page_title: 1928 Fort Pierce hurricane
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: 1928 Fort Pierce hurricane / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale TD TS 1 2 3 4 5 English: 1928 Atlantic hurricane 1 track.png track. Uses the color scheme from the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
context_page_description: The 1928 Fort Pierce hurricane devastated areas of Florida and the Southeastern United States in August 1928. The first tropical cyclone and hurricane of the annual hurricane season, the storm developed from a tropical wave first identified on August 3, 1928, north of the Virgin Islands. Slowly intensifying as it moved west-northwest, the system paralleled the Greater Antilles throughout much of its early existence. On August 5, the tropical storm strengthened to the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane, while positioned over The Bahamas. The hurricane continued to intensify, and after reaching Category 2 hurricane strength, attained its peak intensity on August 7 with winds of 105 mph and a minimum barometric pressure of 971 mbar. Shortly after, the hurricane made landfall as a slightly weaker storm just southeast of Fort Pierce, Florida at 0700 UTC on August 8. Weakening as it moved across the Florida peninsula over the course of the next day, the storm briefly moved over the Gulf of Mexico before recurving northwards. Thus, it made a second landfall on the Florida Panhandle on August 10 as a tropical storm.
context_section_description: A tropical disturbance was first identified north of the Leeward Islands near the Virgin Islands at 0000 UTC on August 3. Due to a lack of conclusive weather reports from nearby areas at the time, the origins of the tropical storm were initially unknown, but listed the system as forming near Trinidad and Barbados in the HURDAT—the database listing all tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin since 1851. However, the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project analyzed the storm to have formed north of the Leeward Islands based on reports from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and as such revised the storm's HURDAT listing. Moving to the west-northwest, the tropical storm maintained its intensity without any intensification early in its existence. Ships in the region reported tropical storm-force winds and low barometric pressures. The ship S.S. Sixaola sent a telegraphic report of the storm's location and existence west of Acklins Island on August 5, the first ship to explicitly do so. Beginning to accelerate as it paralleled the Cuban Atlantic coast the following day, the storm intensified to reach an intensity equivalent to a modern-day Category 1 hurricane at 1200 UTC.
  The hurricane continued to intensify, and attained Category 2 hurricane intensity by 0600 UTC on August 7. At around the same time, the S.S. Lempira reported a minimum pressure of 971 mbar (hPa; 28.70 inHg), while 30 miles (50 km) southeast of Jupiter, Florida. At the time, maximum sustained winds were estimated at 105 mph (170 km/h); this would be the hurricane's peak intensity. The hurricane weakened slightly before making landfall on central Florida, just southeast of Fort Pierce, Florida, at 0700 UTC the following day. Winds at landfall were estimated at 100 mph (160 km/h), with a minimum central pressure of 977 mbar (28.85 inHg) recorded in Fort Pierce within the hurricane's eye. At the time, the system's maximum winds extended up to 10 mi (15 km) from the center of circulation. The storm then slowly crossed the Florida peninsula, before entering the Gulf of Mexico the next day near Tampa, Florida, after having weakened down to tropical storm strength. Despite remaining over water, its close proximity to the continent prevented further strengthening. The tropical storm recurved to the north in the gulf, before making a second landfall near Apalachicola, Florida at 0400 UTC on August 10 with winds of 40 mph (65 km/h). Moving inland, the system rapidly weakened as it continued to recurve to the northeast, further degenerating to tropical depression strength at 0000 UTC on August 11 while situated over Georgia. Based on weather station observations, the storm was analyzed to have transitioned into an extratropical cyclone later that day. The extratropical storm strengthened slightly over the Mid-Atlantic states, before exiting into the Atlantic Ocean near the Virginia Capes. The storm system progressed eastward across the ocean before dissipating at 1800 UTC on August 14.
caption: Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
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