Great Lakes Storm of 1913

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Great Lakes Storm of 1913
Converging systems form a November storm
Converging systems form a November storm
Data
education November 6, 1913
resolution November 11, 1913
Amount of fresh snow in some areas up to 60 cm
minimum air pressure 968.5 mbar
maximum wind speed 145 km / h
consequences
affected areas Great Lakes in the Midwest and the Province of Ontario in Canada

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 , by contemporaries as Big Blow , Freshwater Fury or White Hurricane referred, was a blizzard , of from 7 to 9 November 1913 with winds in hurricane force over the area of the Great Lakes in the Midwest of the United States and the Canadian province of Ontario canceled. The storm was most intense on November 9th, when it brought ships to four of the five Great Lakes, particularly the Huron Lake, in distress and capsized. Deceptively low winds during the storm and the slowness in transmitting weather reports contributed to the devastating effects of the storm.

This natural disaster was the most momentous to hit the Great Lakes area; more than 250 people died from the effects of the storm and 19 ships were destroyed, and another 19 ran aground. The financial damage from the sunken ships amounted to almost $ 5 million (around $ 133 million in today's prices). The destroyed freight cost around one million US dollars, a total of around 68,300  tons of coal, iron ore and grain.

The storm had its origin in the convergence of two distinct storm fronts , which were created by the relatively warm water of the Great Lakes. This process is known in the region as November gale , i.e. the “November storm ”. The storm reached wind speeds of 145 km / h and generated waves with a height of more than 11 m as well as poor visibility in snow gusts due to whiteout . The analysis of the storm and its effects on people, engineering works and the landscape led to better predictions and faster reactions to storm warnings, stronger construction methods (especially of seagoing vessels) and generally increased the level of precaution against such events.

background

In the fall , cold, dry air flowing south from northern Canada converges with warm, moist air flowing north from the Gulf of Mexico , creating extensive storm systems in the center of the North American subcontinent. Several of these systems prefer to move towards the Great Lakes. When the cold air from these storms comes over the lakes, it is warmed by the water below. This additional warmth delays the advance of arctic air to the south in the region, so that the lakes remain relatively warm for much longer than would otherwise be the case.

Two storm systems often collide over the Great Lakes in November. One migrates southeast from the Canadian province of Alberta ; the other brings storms from the leeward side of the central Rockies northeast towards the Great Lakes. Such a convergence is commonly referred to as November gale or November witch . When a cyclonic system moves across the lakes, their power is intensified by the jet stream above and the warm water below. This allows the storms to form hurricane-force winds, with wind speeds of up to 160 km / h and waves over 15 m high. In connection with such storms, there is high rainfall in rain or snow. Driven by the warm lake water, such storms can linger over the Great Lakes for several days. Intense winds then sweep over the lakes and the surrounding banks, eroding the bank lines and causing the bank to flood.

Such November storms are a danger on the Great Lakes, at least 25 such severe storms have hit the region since 1847. During the so-called Big Blow of 1905 , 27 wooden ships were lost. In 1975 the iron ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a November storm without an emergency signal being sent.

Before the storm

The Detroit News , Nov. 13, 1913, p. 1

The storm was first observed on Thursday, November 6th on the west side of Lake Superior . He was moving rapidly towards the northern section of Lake Michigan . The weather forecast in The Detroit News announced "moderate to fresh" winds for the Great Lakes, with the exception of southern Lake Huron with the occasional rainfall Thursday night and Friday. For the lower lakes favorable to unsettled conditions were predicted.

Around midnight, the steamship Cornell , about 50 miles west of Whitefish Point in Lake Superior, suddenly caught a north storm and was badly damaged. This storm lasted until Monday evening, November 10th, and nearly blew the Cornell onto the bank.

Course of the storm

November 7th

Storm warning with northwest winds

On Friday, the weather report in the Port Huron Times-Herald in Port Huron , Michigan described the storm as "moderately strong". At the time, the center of the storm system was over the upper Mississippi Valley and had brought moderate to fresh south winds with warmer weather across the Great Lakes area. The forecast was based on increasing wind strengths and falling temperatures within the following 24 hours.

At 10:00 a.m., the United States Coast Guard bases and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) weather stations on Lake Superior drew white pennants over square red flags with black centers, indicating a storm warning with northwest winds. In the late afternoon, this signal was replaced by a vertical sequence of red, white and red lanterns, announcing a hurricane with wind speeds in excess of 118 km / h. The wind on Lake Superior had already reached 80 km / h, and an accompanying blizzard was moving towards Lake Huron.

