Moving westward, the disturbance remained relatively weak until 6 September, when it was first classified as a tropical cyclone just west of the Windward Islands.

[1] Traversing the tropical Atlantic, the wave retained a minimum barometric pressure of about 1010 mbar (hPa; 29.83 inHg) and strengthened briefly the following day.

The first ship to identify the storm clearly was the tanker Geo H. Jones, which recorded strong winds in conjunction with rapidly decreasing barometric pressures late on 7 September.

The storm strengthened further before reaching its peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 km/h) at 1800 UTC.

Despite moving back over water, the tropical cyclone continued to weaken in the bay,[5] and made its final landfall roughly 60–70 mi (95–110 km) north of Tampico, Mexico, with winds of 40 mph (65 km/h) at around 00:00 UTC on 13 September.

[5] The day of the hurricane, 10 September, is also a national holiday for British Honduras, on which many locals gather in the streets to celebrate the Battle Of St. George's Caye.

In his column for The Belize Times on 5 September 2004, Emory King claimed that Belizean authorities withheld continuous warnings from U.S. ships in the region of a possible hurricane strike on British Honduras so the festivities would not be interrupted.

[7] King cited as evidence a letter dated 24 September 1931, from a local radio operator to the Colonial Secretary in which the warnings were discussed, adding that "perhaps none of [the authorities] had ever been in a hurricane and didn't know exactly how bad it was going to be.

[9] Storm surge, abnormally high tides, and strong winds resulted in severe damage and many deaths in Belize City.

Both agencies and organisations ordered a United States Marine Corps plane from Managua, Nicaragua, to send $2,500 worth of medical supplies to affected areas of British Honduras.

The Government of British Honduras eventually began burning areas with debris and bodies, to prevent spread of disease.

[17] Monrad Metzgen, a lieutenant of the British Honduras Defense Force, became responsible for the rescue of persons trapped, feeding those without shelter, and the burial of the deceased.

For his efforts, Metzgen received an Order of the British Empire award from King George V of the United Kingdom.