1872 Atlantic hurricane season

1872 Atlantic hurricane season
Season summary map
Seasonal boundaries
First system formed	July 9, 1872
Last system dissipated	October 28, 1872
Strongest storm
Name	Two
• Maximum winds	105 mph (165 km/h) (1-minute sustained)
Seasonal statistics
Total storms	5
Total fatalities	0
Total damage	Unknown
Atlantic hurricane seasons 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874

The 1872 Atlantic hurricane season included a storm whose track became one of the first to be published by the United States Army Signal Service, a predecessor of the National Weather Service. The season was quiet, with only five documented tropical cyclones, of which four attained hurricane status. None of them intensified into a major hurricane.^{[nb 1]} However, in the absence of modern satellite and other remote-sensing technologies, only storms that affected populated land areas or encountered ships at sea were recorded, so the actual total could be higher. An undercount bias of zero to six tropical cyclones per year between 1851 and 1885 has been estimated.

On July 9, the first known storm of the season was detected over the south-central Gulf of Mexico. This cyclone caused some locally severe flooding in Alabama after striking the Gulf Coast of the United States. No further activity is known to have occurred until August 20, around the time a storm formed near the Cabo Verde Islands. Of the two known cyclones originating in the month of September, one impacted several islands of the Lesser Antilles, including reportedly "many lives lost" on Dominica. The fifth and final system brought heavy rainfall and tidal flooding to portions of North Carolina and Virginia before becoming extratropical over the Gulf of Maine on October 27.

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