Did you know that October 25th is the latest calendar date (on record back to 1851) that a major hurricane(CAT 3/4/5) has made landfall in the U.S.? What a hurricane that was too. It made landfall as a CAT 3 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale! Peak winds were estimated to be near 140 mph with a lowest pressure of 941 millibars at the time.
But here is the rest of the story…..
The hurricane had no name, naming began much later than 1921 (naming started in 1950, women’s names starting in 1953), so this “great hurricane” is just called the “1921 Tampa Bay Hurricane.” What is even more interesting is that same city of Tampa Bay has not been struck by another major hurricane since! No, for 93 years it will have dodge a major hurricane strike if it is successful for the rest of this year. Hurricanes have struck or given glancing blows to Tampa Bay over the years but no CAT 3 or higher has struck the city for a very long time.
There is no magic barrier however, this is partly just random good luck, and partly it is that hurricanes must be moving from the southwest or west or northwest to strike Tampa directly…rare directions for major hurricanes and directions most common in June and November! Those hurricanes coming in from the east will nearly always weaken well below major hurricane strength before they cross Florida and strike Tampa. The next major hurricane in Tamp Bay will have a name, assuming we have not changed our hurricane identification convention by then! 🙂
Dr. Steve Lyons 