Pre-1600 Atlantic hurricane seasons facts for kids

The pre-1600 Atlantic hurricane seasons talk about all the known big storms, called hurricanes, that happened in the Atlantic Ocean before the year 1600. Even though we don't have records for every single storm that occurred, some coastal areas had enough people living there to write down when hurricanes hit. Each season was part of the yearly time when hurricanes form in the Atlantic. Most hurricanes usually form between June 1 and November 30.

We don't have any information about hurricanes before 1492 because people weren't keeping written records back then. Even the information from the early years after Christopher Columbus arrived is not perfect. This is because scientists and sailors in the Renaissance era didn't always know the difference between a hurricane and other types of big storms. Also, Europeans didn't start exploring and settling the areas affected by hurricanes a lot until the mid-1500s.

However, scientists who study old storms (this is called paleotempestology) can figure out how hurricanes behaved in the past, going back hundreds or thousands of years. One idea is that the Gulf of Mexico coast and the Atlantic coast had opposite patterns of hurricane activity. During calmer times, a high-pressure system called the Azores High would be more to the northeast. This would send more hurricanes towards the Atlantic coast. During very busy times, more hurricanes would go towards the Gulf coast because the Azores High, which is affected by the North Atlantic Oscillation, moved more to the southwest, closer to the Caribbean.

For example, few major hurricanes hit the Gulf coast between 3000 BC and 1400 BC, and again in the most recent thousand years. These calmer times were separated by a very busy period between 1400 BC and 1000 AD. During this time, many strong hurricanes hit the Gulf coast, and the chance of them hitting land increased by 3 to 5 times. On the Atlantic coast, the chance of hurricanes hitting land has doubled in the last thousand years compared to the 1,500 years before that.

Early Hurricanes (Before 1525)

These are some of the earliest recorded hurricanes in the Atlantic basin. Many of these records come from European explorers and settlers who were just starting to arrive in the Americas.

Mid-1500s Hurricanes (1525-1549)

During this period, more European settlements were established, leading to more detailed records of storms impacting the Caribbean and parts of North America.

Late 1500s Hurricanes (1550-1574)

This period saw continued exploration and settlement, providing more accounts of storms affecting Florida and other parts of the Gulf Coast.

End of 1500s Hurricanes (1575-1599)

As the 16th century came to a close, records continued to show the impact of hurricanes on early settlements and shipping routes.

Related pages

• List of Atlantic hurricane seasons

See also

In Spanish: Temporada de huracanes en el Atlántico de 1525-1549 para niños