65 Years Ago - Today

[SEAZSky]

Sept. 14, 1944 - And I Was There

Ahh - The Good Old Days

I was 13 years old in New York City for this event. The brunt of the storm in the city was between 5 pm and 10 pm. Record steady-state winds of over 100 mph was (officially) recorded at the US Weather Bureau station in lower Manhattan on the building roof, about 15 stories above street level. The rain was heavy, and the windows in my bedroom at 3 floors high were buckling with each gust - but didn't break - because my apartment did not directly face the wind. The eye crossed central Long Island at about 8 pm, moving NNE at a good speed. The next day, I saw numerous trees were blown down, but not much structural damage in my vicinity. New England states of Rhode Island, and Massachusetts got hit hard as the eye passed over their coastlines - curving NE. Since the forward speed was high, not too much structural damage occurred. The hurricane was downgraded to storm intensity as it plowed NE passed the Canadian Maritimes - towards the open Atlantic.

The following is from the NWS-NOAA historical archives..........



The Great Atlantic Hurricane of September 14, 1944

The Great Atlantic hurricane went virtually undetected until September 9, 1944 despite the implementation of aereal reconnaisance the previous year. The storm that was to become the Great Atlantic hurricane was of hurricane intensity when it was first detected several hundred miles northeast of the Windward Islands.

The hurricane tracked steadily west-northwest over the next several days and underwent a rapid intensification as determined by an aircraft penetration on September 12, 1944. At this time reconnaisance aircraft reported winds strong enough to shear rivets off the wings of the aircraft.

The "Great Atlantic" hurricane as the storm was referred to in a radio transmission was reported to have covered a diameter of 600 miles and possessed winds of 150 mph or more. The storm was probably of Category 5 intensity as determined from a central pressure of 909 millibars (26.85 inches of mercury).

The hurricane approached 75 West and began a recurvature which threatened the Mid-Atlantic region. Hurricane warnings were raised for North Carolina and Virginia on the afternoon of September 13th. The hurricane passed very near Cape Hatteras, N.C. shortly after 9:00 am
September 14th. The barometric pressure at Cape Hatteras dropped to 947 millibars (27.97 inches of mercury) with the highest winds clocked at 110 mph.

The Great Atlantic Hurricane passed 75 miles to the east of Norfolk just after noon on September 14th. At that time, hurricane force winds swept over portions of extreme southeast Virginia. Winds peaked at 73 mph in downtown Norfolk with gusts to 90 mph. At Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, peak 1-minute winds reached 134 mph with momentary gusts to 150 mph, the highest ever observed at any site during the hurricane. The lowest barometric pressure reported during the hurricane at Norfolk was 985.7 millibars (29.11 inches of mercury). The high winds were the result of intensive convective activity which occurred in the western semi-circle of the storm. Over 4 inches of rain fell in a three and a half hour period from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm. Fortunately for the area the hurricane passed at the time of low tide and tides only reached 6.0 feet above MLLW with little or no flooding reported. The bulk of the damage was due to the hurricane force winds which brought down numerous trees in the area.

The great hurricane moved on to produce record wind gusts in Atlantic City, N.J., New York, N.Y. and Block Island, R.I.
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And, today is the 65th anniversary of this memorable hurricane.

Stan - 78 years old

[Recurve]

Great narrative. Thanks for the reminder.

[Stephanie]

It's a great reminder for those of us here in the Mid Atlantic and Northeast that a "big one" can happen up here. With the astronomical real estate growth along the shore lines another one of those "Great Atlantic Hurricanes" will be deadly and very destructive.