High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! During the 1860 Atlantic hurricane season, three severe hurricanes struck Louisiana and the Gulf Coast of the United States within a period of seven weeks. The season effectively began on August 8 with the formation of a tropical cyclone in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and produced seven known tropical storms and hurricanes until the dissipation of the last known system on October 24. Six of the seven storms were strong enough to be considered hurricanes on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale, of which four attained Category 2 status and one attained Category 3 major hurricane strength. The first hurricane was the strongest in both winds and pressure, with peak winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) and a barometric pressure of 950 millibars (28 inHg). Until contemporary reanalysis discovered four previously unknown tropical cyclones that did not affect land, only three hurricanes were known to have existed; all three made landfall in Louisiana, causing severe damage.