List of Atlantic hurricanes before 1600
Systems
– only paleotempestological evidence

List of Atlantic hurricanes before 1600

Section Title: Systems
Table Section Text: – only paleotempestological evidence

Pre-1500[edit]

Year	Date (GC)	Area(s) affected	Damage/notes

~1330 BC	unknown	Nicaragua	"Hurricane Elisenda", similar to Hurricane Joan–Miriam.

~250 BC	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from Gales Point and Mullins River.

~465	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~765	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~795	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~830	unknown	Alabama	Presumably a category 4 or 5 hurricane that made landfall near Mobile Bay.

~885	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~1050	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~1140	unknown	Alabama	Presumably a category 4 or 5 hurricane that made landfall near Mobile Bay.

~1250	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~1350±55	unknown	New England	Intense prehistoric hurricane making landfall near Rhode Island, similar to the 1815 and 1938 storms.

~1310	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~1330	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

~1430±20	unknown	New England	Intense prehistoric hurricane making landfall near Rhode Island, similar to the 1815 and 1938 storms.

~1465	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

1494	Late ~24 September [O.S. Mid- ~15 September]	Hispaniola	A "violent hurricane" struck Hispaniola near La Isabela from southwest. It was the first hurricane in the Atlantic basin observed and reported by Europeans.

1495	late October	Hispaniola	Also affected La Isabela, damaging some of the ships in the harbor. "When the hurricane reached the harbor, it whirled the ships round as they lay at anchor, snapped their cables, and sank three of them with all who were on board."

1500–1524[edit]

Year	Date (GC)	Area(s) affected	Damage/notes

~1500	unknown	Belize, Leeward Antilles?	A "giant hurricane", by far the strongest to strike Belize since the 3rd millennium BC. Identified in sediment cores from Gales Point and Mullins River, it is assumed "to have caused devastating large-scale social disruptions" among postclassical Maya civilization.

1500	late July	Bahamas	Vicente Yáñez Pinzón lost two caravels with their crews near Crooked Island, Bahamas; his other two vessels sustained damage but escaped to Hispaniola for repairs.

1502	10 July [O.S. 30 June]	offshore Dominican Republic, Hispaniola	A rapidly moving hurricane with a small diameter probably came from vicinity of Grenada, moving northwesterly through the Mona Passage. On the fourth of the voyages of Christopher Columbus, he predicted the storm and took refuge in a natural harbor on the Dominican Republic.

1504	unknown	north coast of Colombia	Juan de la Cosa commanded a flotilla of four large carracks (naos in Spanish) to map the Caribbean Region of Colombia.

1508	12–14 August [O.S. 2–4 August]	Hispaniola	José Carlos Millás hypothesizes that this storm developed east of the Lesser Antilles and crossed the archipelago near Guadeloupe or Dominica.

1508	26 August [O.S. 16 August]	Puerto Rico	Hurricane San Roque of 1508 First recorded record of a tropical cyclone in Puerto Rico. Reported by Juan Ponce de León.

1509	8 August [O.S. 29 July]	Hispaniola	This hurricane moved past Santo Domingo just after the festivities marking the arrival of Diego Columbus as the new governor of the Indies on 20 July [O.S.

1511	August 3	Panama	Geronimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero, both of whom had been on an expedition with Balboa to visit Panama in 1510.

1514	unknown	Puerto Rico	Andrés de Haro reported this storm several months afterwards, but the exact date remains unknown.

1515	July	Puerto Rico	The royal officials told the monarch that one had caused the deaths of many Indians.

~1515	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

1519	unknown	near Jamaica, Cuba	Eighteen men from a caravel near Jamaica survived a "minor hurricane."Fisher 1994 Aboard the vessel were Alonso de Zuazo and two Tavira sisters, which name the hurricane colloquially bears.

1520	unknown	Hispaniola	Affected Eastern Hispaniola.

1523	unknown	Florida West Coast	Two ships and their crews lost off the west coast of Florida.

1525–1549[edit]

Year	Date (GC)	Area(s) affected	Damage/notes

1525	late October	Western Cuba	Hernán Cortés sent a vessel to Trinidad, Cuba. Juan de Avalos commanded a ship to Veracruz to supply his relative Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors.

1525	unknown	Honduras	Struck the newly established colony of Triunfo de la Cruz (Tela).

