely moved since it formed but is gradually oozing westward just off the Gulf coast. That slow motion will continue over the next several days as it scrapes along the coastline.  Tropical storm watches and warnings are in effect for the coastal Florida panhandle over to western Louisiana.  On the cone graphic below, remember the cone does NOT show where impacts will be experienced, only the likely area where the center of the storm will track. [Cone refresher]

As you can see in the satellite animation at the top of the post, the storm is extremely sheared, with the surface center exposed and the thunderstorm activity displaced to the south.  That significant vertical wind shear will keep the storm from intensifying much.

The only relatively minor impact will be storm surge of 2-4 feet along Mississippi and eastern Louisiana... the rain should not be a big problem because the bulk of the messy part of the storm will remain over the Gulf of Mexico.  The stronger side of the storm in terms of wind is also more over the Gulf and less over land, but the graphic below shows the probability and most likely arrival time of tropical storm force winds. Most places over land are under a 50% chance of seeing such winds.

Bertha is still a name from the original set of rotating lists... first used in 1984 and every six years since.  So this is its 8th time in use and will be certainly be around for a 9th time in 2032. [Storm naming and retiring refresher]

 

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Watching northern Gulf of Mexico for tropical development

Over the past several days, a persistent blob of disturbed weather has been drifting westward across Florida and is now centered over the northeast Gulf of Mexico.  The National Hurricane Center has had this in their outlook since Wednesday morning. Now tagged as Invest 91L, this disturbance is likely to become Tropical Depression 2 soon, or perhaps Tropical Storm Bertha.

It is forecast to track generally westward across the Gulf over the next 5 or so days, sticking very close to the coastline.

The water temperature under and ahead of the disturbance is quite warm (almost record warm for the date), with anomalies up to 2°C at its current location.

https://bmcnoldy.earth.miami.edu/tropics/sectors/

This system does not have a lot water to work with, nor a lot of time over open water, so significant development is very unlikely, but that won't stop it from producing a lot of rain near and over the northern Gulf coast. This map shows the 5-day accumulated rainfall forecast, and although the heaviest totals are shown over water, it wouldn't take much of a nudge from this to place those higher values over land.

Climatologically, the second named storm forms on July 15, so if this manages to become Tropical Storm Bertha, it would be very close to average in the season.

Stay tuned to https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ for updates and new watches and warnings.

Finally, thank you to all of the people who contacted me after my previous post announcing that this would be my final year of writing these posts... 1996-2026. I really appreciate the outpouring of kind words, especially from those who have been following for the whole three decades!

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