Gladys later reached peak winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) just before making landfall near Homosassa on the western coast of Florida on October 19.

While passing west of the Florida Keys, the hurricane produced strong winds that briefly cut communications to the Dry Tortugas, but damage was minor.

There was heavy beach erosion and flooding along the coast, while the winds knocked down trees and caused power outages.

When paralleling just off the coast of North Carolina, Gladys was responsible for breaking the state's worst drought since 1932, and proved more beneficial than the minor storm damage there.

Later, Gladys killed two people in Atlantic Canada and caused coastal damage in Prince Edward Island.

The origins of Hurricane Gladys were from a tropical wave – a trough embedded in the trade winds – that moved across the Lesser Antilles on October 6.

[2] By the time the hurricane reached the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, a deep trough was moving eastward through the United States toward a weak anticyclone off the east coast.

Gladys turned more to the north, passing just west of the Dry Tortugas, before resuming its north-northwest trajectory, possibly due to a mid-level low near Alabama.

Around that time, the eye was reorganizing offshore southwestern Florida, and the hurricane failed to intensify significantly due to the eastern portion of the circulation being over the state.

Early on October 19, Gladys made landfall near Homosassa after turning to the northeast,[2] with peak winds estimated at 100 mph (160 km/h).

Paralleling the southeastern coast of the United States, Gladys passed just east of Cape Hatteras on October 20, although by that time the strongest winds remained along the eastern periphery.

[2] Before Gladys made landfall in Florida, all schools in Pinellas County were closed, and officials evacuated 60 jet fighters from MacDill Air Force Base to Mississippi.

[14] Farther north in Florida, hurricane-force winds were limited to a small area from Clearwater to Bayport, with peak gusts of 100 mph (160 km/h).

The hurricane produced high tides near where it made landfall, reaching 6.5 ft (2.0 m) above normal; this caused heavy beach erosion and coastal flooding.

Falling trees revealed liquor bottles and other archeological relics from the period of the Second Seminole War at Fort King in Ocala.

[19] According to locals, several other tornadoes were suspected to have touched down in Volusia and Putnam counties, based on the falling of trees and visible twisting trail of damage.

[7] Rainfall in the state helped end break the worst drought since 1932, and the minimal storm damage was offset by the beneficial precipitation.

In southeastern Virginia, the fringes of the storm produced wind gusts of 46 mph (74 km/h) and light rainfall in Norfolk.

Precipitation from the storm spread as far west as Quebec and as far northeast as Newfoundland, causing flooding in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

In Prince Edward Island, wind gusts reached 85 mph (135 km/h) in Charlottetown, strong enough to knock over a tree and kill a man driving in Alberton.