page_title: 1929 Bahamas hurricane
section_title: Meteorological history
hierarchical_section_title: 1929 Bahamas hurricane / Meteorological history
caption_attribution_description: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane ScaleTDTS12345 English: 1929 Florida hurricane track. Uses the color scheme from the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
context_page_description: The 1929 Bahamas hurricane was a high-end Category 4 tropical cyclone whose intensity and slow forward speed led to catastrophic damage in the Bahamas in September 1929, particularly on Andros and New Providence islands. Its erratic path and a lack of nearby weather observations made the hurricane difficult to locate and forecast. The storm later made two landfalls in Florida, killing eleven but causing comparatively light damage. Moisture from the storm led to extensive flooding over the Southeastern United States, particularly along the Savannah River. Across its path from the Bahamas to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, the hurricane killed 155 people.
  The storm's origins can be traced to tropical wave first noted near Cabo Verde on September 11, 1929. This tropical disturbance remained dormant as it tracked west until September 18, when an associated area of thunderstorms developed into a tropical depression northeast of Puerto Rico. Gradually strengthening, the depression reached tropical storm strength on September 22 and hurricane strength on September 23.
context_section_description: The hurricane can be traced back to a complex of disturbed weather near Cabo Verde on September 11, producing showers across the open waters of the Atlantic and directed westward by the Azores High. The disturbance remained a weak tropical wave for much of its early history, but over time gradually organized. By September 15, weather maps began to notate the system as a trough of low pressure north of the Lesser Antilles. A portion of this trough split off and moved northwest towards the South Atlantic states while the remaining disturbance continued to organize, becoming a tropical depression approximately 355 mi (570 km) northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, by September 18. Over the next three days, the system remained a tropical depression as it tracked slowly west. It reached tropical storm strength by September 22 while 400 mi (640 km) northwest of San Juan and curved northwest. Continuing to strengthen, the storm reached hurricane intensity the following day. On September 24, the hurricane began to slowly move southwest towards the Bahamas, traversing the Northeast Providence Channel. Until that point, few observations probed the core of the hurricane on its approach of the islands due to its small size. In 2010, the Atlantic hurricane reanalysis project determined the storm had been rapidly intensifying during this period. On September 25, the steamship Potomac measured a central air pressure of 924 mbar (hPa; 27.30 inHg), suggesting wind speeds of 155 mph (250 km/h): a high-end Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale.
  At 00:30 UTC on September 25, the intense hurricane passed over Nassau with sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h); the capital city was within the calm of the eye for two hours. The next day, the storm crossed Andros Island south of Fresh Creek, moving at 2–3 mph (3.2–4.8 km/h), and afterwards curved slowly towards the west-northwest over the Florida Straits towards Florida. A high-pressure area associated with cool temperatures over the United States had been responsible for the sudden southwest trajectory over the Bahamas. The United States Weather Bureau remarked that the storm's track was "one of the most erratic and abnormal during the last 50 years", with both the slow movement and inadequate observations contributing in the agency's difficulty in locating the center of the storm. The hurricane's winds lessened while its size grew on its Florida approach, and on the morning of September 28, it crossed the Florida Keys near Key Largo with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h). A pressure of 948 mbar (hPa; 27.99 inHg) was estimated within a 10-minute lull near the eye's edge at Key Largo. Further weakening occurred as the hurricane accelerated northwestward into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, continuing this heading for two days. On September 30, the storm made an unexpectedly sharp turn towards the northeast, making landfall near Panama City, Florida, near midnight as a low-end hurricane with winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). Positioned near a steep temperature gradient, the storm quickly transitioned into an extratropical cyclone on October 1 shortly after landfall with cold air wrapping around the circulation. The extratropical cyclone quickly moved northeast across the Eastern Seaboard, eventually dissipating near the Saint Lawrence River by October 5.
caption: Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
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