I don't know about the biggest dud, but the biggest surprise stormsI can think of were both here in Texas just a few miles from each other.
First was the 1900 Galveston hurricane. NWS kept telling everyone the hurricane was crossing Florida w to e and then coming up the east coast. Instead it was zipping across the GoM. And since this was before ship to shore communications were avail (just before) the ships that ran into it couldn't let anyone know till they got to port.
The second was one I just read about in the last few weeks they actually called it
THE 1943 "SURPRISE" HURRICANE
t was in the dead of summer along the upper Texas coast. The nation was rightfully preoccupied with the events of the Second World War. All news underwent censorship. Because of German U-boat activity expected in the Gulf of Mexico, all ship's radio broadcasts were silenced. This included any reports of weather ... even adverse weather such as a hurricane. Weather Bureau forecasters in 1943 relied almost exclusively on reports from ships at sea and land-based weather offices in cities and airports for the data used to issue storm warnings. Satellite imagery was 20 years away .. radar over a decade. Aircraft reconnaissance was soon to be born ... but not yet.
With those constraints in mind, one can see why the hurricane that hit the Houston-Galveston area on July 27, 1943 came without adequate warning. Newspaper accounts of the storm describe it as the "worst since 1915." The 1915 hurricane tested the famous Galveston seawall and killed over 275 people. The July 27, 1943 hurricane killed a reported 19 people, injured hundreds and caused significant property damage ($17,000,000, COE, 1972) through much of the metropolitan area.
http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atlantic/1943/index.html
'shana
edited to add- the 1943 hurricane was the first to have pilots fly into it to check it out.
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2003/alm03jul.htm
