The Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane of August 23, 1933
The first hurricane of significance for northeastern North Carolina and southeast Virginia was also the most significant for the decade in northeastern North Carolina and for the century for the Norfolk area. The 1933 hurricane season was the most active of record for the North Atlantic basin with a total of 21 tropical storms and hurricanes. The Chesapeake-Potomac hurricane developed on August 17th and was the eight storm of the season and was considered a classic Cape Verde hurricane with a long track across the Atlantic basin. The storm attained Category 4 intensity on August 20th over the open Atlantic well northeast of the windward islands.
The hurricane moved in a general northwesterly course over the Atlantic until August 21st at which time the storm turned more west-northwesterly beneath a ridge of high pressure building into New England. The center of the hurricane passed some 90 miles south on Hamilton, Bermuda raking the British colony with 80 mph winds. By this time the storm had weakened to a strong Category 2 hurricane and had expanded greatly in size. The expansive area of high pressure over New England steered the storm toward the Mid-Atlantic region.
Warnings were broadcast for the approaching storm on August 22nd. Many residents in the Hampton Roads area recall increasingly rough surf conditions during the afternoon of August 22nd. Local jurisdictions in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties ordered evacuations of Ocean View, Willoughy Spit and the Virginia Beach oceanfront that evening. The hurricane made landfall in the Nags Head area shortly after 300 AM August 23rd moving in a northwesterly direction toward Norfolk. Click here to see a track of this hurricane.
A full fledged hurricane had not moved directly over the city of Norfolk since the great Norfolk-Long Island hurricane of September 3, 1821 (Ludlam, AMS). The hurricane of 1933 passed directly over South Norfolk (northern Chesapeake) and downtown Norfolk shortly after 900 AM as a minimal Category 2 hurricane in terms of storm surge and central pressure. Winds in the area reached those of a Category 1 hurricane with highest sustained winds of 57 mph in downtowen Norfolk....70 mph at the Norfolk Naval Air Station and 66 mph at Cape Henry. The peak wind gusts were 70 mph in downtown Norfolk....82 mph at Cape Henry and 88 mph at the Norfolk Naval Air Station.
The lowest pressure observed in Norfolk was 971 mb or 28.68" of mercury. This was the lowest pressure recorded in hurricane up to that date. The tide at Sewells Point reached a full 9.8 feet above MLLW. This was the highest tide of record for the area. The downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth gages recorded tide levels of 9.0 and 9.3 feet above MLLW respectively. The track of the hurricane along the western periphery of the Chesapeake Bay to the nations capital on the evening of August 23rd brought tide levels of 6-9 feet above MLLW over a large portion of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The ever narrowing tidal Potomac River crested at 12 feet above MLLW severely flooding Alexandria, VA and Washington D.C.
18 persons were killed in the hurricane in the states of North Carolina and Virginia with a majority of the lives taken in Virginia. Damages were in the tens of millions of dollars.