Portal:Tropical cyclones/Featured article/List of Florida hurricanes



The List of Florida hurricanes encompasses 472 tropical or subtropical cyclones that affected the state of Florida. More storms hit Florida than any other U.S. state, and since 1851 only eighteen hurricane seasons passed without a storm impacting the state. Collectively, cyclones caused a death toll of 10,270 people in the region, most of which occurring prior to the start of Hurricane Hunters flights in 1943. Additionally, the cumulative impact from the storms totaled over $110 billion in damage (2007 USD), primarily from Hurricane Andrew and hurricanes in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Tropical cyclones have affected Florida in every month of the year but January and March. Nearly one-third of the cyclones affected the state in September, and nearly three-fourths of the storms affected the state between August and October, which coincides with the peak of the hurricane season. Portions of the coastline have the lowest return period, or the frequency at which a certain intensity or category of hurricane can be expected within 86 mi (139 km) of a given location, in the country. Monroe County was struck by 26 hurricanes since 1926, which is the greatest total for any county in the United States.

In a Monthly Weather Review paper published in 1933, the U.S. Weather Bureau recognized Key West and Pensacola as the most hurricane-prone cities in the state; Key West experiences both storms developing from the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, while Pensacola has received hurricanes crossing the state as well as storms recurving in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The earliest storm to affect the state was the 1952 Groundhog Day Tropical Storm, and the latest storm to impact the state was a hurricane making landfall on December 1, 1925. The strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall on the state was the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, which crossed the Florida Keys with a pressure of 892 mbar (hPa; 26.35 inHg); it is also the strongest hurricane on record to strike the United States. Out of the ten most intense landfalling United States hurricanes, four struck Florida at peak strength.

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