The 1969 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 1969, and lasted until November 30, 1969. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. The season was among the most active on record, with 18 tropical cyclones, 12 of which reached hurricane status. Despite the high activity, most of the storms either stayed at sea or made landfall with minimal strength.
The most notable storm of the season was Hurricane Camille, the seventh-strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic basin and the second-strongest to make landfall in the United States. Camille made landfall near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, killing 256 and causing $1.4 billion ($9.2 billion in 2005 dollars) in property damage.
Other notable storms include Hurricane Francelia, which caused serious flooding in Belize that killed 100; Hurricane Inga, which lasted almost 25 days and was at the time the second longest-lasting hurricane; and Hurricane Martha, which caused flooding and landslides in Costa Rica and Panama.
Read more about 1969 Atlantic Hurricane Season: Season Summary, Storm Names
Famous quotes containing the words atlantic, hurricane and/or season:
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—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“Thought and beauty, like a hurricane or waves, should not know conventional, delimited forms.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)