On This Date: The Great Miami Hurricane Of 1926 Jonathan ErdmanSeptember 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM 0 Among Florida's litany of historical hurricanes, one storm during the Roaring Twenties stands out for its devastation in the city of Miami. On Sept.
- - On This Date: The Great Miami Hurricane Of 1926
Jonathan ErdmanSeptember 18, 2025 at 7:00 AM
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Among Florida's litany of historical hurricanes, one storm during the Roaring Twenties stands out for its devastation in the city of Miami.
On Sept. 18, 1926, 99 years ago today, the Great Miami Hurricane roared ashore near Palmetto Bay at Category 4 intensity, driving a 15-foot storm surge over Miami Beach two to three blocks inland from the bay. According to the National Hurricane Center, every building in downtown Miami was either damaged or destroyed.
Tragically, as the eye was passing overhead, many rushed outside, crowding city streets to assess the damage, unaware that the hurricane's eastern semicircle was about to strike. Many of the hurricane's fatalities occurred after the eye passed.
Surge flooding from Lake Okeechobee overwhelmed protective dikes, inundating the city of Moore Haven. Sadly, this is something that would happen again two years later.
An estimated 372 people lost their lives in this hurricane in South Florida and along the northern Gulf Coast, where the storm made a second landfall.
In an era decades before weather satellites and computer forecast models, Weather Bureau forecasters had little data to alert them of the impending hurricane, and only hoisted warnings less than 12 hours before landfall.
As destructive as Category 5 Hurricane Andrew was for Homestead and South Dade County, Florida, in 1992, it was not the worst-case scenario for Miami. Just 12 miles' difference in the path of Andrew kept it from producing a devastating storm surge into the heart of Miami.
Great Miami Hurricane 1926
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.
Source: "AOL General News"
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