Doorbells_002_small
Reputation: 896

The 1938 hurricane that chewed up the eastern seaboard wasn't expected. How much advance warning did they have and how?

This is the famous Labor Day weekend hurricane that took out the family home of Kathlyn Hepburn... and almost got her, too.

This was well before radar and modern satellites.
How long did the hurricane last, and just when did it do it's damage?

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2 Answers

  • Skull_pumpkin_small
    Reputation: 1610

    If you mean the one on September 21, 1938, it was kind of expected (Miami was prepared), but both picked up speed and due to two high pressure systems it got channeled to New England. What the Weather Bureau knew seems to depend a little bit on the source; some say there were too few datapoints and some that senior analyts overruled the more junior. Likely it was a combination.

    Lots more information here, here, and here.

    P.S. Katherine Hepburn.

     

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  • Bauhaus_small
    Reputation: 650

    NOVA (PBS)had a wonderful episode about the 1938 hurricane. It was available to watch online for a while and still may be here:

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/further-reading/hurricane-further-reading/

    Florida breathed a sigh of relief that most of it was missed, but Long Island, Connecticut, and Rhode Island had little or no warning of what was on the way. People living on the beach (and their houses) were simply swept out to sea. It's severity was even felt in NYC.

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