October, 1991 a series of weather events converged on the East Coast of the North Atlantic to create an intensely powerful storm. Immortalized as the “Perfect Storm” in both book and movie form, this nor'easter fueled by Hurricane Grace produced 100-foot rogue waves at sea, with waves of up to 35-feet near the coast. Sustained winds were reported at 56 mph with gusts up to 85 mph in coastal Massachusetts.
This storm was neither the costliest nor the strongest to affect the northeastern United States although it was quite severe. This October storm caused $200 million in damage to coastal towns and homes and claimed 12 lives, including the six man crew of the Andrea Gail, a Massachusetts-based swordfishing vessel that sank more than 500 miles out to sea.
The Andrea Gail, a 72-foot long commercial fishing vessel left Gloucester Harbor, Massachusetts on September 20th, 1991 bound for fishing waters of Canada. The ice machine necessary to maintain the vessels catch was malfunctioning and despite weather reports warning of dangerous conditions, the captain set course for home on October 26th, 1991. The last reported transmission from the Andrea Gail was received at 6 pm on October 28th. On November 9th the search for the vessel and crew was called off and presumed lost at sea.
The perfect storm was created by a three-prong weather system that made meteorological history in the fall of 1991. On October 29th a low-pressure front moving in from Midwestern United States and a low-pressure front moving down from Northern Canada converged and absorbed Hurricane Grace as she lost power moving up the coast of the U.S. The cyclone movement reached peak intensity and created 100 foot waves and 70 mph winds 264 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The storm turned southward and gradually weakened, it moved over warm Atlantic waters where the system became a Category 1 hurricane. It accelerated back toward the northeast and weakened into a tropical storm before making landfall in Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 2nd.
Forever immortalized by Hollywood, these conditions of the 1991 nor'easter are rare, but certainly not a one-time occurrence. This time of year the conditions are quite favorable for a tropical and non-tropical storm to join forces, due to southern waters of the Atlantic still being warm and the much colder air coming down from Canada.
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