The 1940 New England hurricane moved off of the U.S. East Coast and Atlantic Canada in August and September 1940, producing strong winds and torrential rainfall.

The fourth tropical cyclone and third hurricane of the season, the storm originated from a well-defined low-pressure area in the open Atlantic Ocean on August 26.

Afterwards, the hurricane began a weakening trend as it proceeded northeastward, and had degenerated into a tropical storm by the time it made its first landfall on Nova Scotia later that day.

The heightened precautions were due in part to fears that effects from the storm would be similar to that of a devastating hurricane that struck the region two years prior.

Although the storm made two landfalls in Atlantic Canada, damage there too was minimal, and was limited to several boating incidents caused by strong waves.

The origins of the hurricane can be traced to a compact and slow-moving low-pressure area in the open Atlantic Ocean in late August 1940.

[1] Continuing in a slow west-northwest movement, the disturbance gradually intensified, and was analyzed to have attained tropical storm intensity by 1800 UTC on August 28.

[2] At 0600 UTC on August 30, the tropical storm strengthened further into the equivalent of a modern-day Category 1 hurricane,[2] roughly 225 mi (362 km) east of the Florida peninsula.

[2] Early on September 1,[3] the hurricane passed 85 mi (137 km) of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina,[1] before recurving towards the northeast and away from the coast.

At 0200 UTC on September 2, the American steamboat Franklin K. Lane reported a barometric pressure of 965 mbar (965 hPa; 28.5 inHg) while located within the hurricane's radius of maximum wind;[1] this was the lowest pressure measured in association with the tropical cyclone and the lowest measured in the entire North Atlantic Ocean in September 1940.

[5] Based on the ship observation, the storm was analyzed to have reached peak intensity on September 2 with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (169 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 961 mbar (961 hPa; 28.4 inHg).

[12] The extensive precautionary measures undertaken occurred in part due to fears that the storm could cause similar effects to a destructive hurricane which swept through areas of New England two years prior.

[9] On September 1, the Venezuelan tanker Acosta relayed an SOS signal while near the hurricane 200 mi (320 km) southeast of the Frying Pan Shoals.

United States Coast Guard stations in Norfolk, Virginia and Morehead City, North Carolina dispatched cutters to aid the ship.

The cyclone's flow pattern enhanced the moisture environment over the region, resulting in locally heavy rainfall, particularly in New Jersey, where precipitation peaked at 24 in (610 mm) in Ewan in a nine-hour period on September 1.

[1] After the storm, New Jersey state health department investigators from Trenton were dispatched to study the possibility for an increase in typhoid fever in flooded areas.

As a result of a gas plant becoming inundated in Glassboro, electricity was rationalized in Hammonton, forcing residents to eat uncooked food.