The 1939 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 16, 1939, and lasted until October 31, 1939. These dates mark the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The 1939 season had below normal activity, with only five tropical storms, of which two became hurricanes and one became a major hurricane, equivalent to Category 3 status or higher on the modern-day Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The first tropical cyclone formed on June 12, and the last dissipated on November 6.
All of the storms affected land to some extent. The first three cyclones of the season made landfall along the coast of the United States, collectively causing only minor damage. Hurricane Four, the strongest of the year, took a northeastern path through the western Atlantic, striking Bermuda on October 16. The fifth and final storm was a minimal hurricane that wrought damage throughout the western Caribbean Sea, most notably in Jamaica and Cuba. The weakest known storm was Tropical Storm Three, with winds of only 45 mph (70 km/h) and a minimum barometric pressure of 1003 mbar (hPa).
Read more about 1939 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Timeline
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—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“To me a book is a message from the gods to mankind; or, if not, should never be published at all.... A message from the gods should be delivered at once. It is damnably blasphemous to talk about the autumn season and so on. How dare the author or publisher demand a price for doing his duty, the highest and most honourable to which a man can be called?”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)