of available observations in the central Atlantic, the specific origins of the 1926 Miami hurricane remain unclear. Operationally, the United States Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C., did not begin issuing advisories on the cyclone until September 14. However, the tropical cyclone is first listed in HURDAT—the official Atlantic hurricane database—as having begun as a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of roughly east of the island of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles on September 11. Tracking west-northwestward, the storm gradually intensified and reached hurricane intensity on September 12 while still east of the Lesser Antilles. The observation of low barometric pressures and winds suggesting cyclonic rotation at Saint Kitts on the evening of September 14 was the first to suggest that a hurricane had developed. The following day, the steamship Matura encountered the strengthening tropical cyclone and documented a minimum pressure of . By 06:00 UTC on September 15, the storm had strengthened further to major hurricane intensity north of the Virgin Islands. Strengthening continued into September 16 as the hurricane reached a strength equivalent to that of a Category 4 on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale. Although no official minimum pressure readings were taken in the area at the time, the tropical cyclone peaked in wind-based intensity at 18:00 UTC on September 16 with sustained winds of , near the uppermost limit of the modern-day ranking Category 4. With this strength the hurricane passed near the Turks and Caicos Islands, though its intensity at the time was based on the extent of damage there as any measurement device was knocked out by the damaging winds. Shortly afterward, the cyclone struck the Bahamian island of Mayaguana at its peak intensity. After passing the island, the hurricane slightly weakened but maintained formidable strength as it accelerated through the southern Bahamas, passing near Nassau on September 17. The storm then made a second landfall on Andros Island in the Mangrove Cay district early on September 18. Thereafter, the hurricane crossed Andros Island and passed over the Gulf Stream en route to Florida. This trajectory brought the storm ashore on the coast of South Florida near Perrine, located just south of Downtown Miami, before 12:00 UTC on September 18 with winds of and a minimum pressure estimated at . At the time, the hurricane was very large in size, with a radius of outermost closed isobar across; hurricane-force winds were reported from