November 8th

On Saturday the status of the storm was raised; it has now been classified as a " storm ". The storm center was located over the eastern Upper Lake, whose catchment area it completely covered. The Port Huron Times-Herald weather report stated that the southerly winds had remained “moderate to fresh”. Northwestern winds had reached hurricane strength on northern Lake Michigan and western Lake Superior, and winds of up to 60 miles per hour (97 km / h) were measured in Duluth .

That morning Milton Smith, assistant machinist for the freighter Charles S. Price in Cleveland , Ohio, read the weather report and decided not to join the crew on their upcoming voyage. Smith, who had been feeling uneasy for a few days, also tried to persuade his friend and neighbor, Arz McIntosh, the ship's helmsman, not to go out on the ship, but McIntosh decided to go for financial reasons. Another machinist was hired in place of Smith before the Charles S. Price sailed from Ashtabula .

An intermittent subsidence of the storm allowed the resumption of traffic, both down the St. Marys River and up on Lake Erie as well as on Detroit and St. Clair River in the direction of Lake Huron. The storm signal was raised in more than a hundred ports, but was ignored by many ship captains. Great Lakes ships ran all day on the St. Marys River, through the Straits of Mackinac through the night, and on the Detroit Rivers and St. Clair Rivers early Sunday morning.

November 9th

A wave breaks on the shores of Lake Michigan, and a man watches from a bridge.

On Sunday around noon, the conditions on the Lower Huron Sea were almost normal compared to other November storms. The air pressure rose in some areas, so there was hope that the storm would end soon. The low pressure area that had drawn over Lake Superior migrated to the northeast, away from the lakes.

The Weather Bureau had issued the first of the twice-daily reports at about 8:00 AM; the next weather report wouldn't be wired to Washington, DC until 8:00 p.m. This turned out to be a serious problem as the storm had most of the day to build up before the Weather Bureau headquarters in Washington, DC received more detailed information about the storm.

However, along southeastern Lake Erie, near Erie , Pennsylvania, a more southerly low pressure area moved toward the lake. This had developed overnight and was therefore not yet recorded on Friday's weather maps. It moved northward and on a northwestern trajectory after passing over Washington, DC.

The intense, counter- clockwise rotation of the low pressure area is evident from the changing wind directions in the vicinity of its center. In Buffalo , New York , the morning northwest wind had turned northeast around noon, and the wind was coming from the southeast around 17:00, with the strongest gusts at 130 km / h between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. About 290 km further southwest, in Cleveland, Ohio, the storm maintained its northwest direction throughout the day, turning west at around 5:00 p.m. and consistently reaching winds in excess of 80 km / h. The strongest gust in Cleveland with 127 km / h was measured at 16:40. There was a significant decrease in the barometric pressure in Buffalo, from 999.7  mbar at 8:00 a.m. to 974.3 mbar at 8:00 p.m.

The rotating low pressure area continued its northward migration into the evening, making the counterclockwise winds in phase with the northwest wind that was already blowing on Lake Superior and Lake Huron. This resulted in a tremendous increase in northerly wind speeds and swirling snow, and ships on Lake Huron south of Alpena - particularly those around Harbor Beach and Port Huron in Michigan, as well as Goderich and Sarnia - were moving high south towards St. Clair River hit waves.

Between 8:00 p.m. and midnight, the storm became what modern meteorologists call a “ weather bomb ”, an explosive cyclogenesis , which means that the air pressure drops by more than 24 hPa (mbar) within 24 hours . Persistent hurricane winds with a speed of more than 110 km / h churned up the four western lakes. The greatest damage occurred on Lake Huron, at the southern end of which numerous ships were scrambling for refuge. Gusts of more than 140 km / h were reported off Harbor Beach, Michigan. The shape of the lake allowed northerly winds to intensify unhindered because the friction over water is much less than over land and the wind ran along the long axis of the lake.

Looking back, meteorologists back then did not have enough data or knowledge of atmospheric dynamics to predict or understand the events of Sunday, November 9th. Frontal mechanisms, which were referred to as thunderstorm lines in the weather reports at the time , were not yet understood. Surface observations were recorded only twice a day at the country's stations, and by the time this data was collected and entered on hand-drawn maps, this information was hours behind current weather conditions.

November 10th and 11th

Tram stuck in snow in Cleveland

On Monday morning the storm was to the northeast of London hiked, Ontario and moved into his spell Lake-effect - blizzards with it. That day in Cleveland, Ohio, fresh snow fell 17 inches and the wind puffed up two meter high drifts of snow . Cleveland tram drivers were stuck with their powerless vehicles for two days, depending on local residents. Travelers had to find accommodation and wait for the weather to clear up.

