As we move through the first two weeks of September, we move through the statistical peak of the hurricane season.

This is the time of year when we look back through history and see many interesting and some devastating events in the tropics. Two of which occurred on this date.

The first was 80 years ago: September 2, 1935 was the date and the storm was known as the Labor Day Hurricane, or the Florida Keys Hurricane of 1935.

It was the most intense hurricane on record in the United States with a measure pressure of 26.35 inches of mercury. Winds through the Keys also reached 200 mph and there was a 15 foot storm surge that killed more than 400 people.

Most of the fatalities were U.S. servicemen and veterans who were building the highway to Key West. Many were killed when a train was sent from Miami to try to evacuate the workers.

The train was delayed by bureaucracy but finally departed into the storm. Of course, without radar and satellite, no one knew the approaching hurricane was a Category 5. The workers made it on the train which tried to move out of the storm but was overcome by the storm surge in the eyewall.

This hurricane was moving through the Bahamas as a tropical storm but quickly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane in under 24 hours. The hurricane then moved parallel to the West Coast of Florida and was offshore of Pinellas County by about 30 miles as a Category 4 hurricane.

So, the Labor Day Hurricane was another close call for Tampa Bay. It eventually made another landfall on the 3rd in the Big Bend Area of Florida as a Category 1 storm. Overall there were more than 600 people killed in Florida from this storm.

The other storm was Hurricane Elena, 30 years ago. Elena spent the last two days of August as a Category 2-3 hurricane spinning off the coast of Florida just away from Cedar Key.

With Elena, winds gusted to 70 mph at Clearwater. Around 13,000 homes were damaged in its path, and nine people lost their lives. Elena sent bands of rain and storm surge into the Tampa Bay area for several days. As it stalled, there was fear it would slowly hit the west coast. 

Many Tampa Bay residents spent the Labor Day weekend in evacuation shelters as the outer bands pounded the region. Eventually, the hurricane was picked up by the winds aloft and quickly carried away toward the Central Gulf Coast. It eventually made its landfall in Mississippi on Sept 2, 1985.