1526	June	North Carolina	Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón lost a Spanish brigantine under his command amid the treacherous Frying Pan Shoals offshore from the mouth of Cape Fear River; the colonization attempt involving Francisco de Chicora ultimately failed.

1526	14–15 October [O.S. 4–5 October]	Puerto Rico, Eastern Hispaniola	Hurricane San Francisco of 1526 Millás hypothesizes that this hurricane progressed westward or west-northwestward and therefore also might have affected the northern group of the Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands.

1527	circa 30–31 October [O.S. 20–21 October]	Western Cuba	In the ill-fated Narváez expedition, Pánfilo de Narváez reached Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba. He then sent two of his six vessels under the captains Pantoja and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca to the port of Trinidad, Cuba to procure provisions.

1527	November	upper Texas coast	If this storm occurred, then it would be one of two November hurricanes to hit Texas . Some sources state that a storm sank a poorly anchored boat of Pánfilo de Narváez off Galveston Island, but this recollection seemingly conflates the previous storm in Trinidad, Cuba, with the misfortunes of the remnant of the expedition off the upper Texas coast the following autumn.

1527	unknown	Eastern Hispaniola	Made landfall at Santo Domingo.

1528	23 or 30 June [O.S. 13 or 20 June]	Aruba	This hurricane struck a vessel in the Caribbean north of Aruba, and the winds drove the stricken vessel westward for nearly four days until it ran aground on Serrana Bank.

1528	2 October [O.S. 22 September]	Apalachee Bay, Florida	Narváez expedition in 1528 visited the Tampa and Tallahassee areas. Soon after their departure from the Apalachee Bay in upper west Florida, they were shipwrecked by a hurricane storm.

1528	unknown	Hispaniola	A letter, dated 2 November 1528 reports a ship lost on its way from Mexico to Santo Domingo.

1529	28–29 July	Puerto Rico	made landfall at San Juan de Puerto Rico.

~1530	unknown	Belize	A major hurricane landfall identified in sediment cores from the Great Blue Hole.

1530	5 August [O.S. 26 July]	Puerto Rico	Hurricane Santa Ana of 1530 First of three successive tropical cyclones to affect Puerto Rico in 1530. This hurricane of modest intensity brought much rain to Puerto Rico.

1530	1 September [O.S. 22 August]	Puerto Rico	Hurricane San Hipólito of 1530 This tropical storm or weak hurricane brought much more rain than violent winds and caused more extensive flooding and crop damage.

1530	10 September [O.S. 31 August]	Puerto Rico	Hurricane San Ramón of 1530 A violent hurricane struck Puerto Rico nine days later. Floods isolated communities and drowned an uncounted number of persons to death.

1533	31 October-2 November [O.S. 21–23 October]	Leeward Islands	Oviedo mentions the case of two vessels that sailed from Santo Domingo to Spain, but were knocked off course by a hurricane probably north of the Leeward Islands, and returned to Puerto Plata forty days later.

1533	unknown	Puerto Rico	The destruction of 26 July, 23 August, and 31 August killed "so many slaves." This event may refer to the three tropical cyclones that struck Puerto Rico in 1530.

1537	July or August	Puerto Rico	In July and August, three storms of wind and water punished Puerto Rico. River currents carried away and destroyed plantations on the riverbanks.

1537	unknown	northwest Cuba	The carrack (nao in Spanish) San Juan, coming from Spain with valuable merchandise as cargo, was lost 5 leagues east of Havana during a hurricane.

1541	25 December	Venezuela	A hurricane-like storm destroyed the remains of Nueva Cádiz. However, a tsunami perhaps caused all this damage.

1545	20 August [O.S. 10 August]	Dominican Republic	Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés delivers an eyewitness account on this small but very intense hurricane. It came from the south-southeast, passed west of the capital of Santo Domingo, killed "many" or a "large number of" persons there, and moved rapidly north-northwestward.

1545	17–18 September [O.S. 7–8 September]	Puerto Rico, Hispaniola	Excessive rains from this large, slow-moving tropical storm caused the greater damage.

1545	unknown	Mexico	A merchant carrack (nao in Spanish) coming from Spain wrecked on the Veracruz reef system and totally lost 100,000 pesos of cargo.

1545	unknown	Cuba	Made landfall at Havana.

