List of Victims of The 1913 Great Lakes Storm - Storm - November 9

November 9

By noon on Sunday, weather conditions on lower Lake Huron were close to normal for a November gale. Barometric pressures in some areas actually began to rise, bringing hope of an end to the storm. The low pressure area that had moved across Lake Superior was moving northeast, away from the lakes.

The Weather Bureau had issued the first of its twice-daily reports at approximately 8:00 a.m.; it did not send another report to Washington, D.C. until 8:00 p.m. This proved to be a serious problem: the storm would have the better part of a day to build up hurricane forces before the Bureau headquarters in Washington, D.C., would have detailed information.

Along southeastern Lake Erie, near the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, a southern low-pressure area was moving toward the lake. This low had formed overnight, so was absent from Friday's weather map. It had been traveling northward and began moving northwestward after passing over Washington, D.C.

The intense counterclockwise rotation of the low was made apparent by the changing wind directions around its center. In Buffalo, New York, morning northwest winds had shifted to northeast by noon and were blowing southeast by 5:00 p.m., with the fastest gusts, 80 mph (130 km/h), occurring between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Just 180 miles (290 km) to the southwest, in Cleveland, winds remained northwest during the day, shifting to the west by 5:00 p.m., and maintaining speeds of more than 50 mph (80 km/h). The fastest gust in Cleveland, 79 mph (127 km/h), occurred at 4:40 p.m. There was a dramatic drop in barometric pressure at Buffalo, from 29.52 inHg (999.7 hPa) at 8:00 a.m. to 28.77 inHg (974.3 hPa) at 8:00 p.m.

The rotating low continued along its northward path into the evening, bringing its counterclockwise winds in phase with the northwesterly winds already hitting Lakes Superior and Huron. This resulted in an explosive increase in northerly wind speeds and swirling snow. Ships on Lake Huron that were south of Alpena, Michigan—especially around Harbor Beach and Port Huron in Michigan and Goderich and Sarnia in Ontario—were battered with huge waves moving southward toward St. Clair River.

From 8:00 p.m. to midnight, the storm became what modern meteorologists call a "weather bomb". Sustained hurricane-speed winds of more than 70 mph (110 km/h) ravaged the four western lakes. The worst damage was done on Lake Huron as numerous ships scrambled for shelter along its southern end. Gusts of 90 mph (140 km/h) were reported off Harbor Beach, Michigan. The lake's shape allowed northerly winds to increase unchecked, because of the lower surface friction of water compared to land, and the wind following the lake's long axis.

In retrospect, weather forecasters of the time did not have enough data or understanding of atmospheric dynamics to predict or comprehend the events of Sunday, November 9. Frontal mechanisms, referred to then as "squall lines", were not yet understood. Surface observations were collected only twice daily at stations around the country, and by the time these data were collected and hand-drawn maps created, the information lagged actual weather conditions by hours.