1907 Atlantic hurricane season

The 1907 Atlantic hurricane season was a very inactive hurricane season. Only five tropical storms formed, none of them reaching hurricane strength. This season is one of only two that did not produce any hurricanes (the other being 1914). Of the season's storms, three made landfall, all of them on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The first storm of the season formed on June 24, while the final dissipated on November 12. Damage from the storms was minimal, and no deaths were reported. Due to the lack of modern technology, including satellite imagery, information is often sparse, and four additional systems could have formed during the season. Documentation of the four possible storms exist, although it has not been proven that these systems were fully tropical.

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Season summary

Prior to the advent of modern tropical cyclone tracking technology, notably satellite imagery, many hurricanes that did not affect land directly went unnoticed, and storms that did affect land were not recognized until their onslaught. As a result, information on older hurricane seasons was often incomplete. Modern-day efforts have been made and are still ongoing to reconstruct the tracks of known hurricanes and to identify initially undetected storms. In many cases, the only evidence that a hurricane existed was reports from ships in its path, and judging by the direction of winds experienced by ships, and their location in relation to the storm, it is possible to roughly pinpoint the storm's center of circulation for a given point in time. This is the manner in which all of the five known storms in the 1907 season were identified by hurricane expert José Fernández-Partagás's reanalysis of hurricane seasons between 1851 and 1910. Partagás also extended the known tracks of three other hurricanes previously identified by scholars. The information Partagás and his colleague uncovered was largely adopted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic hurricane reanalysis in their updates to the Atlantic hurricane database (HURDAT), with some slight adjustments. HURDAT is the official source for such hurricane data as track and intensity, although due to a sparsity of available records at the time the storms existed, listings on some storms are incomplete.

The season was one of only two Atlantic seasons without a storm of hurricane intensity (winds of or higher), the other being the 1914 season. In addition, the maximum winds recorded from the first tropical storm were also the highest of the season; it also broke the record for the weakest "most intense" storm on record for an Atlantic hurricane season. Reanalysis also indicated that four additional systems could have developed during the season.

The season's activity was reflected with an accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) rating of 13.06, the third lowest total since the beginning of HURDAT records in 1851. ACE is a metric used to express the energy used by a tropical cyclone during its lifetime. Therefore, a storm with a longer duration will have high values of ACE. It is only calculated at six-hour increments in which specific tropical and subtropical systems are either at or above sustained wind speeds of 39 mph (63 km/h), which is the threshold for tropical storm intensity. Thus, tropical depressions are not included here.

Timeline

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Systems

Tropical Storm One

The first identified tropical storm of the season is listed in the Atlantic hurricane database as having formed on June 24, positioned in the western Caribbean; It initially meandered west-northwestward, though began to turn northwest during the latter half of following day. Late on June 26, it passed between the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba, and subsequently entered the Gulf of Mexico shortly thereafter. The tropical storm continued to slowly intensify, and started to make sharp curve towards the northeast on June 28.

Tropical Storm Two

Based on information from historical weather maps, it appeared that eastward-moving lower-atmospheric flow was present between September 16 and 17, though a closed circulation did not appear to be present. On September 18, the system developed into a tropical depression between the Bahamas and Florida while it moved west-northwestward. After swiftly crossing the southern portion of the state, it strengthened into a tropical storm on September 19 over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, and attained its peak intensity of 45 mph (75 km/h) early during September 20. It began turning north on September 21, and made landfall on the Mississippi coast on September 22. The storm weakened as it moved inland, and curved east-northeast later during that day, only to transition into an extratropical cyclone shortly thereafter. The storm lost extratropical characteristics over Virginia on September 23.

Tropical Storm Three

The system that would eventually develop into a tropical storm was first noted by a ship north-northwest of Veracruz on September 23.

Storm warnings were issued on September 28 for the shorelines of Louisiana and Mississippi, but the states did not receive strong winds. The maximum gust from the storm was , which was recorded at Pensacola, Florida. It formed on November 6 while moving south-southwestward, though took a sharp turn towards the west-southwestward on November 7. The following day, it took another sharp turn, this time towards the north-northwest, while it had winds of 45 mph (75 km/h), which were the maximum estimated winds for the storm. It continued on this path until November 11, when it turned once more, this time towards the north-northeast. It evolved into an extratropical cyclone the following day.