Hurricane Dog

The strongest storm recorded in 1950 was a category 5 hurricane called Hurricane Dog. It started in the West Indies in late August of that year and strengthened as it made its way north. Its strongest winds were recorded in St John's...the capital of Antigua and Barbuda...with gusts reaching 145 mph.

Here's a link that leads you to a pdf file of a 1950 issue of the Kingston, Jamaica paper The Daily Gleaner that tells of the aftermath of the storm as well as providing information about a special fund that was set up to help the victims in Antigua.

"Hurricane Dog" seems like an odd name for a storm. The current system of named hurricanes wasn't actually put in place until 1952, and so before that, as with Hurricane Dog, these names weren't really used in published accounts. It's not, for instance, mentioned in The Daily Gleaner article at all. But it's not just some irreverent wordplay. Before 1952, the names came from the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet, and so Hurricane Dog is military-speak for Hurricane "D."

I don't know how long the 1950 hurricane season lasted. I don't know if it got as far as Hurricane Jig or Hurricane Nan or Hurricane Oboe. I sure hope not.