ORLANDO, Fla. – Labor Day weekend and hurricanes. What do they have in common? They happen around the same time a lot in Florida.
Many can probably recall a time when their long-weekend plans came to an abrupt halt because there was a tropical system to keep an eye on. It’s all about timing, folks. The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is Sept. 10., and that’s when a rise in activity is expected, whether the storm ends up close to home.
Since 1852, Florida leads the nation with the most hurricane landfalls in the month of September. Just behind the sunshine state is Louisiana, North Carolina, and then Texas.
During September, sea-surface temperatures are the hottest and we tend to see bigger tropical cyclones as a result given the right conditions.
Let’s take a look back at hurricane history around the Labor Day holiday in Florida:
Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
One of the strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall in U.S. history was the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. With a central barometric pressure of 892 millibars, this monster Category 5 hurricane made landfall between Key West and Miami on Sept. 2. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the first recorded and one of only four Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the continental U.S..
Hurricane Donna - Sept. 2, 1960
After hitting the Keys, the Category 4 hurricane decided to turn north passing through Naples. It then kept a northeast path eventually ending up near Orlando and then exiting near Daytona Beach a day later. Donna is the only hurricane on record to produce hurricane-force winds in the Keys, Florida, the Mid-Atlantic States, up to New England.
Hurricanes Gerda (1969) and David (1979)
Central Floridians may recall these two names. Right before the holiday weekends in both years, these two hurricanes had something in common. The exit points were along our Volusia and Brevard counties’ coastlines. Although each storm had different initial landfall locations, David exited near New Smyrna Beach while Gerda turned back out to sea near Cape Canaveral.
2004 hurricane season
How can anyone living in Florida in 2004 forget the season of not one, but four hurricanes to strike our state?
Does the name Frances ring a bell? This Category 4 monster sent many Floridians north for the Labor Day holiday weekend. It made landfall at Hutchinson Island on the 5th and then slowly moved across the state exiting into the Gulf of Mexico just north of Tampa on the 6th as a tropical storm. Frances kept going and made a second landfall later that day in the Panhandle.
The heaviest rain fell in north-Central Florida on already saturated ground from Hurricane Charley. There was extensive damage done to citrus crops as well as wind damages to space and military facilities at the Cape.
Hurricane Hermine - Sept. 2, 2016
Hurricane Hermine was the first hurricane to make landfall along the Apalachee Bay Coast since 1966. It was also the first hurricane to hit the Sunshine State since Wilma in 2005, an 11-year stretch of time.
The Category 1 hurricane slammed into the Big Bend early that Friday morning making landfall around 1:30 a.m., just east of St. Marks, Florida, near the Wakulla-Jefferson County line. Packing maximum sustained winds near 80 mph and a central pressure of 982mb, Hermine brought devastation to the Big Bend area, resulting in numerous downed trees and power lines. Significant power outages lasted days even weeks in some areas. Nearly 80% of customers living in Tallahassee lost power. Hermine brought 4-5 inches of rain, but isolated areas got up to 10 inches of rainfall along with 13 tornado warnings, of which three were confirmed, in the state capital.
Hurricane Irma - Sept. 5, 2017
Many Floridians watched as Irma rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane on Sept. 5, 2017. It ravaged the Virgin Islands as well as Cuba.
Irma was a Category 4 as it moved toward the Keys on the 10th and then weakened a little as it made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Marco Island. Irma moved northward bringing hurricane-force wind gusts were felt from Jacksonville to Miami. Tropical storm force winds extended out up to 400 miles from the center. It reached northwest Florida by the morning of the 11th and then was a depression as it moved over Georgia. At least 44 lives were lost and damages totaled $55 billion. Irma is ranked in the top 10 most costly hurricanes in U.S. history.
Hurricane Dorian - 2019
This was one slow-moving scary storm that formed on Aug. 24, 2019 and lasted through Sept. 7.
After moving through the Caribbean, Dorian rapidly intensified as everyone watched it make landfall on Great Abaco Island as a Category 5. It was the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bahamas.
While Dorian didn’t make landfall in Florida, it was a close call between Sept. 3-5. The storm slowly turned northward, just staying offshore from the Sunshine State thanks to a mid-level system pushing it away from land. Eventually, the hurricane made landfall over Cape Hatteras on Sept. 6, 2019.
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