1546	3 September [O.S. 24 August]	Puerto Rico	Made landfall at San Juan de Puerto Rico.

1549	unknown	Hispaniola	The storm wrecked the vessel San Juan in the port of Nombre de Dios near Santo Domingo.

1550–1574[edit]

Year	Date (GC)	Area(s) affected	Damage/notes

1550	unknown	off Florida Keys	The 200-ton Spanish carrack (nao in Spanish) Visitación left Havana with treasure for Spain. She was "lost during a hurricane" off the Florida Keys.

circa 1551	unknown	Florida	Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda survived a shipwreck, and the Calusa rescued the crew and passengers. They then sacrificed all the other castaways but enslaved him; he escaped after 17 years in captivity and reported the tale.

1551	unknown	Cuba	Of this storm, Marcos de J. Melero mentions only the year in the Anales de la Academia de Ciencias de la Habana.

1551	unknown	Gulf of Honduras	Diego de Landa reported this storm. One ship sunk with many persons aboard her; all but five passengers drowned.

1552	28–29 August	Dominican Republic	This storm made landfall at Santo Domingo.

1552	2–4 September	Mexico	This storm made landfall at Veracruz.

1552	3–6 September	Florida

1553	22 September [O.S. 12 September]	Hispaniola	Affected Santo Domingo.

circa 1553	unknown	Florida West Coast	This storm caused seven hundred casualties. Several sources contain similar descriptions of storms for this season; they may describe one or two or three separate tropical cyclones.

1553	unknown	Texas	A Spanish treasure fleet of twenty or more ships, sailed from Veracruz for Havana. Five days into its voyage, a hurricane struck the fleet in the Gulf of Mexico and scattered its ships widely.

1554	April or May (?)	offshore South Texas	The New Spain fleet, a Spanish treasure fleet, comprised top-heavy galleons, difficult to maneuver, with primitive techniques for coping with storms and insufficient experienced navigators.

1554	June (?)	Gulf of Mexico	Three vessels came from Mexico. A hurricane, probably weak, caught them off the northwestern coast of Cuba and carried them toward the coast of Florida, stranding them.

1554	August or September	Bahamas	A storm near Great Inagua wrecked two vessels carrying a load of silver.

1554	August to October	Mona Passage	In August or September, a Spanish caravel (nao in Spanish) ship of Juan González departed Santo Domingo for San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Bástidas Sanabria, son of Cristóbal de Sanabria, aboard her.

1554	14 November [O.S. 4 November]	Cuba	Cosme Rodríguez Farfán commanded a fleet of four vessels from Havana to San Juan, Puerto Rico. A storm hit the fleet off the coast of Oriente Province.

circa 1554	unknown	Bermuda	An overloaded, overcrowded galleon San Miguel ventured to bring great wealth from Veracruz to save the king, presumably Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, from bankruptcy.

1555	unknown	Bahama Channel	The Capitana of New Spain fleet lost in storm. Tropical cyclone status in doubt.[according to whom?]

1557	27 October [O.S. 17 October]	Havana and Matanzas, Cuba	A severe hurricane struck almost the western part of the island, extending from Pinar del Río eastward to Matanzas. It came from the western Caribbean Sea, moving probably from a southerly or a southwesterly direction.

1559	29 August [O.S. 20 August]	near Pensacola Florida/Mobile Alabama	First European documented hurricane hitting Florida. Tristán de Luna y Arellano attempted to start a colony around present day Pensacola with a fleet of eleven to thirteen vessels, five hundred soldiers, a thousand to eleven hundred civilians, 240 horses, and supplies; the vessels landed at Pensacola Bay on 14/15 August.

1561	24 June [O.S. 14 June]	North Carolina	Ángel de Villafañe evacuated the colony of Tristán de Luna y Arellano from Pensacola to Havana with the San Juan and three other vessels.

1563	unknown	near Cape Canaveral, Florida	The 250-ton Spanish galleon La Madelena, loaded with treasure in Vera Cruz, sailed under captain Cristobel Rodríquez to Spain. During a storm, she wrecked on a shoal near Cape Canaveral.

1563	August to October	Atlantic Ocean	Five vessels missing at latitude of Bermuda.

circa 1564	unknown	possibly North Carolina	"None of the people survived" from a wreck on the coast.

