Description

The 1891 Martinique hurricane, also known as Hurricane San Magín, was an intense major hurricane that struck the island of Martinique and caused massive damage. The third known hurricane and only major hurricane of 1891 Atlantic hurricane season, This cyclone was first sighted east of the Lesser Antilles on August 18 as a Category 2 hurricane on the present-day Saffir–Simpson scale. Intensification occurred as the storm moved northwestward, striking Martinique later that day as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h). On August 20, the cyclone briefly turned northward over the Caribbean Sea and brushed the eastern Dominican Republic while re-emerging into the Atlantic Ocean. The storm then moved west-northwestward across the Bahamas before making landfall near Homestead, Florida, on August 24. Dissipation is estimated to have occurred on the following day after the cyclone reached the east-central Gulf of Mexico.