Mighty Storms of New England: The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, and Floods That Shaped the Region

241 Pages·2021·2.092 MB·English

by  Eric P. Fisher

MIGHTY STORMS OF
NEW ENGLAND
Y
T
E
CI
O
S
L
A
C
RI
O
T
S
HI
D
N
A
L
S
E I
D
O
H
R
Oil on canvas painting of the Great Gale by John Russell Bartlett
MIGHTY STORMS OF
NEW ENGLAND
The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards,
and Floods That Shaped the Region
Eric P. Fisher
GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT
An imprint of Globe Pequot, the trade division of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Blvd., Ste. 200
Lanham, MD 20706
www.rowman.com
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2021 Eric P. Fisher
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fisher, Eric P., 1984– author.
Title: Mighty storms of New England : the hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards,
and floods that shaped the region / Eric P. Fisher.
Description: Guilford, Connecticut : Globe Pequot, [2021] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021021635 (print) | LCCN 2021021634 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781493043507 (cloth) | ISBN 9781493043514 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Storms—New England—History.
Classification: LCC QC941 .F57 2021 (ebook) | LCC QC941 (print) |
DDC 363.34/920974—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021021635
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
For my mom.
Thanks for buying me all those weather books as a kid.
It worked!

Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Part One: Winter in New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Blizzard of ’78. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Great White Hurricane of 1888 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Notable Out-of-Season Snowstorms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Epic Snowfalls: The Great Snow of 1717 and the Snow Blitz
of 2015 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Catastrophic Ice Storms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The 100-Hour Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Part Two: Summer in New England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
The 1911 Heat Wave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Year Without a Summer, 1816 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The Year Maine Burned, 1947 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
The Dark Day of 1780. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Part Three: Major Hurricanes in New England . . . . . . . . . . . .93
The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
The Great September Gale of 1815 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105
The Great New England Hurricane of 1938. . . . . . . . . . . 113
Hurricanes Carol and Edna, 1954 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Part Four: The Power of Water—Major Floods . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Connecticut River Floods, 1936 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
The 1955 Floods of Connie and Diane . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
Tropical Storm Irene Flooding and 1927 Vermont Flood. . . . 151
Part Five: Tornadoes: An Infrequent but Destructive Menace . . 161
The Worcester Tornado, 1953 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
The Windsor Locks Tornado, 1979 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
Part Six: Ocean Storms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
The Portland Gale, 1898. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
The Perfect Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227

Preface
There is just something about the weather, isn’t there? A mil-
lion things are going on in the world every day, but there are very few
that we all experience collectively. Weather is one of them. From the most
benign and beautiful day to the building crescendo of an unforgettable
storm, there is usually something to talk about no matter where you find
yourself on earth. You can stand in the freshening winds of a coastal gale
or bake in the heat of a desert. Feel a thunderstorm breathe as warm air
rises and cold air rushes down in response. Look closer and see the inex-
plicable detail of a snowflake on your sleeve or sit back to soak in a rain-
bow after a midsummer shower. Weather is endless (free!) entertainment.
Here is some great news for everyone: You do not have to be a meteo-
rologist to appreciate weather or become an expert in it. All you need are
your senses, a penchant for observation, and an occasional glance toward
the sky. Humans have been using these skills for a very long time. Baby-
lonians were attempting forecasts as early as 650 B.C. Roughly three
hundred years later, a guy who had more than a few good ideas named
Aristotle wrote Meteorologica—a collection of theories on the formation
of weather phenomena. Quite a few turned out to be false, but we won’t
fault him for trying.
When it comes to forecasting though, a lot of what we know and
use is startlingly recent. The first synoptic (large-scale) forecasting efforts
did not begin until the late-1800s. The ability to communicate quickly
and harness the power of observations to predict the future came decades
later. Tornado forecasts did not begin until the late 1940s. After realizing,
quite by accident, that radar picked up rain signals during World War II,
NOAA rolled out the first set of radar dedicated to a national warning
network in 1959. The first weather satellite named TIROS began orbiting
in 1960, monitoring our planet from above
In other words, most of the tools we take for granted now are only a
couple of generations old. And they’re growing by leaps and bounds every
day. Hours spent crafting a hand-drawn analysis of weather patterns has
ix