Historedia
AmericasEvent

Great September Gale of 1815 strikes New England

When
1815
Where
Long Island, near Center Moriches; Providence; Saybrook, Connecticut
Episodes
3

The Great September Gale of 1815 was a deadly Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that struck New England on September 23. It was the second known major hurricane to hit the region, though contemporaries believed it was the first in 180 years. The storm caused significant damage in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with severe flooding in Providence.

Episodes

  1. 1815-09-23 · Long Island, near Center MorichesLandfall on Long Island

    The hurricane struck Long Island on September 23, 1815, likely near Center Moriches, and was followed by major damage across New England.

  2. 1815-09-23 · ProvidenceProvidence Flooding

    The storm hit Providence, Rhode Island, on the morning of September 23, causing severe flooding along Narragansett Bay.

  3. 1815-09-23 · Saybrook, ConnecticutConnecticut Landfall

    The storm came ashore at Saybrook, Connecticut, around 9:00 A.M. with Category 3 force.

Background and detail

Background. The hurricane first struck the Turks Islands near the Bahamas on September 20, with a strength estimated to have been equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane. The summer of 1815 was reported to have been unusually stormy, possibly because of transient climate changes induced by ash clouds from the eruption of Mount Tambora in April. The storm was fast-moving, and after striking Long Island it caused major damage in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

Impact. Rhode Island suffered the worst damage, with storm surges flooding towns along Narragansett Bay up to Providence. A line on the Old Market Building marks the 11-foot surge, which remained unsurpassed until 1938. In Dorchester, Massachusetts, the storm destroyed the arch of the bridge over the Neponset River. Sediment studies at Matunuck confirm the surge overtopped the barrier beach.

Contemporary Analysis. In an 1819 paper, an author concluded that the storm "appears to have been a moving vortex and not the rushing forward of a great body of the atmosphere." In Providence, the event was known as the "Great Storm" or "Great Gale." A worn plaque on the Rhode Island Hospital Trust building, built in 1917, marks the storm's water level, alongside a newer plaque showing the higher 1938 hurricane water level.

Sources

  1. 1815 New England hurricane Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-04

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.