The storm finally moved rapidly across eastern Canada on Tuesday. Without the warm water of the Great Lakes as a drive, the storm quickly lost its force. This also meant a decrease in snowfall, both due to the higher train speed and the elimination of the lake-effect snow. Shipping traffic came to a standstill on Monday and partly on Tuesday on the Saint Lawrence River in the vicinity of Montreal , Québec .

consequences

Cleveland after the blizzard

The storms in the region known at the time with such strength and such high wind speeds did not last longer than four or five hours. However, this storm raged for more than 16 hours with an average wind speed of more than 100 km / h and reached gusts of more than 110 km / h. It brought traffic to a standstill on and around the Great Lakes.

Coastal area

East 105th Street in Cleveland

Along the shoreline, blizzards disrupted traffic and communications, causing thousands of dollars in property damage. The snowfall, which totaled 56 cm in Cleveland, meant that stores had to be closed for two days. Snowdrifts two meters high were common around Lake Huron, and electricity was cut in large parts of Michigan and Ontario for several days; Many telephone and telegraph connections have also failed . A mole in Chicago , which had only recently been completed for US $ 100,000 and was supposed to protect Lincoln Park there from storms, was destroyed within a few hours. At Milwaukee Harbor, the entire breakwater on the south side and much of the neighboring South Park, which had only recently been renewed, was lost.

After the snowstorms in Cleveland ended, the city remained paralyzed for days because it was covered in high ice and snow. Telephone poles were broken and many power lines torn, creating a dangerous tangle. The Cleveland Plain dealer wrote on November 11, 1913:

"Cleveland lay in white and mighty solitude, mute and deaf to the outside world, a city of lonesome snowiness, storm-swept from end to end, when the violence of the two-day blizzard lessened late yesterday afternoon."

"Cleveland lay in a white and mighty wasteland, silent and numb to the outside world, a city of lonely snow, storm-washed from one end to the other when the violence of the two-day blizzard came to an end yesterday afternoon"

William H. Alexander, then chief meteorologist for the Weather Bureau in Cleveland, stated:

“Take it all in all - the depth of the snowfall, the tremendous wind, the amount of damage done and the totally unpreparedness of the people - I think it is safe to say that the present storm is the worst experienced in Cleveland during the whole forty-three years the Weather Bureau has been established in the city. "

"Taken all together - the depth of the fallen snow, the tremendous winds, the amount of damage caused, and the utter unpreparedness of the people - I think it's safe to say that the current storm is the worst one in Cleveland in has experienced the entire 43 years since the Weather Bureau was founded in the city "

On the lakes

The 504-  foot (154 m) long ship Charles S. Price , keeled up at the southern end of Lake Huron

However, the greatest damage was done on the water. With the exception of Lake Ontario, ships sank on all of the great lakes, with the south and west of Lake Huron being a focus. Captains reported at least 35 feet (about 11 meters) high waves, but a shorter wavelength had hurricanes than usual and followed quickly one another, often three back to back. It has also been said that the wind often came from a different direction than the waves. This was the result of the cyclonic movement of the storm, a phenomenon rather rare on the Great Lakes.

It was in the late afternoon of November 10th, not far from the St. Clair River, within sight of Huronia Beach on the west bank of Lake Huron in Michigan, that a ship, unknown at the time, was spotted drifting keel up in about 20 m deep water. The question of which ship it was became a matter of general interest in the region, and it was reported daily on the front pages of the newspapers. The ship finally sank, but it wasn't until the morning of November 15, a Saturday, that it became clear that this was the Charles S. Price . The Port Huron Times-Herald issued a special issue with the title page saying “ BOAT IS PRICE - DIVER IS BAKER - SECRET KNOWN ”. Milton Smith, the assistant machinist who had decided at the last moment not to take part in the ride, helped identify the recovered victims.

Artist's impression of the capsized Charles S. Price before her final demise

The financial damage caused by the natural disaster in the United States was $ 2,332,000 in lost ships, $ 830,900 in ships that had to be scrapped, $ 620,000 in property damage in ships that could be repaired, and approximately $ 1,000,000 in destroyed cargo. This calculation does not include financial damage in the coastal towns.

The storm had several long-term effects. Complaints against the USDA Weather Bureau for inadequate preparation led to increased efforts to produce more accurate weather reports and expedite the process of creating and transmitting storm warnings. Criticism from shipping companies and shipbuilders led to a series of conferences with insurance companies and seafarers in order to achieve greater stability and a strengthening of the longitudinal axis in the construction of the ships. In Cleveland, Ohio, immediately after the storm, the city government decided to pipe all utility cables on the main roads. This project took five years to complete.

