Atlantic hurricane season 1928

The 1928 hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1928 and ended on November 30, 1928. These dates usually demarcate the period of each year when most of the tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic Basin.

The 1928 season was not very active, but it was very eventful. Six tropical storms formed during the season. Four of them became hurricanes . Only one became a major hurricane.

Storms

A Category 2 hurricane hit central Florida near Melbourne . Another hurricane hit southern Cuba , weakened to a tropical cyclone , and grazed the southwest coast of Florida to land near Apalachicola . A tropical storm hit Mexico in early September.

Okeechobee hurricane

The most notable storm of the season was the Okeechobee Hurricane (also known as Hurricane San Felipe Segundo). This Cape Verdean hurricane was the first measured hurricane in the Atlantic basin to reach Category 5 intensity . It began to get stronger quickly as it crossed the Leeward Islands and killed hundreds of people in Guadeloupe . It then struck Puerto Rico as a devastating Category 5 storm, causing catastrophic damage and killing at least 300 people. Hundreds more were killed in the rest of the West Indies and Bahamas before the hurricane landed near West Palm Beach , Florida as Category 4. Despite the catastrophic damage it wreaked along the southeast coast of Florida, relatively few deaths were recorded; the deadliest blow of the storm was on Lake Okeechobee . The dike that held back the water broke and a torrent lashed the swamps and towns by the lake. At least 2,500 people were killed in Florida, the second deadliest hurricane and the second deadliest natural disaster in the United States. The storm eventually turned into an extra-tropical cyclone over western New York and dispersed over Lake Erie in Canada near Toronto .