Would Hurricane Katia have been recorded

[BOHICA12]

as a hurricane if she took the same track in 1920, 1930, 1940? Would she have been registered as a major Hurricane at all back then?

[SheilaT]

1. Yes. Maybe not as accurately,

but ships crossing the Atlantic would have noted her.

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 was actually well-tracked by ships at sea. Unfortunately, a myth existed that Galveston could not ever be hit by a hurricane, which was the main reason almost no one left when the storm was approaching.

[TBA]

2. According to the book "Isaac's Storm"

Very good read BTW, racism was also involved. The Cuban forecasters tried to warn the US that Texas was going to get hit but the newly formed National Weather Service ignored them totally dismissing their extensive experience tracking hurricanes.

[SheilaT]

3. Yep. That was where I took

my information from.

Another excellent book about weather and a weather disaster is "The Children's Blizzard" by David Laskin, about the blizzard in the upper midwest in January of 1888. It also gives good insight into the state of weather forecasting at that time, more than a decade before the Galveston hurricane.

[Ptah]

4. Another book from that blizzard is a collection of short anecdotes from survivors.

In All Its Fury: A History of the Blizzard of January 12, 1888

[SheilaT]

5. I'll have to look for that one.

[Bosonic]

6. Stormpulse has a hurricane track archive that dates back to the 1850s

I cannot attest to its' accuracy though as this is the only track archive I'm aware of.

http://www.stormpulse.com/storm-archive