1565	31 July—2 August [O.S. 21–23 July]	Atlantic Ocean	Pedro Menéndez de Avilés commanded a fleet of five ships; a violent hurricane east of the Leeward Islands dispersed them.

1565	22 September [O.S. 12 September]	Florida east coast	French Huguenots founded Fort Caroline (now in Jacksonville, Florida) in 1564. Aiming to defeat the French, Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés reached a Timucua village and named it San Agustín (in English, now St.

1566	13–14 September [O.S. 3–4 September]	Florida	An offshore hurricane on the northeast Florida and upper/lower Georgia coastal waters.

1566	24–26 September [O.S. 14–16 September]	Florida	A more severe offshore hurricane on the northeast Florida and Georgia coastal waters.

1567	unknown	Near Dominica	A storm off Dominica wrecked six ships carrying 3 million pesos (77 metric tons (76 long tons) of silver). Natives of the island killed all survivors.

1568	22 August [O.S. 12 August]	Yucatán Channel	A hurricane of large diameter but only weak or moderate intensity affected the fleet of English privateer John Hawkins near Cape San Antonio, Cuba.

1568	3 September [O.S. 24 August]	Puerto Rico	Hurricane San Bartolomé of 1568 Diego de Torres Vargas writes of a severe hurricane that caused widespread damage in San Juan, Puerto Rico and in Santo Domingo.

1568	7 September [O.S. 28 August]	Florida	A second hurricane, perhaps the same storm as the preceding entry, struck the fleet of English privateer John Hawkins. His six ships then straggled into the Spanish-controlled port of San Juan de Ulúa, Veracruz, New Spain, on 15 September, initially under a truce.

1569	September	Bahamas	A storm passed Old Bahama Channel.

1570	during or after September	Atlantic Ocean	Spanish lost four ships between Vera Cruz and Spain. Tropical cyclone status in doubt.[according to whom?]

1571	~September/October	Florida	Heavy flooding in St. Augustine, Florida, two ships lost

1571	18–21 October	Cuba, Jamaica

1571	unknown	Florida Coast	The 300-ton galleon San Ignacio under captaincy of Juan de Canavas with 22 iron cannon and the 340-ton Santa Maria de la Limpia Concepción together carried 2.5 million pesos in treasure.

1573	August	Atlantic Ocean	A hurricane struck a ship in the vicinity of the Virgin Islands.

1574	~ 27 August	Gulf of Mexico and Mexico	Spanish treasure fleet sailed from Spain on 29 June. After reaching the Gulf of Mexico, a "bad storm" struck and scattered the ships widely.

1575–1599[edit]

Year	Date (GC)	Area(s) affected	Damage/notes

1575	1 October [O.S. 21 September]	Puerto Rico	Hurricane San Mateo of 1575 Diego de Torres Vargas mentions severe storm mentioned that struck the island on double of Saint Matthew.

1576	unknown	Hispaniola	Storm made landfall near Monte Cristi Province.

1577	probably August or September	Cuba and Jamaica

1578	unknown	Hispaniola	Storm made landfall near San José de Ocoa Province.

1578	October	Cuba and Jamaica

1579	circa August	Caribbean	A storm struck a vessel sailing from Havana to Isla Margarita.

1579	13 September	Bermuda

1579	26 September	Bermuda

1579	unknown	Atlantic Ocean	A storm sank the 600-ton Almirante of Spanish Armada. Tropical cyclone status in doubt.[according to whom?]

1579	unknown	Jamaica

1583	19 August [O.S. 9 August]	Hispaniola	made landfall at Santo Domingo.

1583	mid-September [O.S. early September]	Hispaniola	Archbishop Alfonso López de Avila of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, reported a hurricane that "ruined the fruit at the beginning of September (Julian calendar)." Could be identical with the 19 August storm.

1586	23–26 June [O.S. 13–16 June]	Roanoke Island	Original European Roanoke Island settlers arrived in 1585. After experiencing a hurricane in 1586 that Ralph Lane reported: "The weather was so sore and the storm so great than our anchors would not hold, and no ship of them all but either broke or lost their anchors.", the settlers moved back to England.

1586	unknown	Old Bahama Channel	A Spanish treasure fleet of 61 ships under Juan Tello de Guzmán gathered from all parts of the Caribbean at Havana and then left for Spain.

