On This Date: A Once-Forgotten May Hurricane Struck Florida
A Civil War hurricane once made landfall in Florida before hurricane season started, and it wasn't widely known until a 21st century study brought it to light.
On May 28, 1863, 162 years ago today, a Category 2 hurricane slammed ashore near Apalachicola, Florida.
This is the first known May U.S. hurricane landfall on record. That was almost two weeks earlier than Hurricane Alma, which also made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on June 9, 1966, the next earliest U.S. hurricane landfall.
The hurricane claimed 72 lives in Florida and another 38 lives at sea aboard the vessel Soler two days before landfall.
A 2013 study by Michael Chenoweth and C.J. Mock rediscovered this once-forgotten Civil War-era U.S. hurricane. Poring through ship records, including those from the Union Navy blockading the Gulf Coast, as well as local newspaper accounts and other weather records, the study found a tropical storm formed on May 25, then turned north as a hurricane beginning on May 27, before its May 28 sunrise landfall.
The hurricane was named "Amanda" after a Union ship driven ashore. According to the study, acting Volunteer Lieutenant George Welch claimed to see Confederate troops and, thus, ordered the ship to be abandoned. But a court the following month failed to turn up evidence of Confederate troops.
It's a reminder that more impactful tropical storms and hurricanes can happen even this early in the calendar. Thirteen years ago today, Tropical Storm Beryl very nearly reached hurricane status when it came ashore near Jacksonville Beach just after midnight.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
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