In 2014, climate researcher Michael Chenoweth's reanalysis study recommended the addition of one new storm to HURDAT, for a total of 13 cyclones in the 1886 season, as well as modifications to the tracks, duration, and intensity of several systems.

Many countries and territories around the eastern and central Caribbean experienced the effects of the season's sixth cyclone in August, with at least five people killed on Saint Vincent.

The final hurricane to strike the United States, the tenth system, killed at least 196 people in Louisiana and Texas and inflicted about $250,000 in the eastern portions of the former alone.

The first of these, the Indianola hurricane, was the strongest and most intense tropical cyclone of the season, striking multiple islands in the Greater Antilles before rapidly strengthening over the western Gulf of Mexico.

[19][20] Based on the data, HURDAT analyzed that a tropical storm formed about 140 mi (225 km) east-southeast of La Pesca, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, on the morning of June 13.

Around 16:00 UTC, the cyclone attained its peak intensity of 100 mph (155 km/h), equivalent to a modern-day Category 2 hurricane, and made landfall just east of High Island, Texas.

Observers suggested that only the shifting of the winds prevented severe flooding, possibly the worst since a hurricane in 1875; even so, small boats sustained significant damage.

[23] Little more than a day after the dissipation of the previous hurricane, a broad area of low pressure over the western Caribbean Sea developed into a tropical storm while centered about 180 mi (290 km) east-southeast of Punta Allen, Quintana Roo, Mexico.

[26] The strongest sustained winds measured in Florida were below hurricane force—only 68 mph (109 km/h) at Cedar Key[25]—but "high tides" affected much of the coastline near the point of landfall.

[25] While described as being of only "moderate intensity", the hurricane caused considerable damage to western Cuba, where homes were destroyed or lost their roofs and trees were prostrated; flooding was reportedly severe as well.

[28] After nearly two quiet weeks, the fourth tropical storm of the season developed about 105 mi (170 km) west-southwest of George Town, Cayman Islands, at 06:00 UTC on July 14.

[11] Its path then bent to the north-northeast, and early the next day, the storm attained winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) as its eye neared the west coast of the Florida peninsula.

At 00:00 UTC on July 20, the storm recovered hurricane status while centered about 140 mi (225 km) south-southeast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and six hours later attained its second and strongest peak of 85 mph (140 km/h).

[35] HURDAT begins the track of this system as a tropical storm just east of Trinidad and Tobago on August 12,[11] the day before the Windward Islands first observed stormy conditions.

[43] Early on August 22, the system made landfall in Cuba west of Júcaro as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 120 mph (195 km/h), based on a reanalysis by meteorologist Ramón Pérez Suárez.

Traveling parallel to the East Coast of the United States, the cyclone remained a Category 2 hurricane until August 26 and was last noted about 210 mi (340 km) south of Newfoundland on the following day as a tropical storm.

[46] Accounts from the island also note widespread damage to homes, churches, schools, stores, wharves, and public property,[47] while some ships wrecked in Kingston harbor.

[46] In Cuba, the storm destroyed hundreds of homes, uprooted many trees, flooded some areas, especially in Ciego de Ávila, Júcaro, Manzanillo, and Morón.

[11] The 2014 reanalysis study by Chenoweth postulated that this storm actually developed near the Cabo Verde Islands on August 13 and moved west-northwest to northwestward across the Atlantic.

[53] The official track for this system begins as a tropical storm formed north of Puerto Rico on September 16,[11] one day after the steamship Edith Godden reported stormy conditions.

After crossing into Texas,[11] the system possessed a barometric pressure of 973 mbar (28.7 inHg),[1] but quickly weakened and dissipated the next day to the southeast of Austin.

[11] Chenoweth's reanalysis study argued that this cyclone instead developed just north of the Leeward Islands on September 20 and initially trekked northwestward until moving erratically for a few days.

[57] Early the next day, the storm struck the Guanahacabibes Peninsula of Cuba, likely as a Category 1 hurricane,[11] based on the amount of damage in the area and reports from nearby ships.

Turning west-northwest on October 11 over the northern Gulf of Mexico, the storm strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (195 km/h),[11] based on tide measurements along the coast of Louisiana.

He also theorized that the extratropical remnants of this storm crossed the Midwestern United States and Ontario,[22] leading to severe impacts along its path, particularly in Buffalo, New York, where "the full fury of the hurricane" destroyed twenty-nine homes and killed two people, according to the Kansas City Times.

[58] However, the Monthly Weather Review considered the extratropical system to have been an unrelated low-pressure area that developed a well-defined center over eastern Kansas on October 13.

[61] In eastern Louisiana, the hurricane inundated rice fields in Plaquemines Parish as far as 35 mi (55 km) inland, and destroyed most crops in Pointe à la Hache and Port Eads.

The storm drifted northeastward for the next few days and slowly intensified, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 km/h),[11] based a ship observing a barometric pressure of 999 mbar (29.5 inHg).

[22] Several ships reported a large, but weak, tropical storm in the Caribbean Sea, south of Haiti on October 22,[66] although the official Atlantic hurricane database indicated that development occurred on the previous day.

[11] Based on the steamship L. & W. Armstrong recording a barometric pressure of 992 mbar (29.3 inHg),[66][37] the cyclone nearly reached hurricane status, peaking with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h).