1587	31 August [O.S. 21 August]	Roanoke Island	John White reestablished the colony at Roanoke Island in July, 1587. Admiral Francis Drake was forced to cut the cables on his ship to spend six days riding out the storm at sea.

1588	20 September [O.S. 10 September]	Havana, Cuba	A furious hurricane, noted as more destructive than that of 1557, made landfall near Havana.

1588	4–6 November	Colombia	This storm made landfall near Cartagena de Indias.

1589	7 August	Leeward Islands

1589	~9 September	Old Bahama Channel	English squadron (naval) awaited the return of Spanish ships from the Caribbean. Philip II of Spain, king of Iberian Union, consequently ordered that the Spanish Navy (Armada in Spanish) under captain general Alváro Flores de Quiñones, Tierra Firma fleet, and Spanish treasure fleet (Flota de Nueva España in Spanish) from Vera Cruz all meet in Havana and travel together in convoy to Spain.

1589	unknown	Old Bahama Channel	The 120-ton Espíritu Santo under Miguel Baltasar, transporting sugar and hides from Puerto Rico, joined the preceding flotilla convoy in Havana.

1589	unknown	Florida	Passed near Cape Canaveral. Quite possibly the same as the next storm.[original research?]

1589	unknown	Florida East Coast	Gonzalo Méndez de Canço, later governor of Florida, reports that Martín Pérez de Olazábal commanded a fleet; during a storm, one of his ships wrecked at Cape Canaveral.

1590	early November	Gulf of Mexico	Captain general Antonio Navarro de Prado commanded the 63-ship Spanish treasure fleet (Flota de Nueva España) that sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Iberian Union on 1 August.

1591	10 August	Atlantic Ocean	English pirates menaced Spanish vessels considerably during the year. Spain expected 123 sailboats to arrive from the Caribbean, but a fleet of only 77 Spanish vessels, each with tonnage ranging from 200 to 1000, left Havana on 17 July for Spain.

1591	13–14 August	Atlantic Ocean	Another hurricane hit the fleet three or four days after the first storm, sinking five or six of the largest ships of the fleet, including that of its vice-admiral.

1591	26 August [O.S. 16 August]	Roanoke Island	"For at this time the wind blew at northeast and direct into the harbor so great a gale that the sea broke extremely on the bar, and the tide went out forcibly at the entrance."

1591	~30–31 August	Atlantic Ocean	About the end of August (maybe Julian calendar), the third gale caught the Spanish fleet at latitude 38°N, during which 22 vessels perished.

1591	end August/early September	off Azores	Sir Richard Grenville commanded English ship Revenge (1577) alone against 53 Spanish warships under Alonso de Bazán in Battle of Flores (1591) on the night of 30/31 August.

1591	6 September	Azores	Within sight of Flores Island (Azores), another gale separated the fleet, and only 25 or 26 sailboats from the Caribbean ultimately reached Spain.

1591	21 September	Puerto Rico

1591	24 September	Cuba

1591	September	Florida	Landfall near Dry Tortugas.

1591	unknown	coastal Florida	A fleet of 75 to 77 ships left Havana on 27 June. On orders of Philip II of Spain, king of Iberian Union, the mariners left his registered treasure in Havana for safe travel to Spain aboard small, fast zabras.

1591	unknown	at sea	Spanish lost a carrack (nao in Spanish) somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea. Tropical cyclone status in doubt.[according to whom?] Alternatively, this storm may continue another storm of this season.

1593	~25 July [O.S. ~15 July]	Puerto Rico	A storm passed the seas north of the island.

1594	unknown	Caribbean	One ship lost on its way from Panama to the Lesser Antilles.

1594	unknown	Hispaniola	made landfall near Santo Domingo.

1594	unknown	Cuba	made landfall near Havana.

1595	29–30 August	Cuba	made landfall near Havana.

1597	~September–November	Jamaica	Morales Padrón reported a hurricane.

1599	~June/July	Bahamas	This hurricane struck Hernando del Castillo near Great Inagua Island.

1599	22 September	Florida	made landfall near St. Augustine, Florida.

Sentence(s)

Beginning on August 10 1591, Atlantic Ocean English pirates menaced Spanish vessels considerably during the year.

final_sentence: Beginning on August 10 1591, Atlantic Ocean English pirates menaced Spanish vessels considerably during the year.