Inspired by Mother Nature, Sebastian Junger's best seller, The Perfect Storm, is known to the scientific community as the Unnamed Storm of October 1991.
While the novel offers an indepth look at the meteorolgy, the movie glosses over the complications and even embellishes.
- Movie Myths:
- Despite the movie's assertions, Hurricane Grace was not a Category 5 (sustained wind speeds greater than 155 mph) on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It was a Category 2 (96-110 mph) and remained well offshore until it was incorporated into the non-tropical low.
- Grace did not wreak havoc along the New England coastline. It was the rapidly intensifying non-tropical low that was responsible for all the damage.
- History of the unnamed storm of October 1991
- October 28 - A weak non-tropical storm develops just east of Nova Scotia, Canada while Hurricane Grace spins in the far south.
- October 29, 30 - As the systems gravitate toward each other, a strengthening non-tropical system swallows hurricane Grace, incorporating the tropical cycone into its own circulation. Grace's moisture & energy invigorate the weaker system and the non-tropical low peaks in intensity. The resulting non-tropical system continues in an atypical westward direction, with sustained winds of 70 mph and waves as high as a ten story building. It then approaches the U.S. coast and looms less than 200 miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- October 31 - The storm weakens only slightly and loops around to the south. It then moves over part of the Gulf Stream, where water temperatures approach 80 degrees. The warm water helps the storm to become a tropical cyclone.
- November 1 - Now a hurricane, the system begins to accelerate toward the north, moving close to the area where the non-tropical system was first born.
- November 2 - Before its landfall in Nova Scotia, the hurricane weakens into a tropical storm. The “Perfect Storm” dissipates.
Sequence of Events:
- The science behind the storm
- Non-tropical systems have a severe swing in temperature from one side to the other. In tropical cyclones, the temperature is virtually uniform.
- Tropical systems exhibit their strongest winds near the surface. Non-tropical systems' most intense winds are above the surface.
- Non-tropical systems can have strong winds spanning a wide area, with diameters in excess of 200 miles. Tropical systems see their strongest winds in a small, concentrated area.
Basic differences between non-tropical and tropical systems:
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