Sunken ships

Representation of the geographical distribution of the ships sunk during the storm
Wexford corpses washed ashore near Goderich, Ontario .

The following list names the ships that sank in the storm and all of their crews perished. The three drowned people of the freighter William Nottingham , who voluntarily left the ship in a lifeboat for help, are not included. The three men were hit by a breaker when the lifeboat was lowered into the water and was thrown against the ship's hull. The three men disappeared without a trace in the almost ice-cold water. Overall, the following losses were documented when the ships went down:

Of the twelve ships that sank in the storm, three have not yet been found: Leafield , James C. Carruthers and Hydrus . The Wexford was discovered in the summer of 2000, the Henry B. Smith in 2013.

Used literature

  • Barcus, Frank: Freshwater Fury: Yarns and Reminiscences of the Greatest Storm in Inland Navigation , (1986: Wayne State University Press) 166 pages. ISBN 0-8143-1828-2 .
  • Brown, David G. (2002). White Hurricane: A Great Lakes November Gale and America's Deadliest Maritime Disaster . International Marine / McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-138037-X .
  • Hemming, Robert J. (1992). Ships Gone Missing: The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 . Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc. 198 pages. ISBN 0-8092-3909-4 .
  • Ratigan, William (1987). Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals . Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-7010-4 .
  • Shipley, Robert and Fred Addis (1992). Wrecks and Disasters: Great Lakes Album Series . St. Catharines, Ontario: Vanwell Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-920277-77-2 .
  • Article in The Port Huron Times-Herald . Port Huron, Michigan. (Nov 10-15, 1913). Various authors. Transcripts of relevant articles are available here ( Memento from July 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ).

Web links

Commons : Great Lakes Storm of 1913  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files
Wikiquote: Great Lakes Storm of 1913 (English)  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David G Brown: White Hurricane ( English ). International Marine / McGraw-Hill, 2002, ISBN 0-07-138037-X , pp. 208, 222.
  2. ↑ The Great Storm of 1913: Vessels Totally Destroyed (PDF) In: Newsletter . Save Ontario Shipwrecks, Inc. p. December 9, 2003. Archived from the original on August 10, 2011. Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 18, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.saveontarioshipwrecks.on.ca
  3. ↑ Hemming, Robert J. (1992). Ships Gone Missing: The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 . Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc. ISBN 0-8092-3909-4 .
  4. ↑ Shipwrecks ( Memento of the original dated February 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Maritime History of the Great Lakes.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hhpl.on.ca
  5. ^ Annual Report of the Lake Carriers' Association. 1913
  6. ↑ a b Brown, 2002, p. 245.
  7. ↑ Brown, 2002, pp. 203, 225.
  8. ↑ a b Keith C. Heidorn: The Great Lakes: Storm Breeding Ground ( English ) In: Science of the Sky . Suite101. November 16, 2001. Archived from the original on November 17, 2001. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 20, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.suite101.com
  9. ^ A b c Mace Bentley, Steve Horstmeyer: The witch of November Archived from the original on February 24, 2001. In: Weatherwise Magazine . November / December 1998.
  10. ↑ Brown, 2002, p. 246.
  11. ^ Weather forecast, The Detroit News , Detroit, Michigan, Nov. 5, 1913.
  12. ^ Front page, Port Huron Times-Herald , Port Huron, Michigan. November 7, 1913.
  13. ↑ Brown, 2002, pp. 28-44, wind speeds and other information for November 7th.
  14. ^ Front page, Port Huron Times-Herald , Port Huron, Michigan, Nov. 8, 1913.
  15. ↑ Brown, 2002, pp. 44–67, Wind speeds and other information for November 8th.
  16. ↑ Brown, 2002, p. 12.
  17. ↑ Brown, 2002, pp. 68–127, Wind speeds and other information for November 9, 1913.
  18. ↑ Brown, 2002, pp. 13, 19, 68.
  19. ↑ Brown, 2002, pp. 127–142, 163–180, wind speeds and other information for November 10 and 11.
  20. ↑ Brown, 2002, p. 94.
  21. ↑ Barcus: {{{title}}} 1986, p. 6.
  22. ^ Reprinted in Brown, 2002, p. 162.
  23. ^ Reprinted in Brown, 2002, p. 163.
  24. ^ Front page, Port Huron Times-Herald EXTRA edition, Port Huron, Michigan, November 15, 1913.
  25. ↑ Brown, 2002, p. 223.
  26. ↑ Vogel, Michael N. and Paul F. Redding, Maritime Buffalo , Buffalo History, Lightship LV 82. ( Memento of the original from May 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buffalohistoryworks.com
  27. ↑ lakesuperior.com , accessed September 27, 2019