 Hurricane Gert was the fourth of five major hurricanes in the moderately active 1999 Atlantic hurricane season . A Cape Verde @-@ type hurricane , Gert formed on September 11 off the coast of Africa before heading west @-@ northwest . It reached a peak wind speed of 150 mph ( 240 km / h ) by September 15 over the open central Atlantic east @-@ northeast of the Leeward Islands . It gradually curved to the northwest and later to the north , due to a weakness in the subtropical ridge created by Hurricane Floyd . Hurricane Gert passed east of Bermuda on September 21 and began a steady weakening trend at that time . It turned to the northeast , and on September 23 , Gert transitioned into an extratropical cyclone to the southeast of Atlantic Canada before being absorbed by a larger storm . 
