25 Years Ago: A Perfect Storm, an Unnamed Hurricane, and a Historic Halloween Midwest Blizzard

Jon Erdman
Published: October 29,2016
Twenty-five years ago, a pair of historic storms lashed the East Coast and upper Midwest, one of which was so meteorologically spectacular it earned the name "The Perfect Storm," becoming a part of pop culture after the June 2000 movie release of the drama/thriller with the same name.
What made the storm off the East Coast "perfect," as described by the National Weather Service, was a perfect confluence of factors, including a strengthening non-tropical low off Atlantic Canada, a former hurricane, strong high pressure over eastern Canada and the eastern U.S., then a bizarre transition to another hurricane.

Infrared satellite image of the "Perfect Storm" when it reached its peak intensity on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1991.

The Atlantic Low

After a strong cold front swept off the East Coast, an area of low pressure developed on Oct. 28, 1991 east of Nova Scotia, quickly intensifying into the following day.
As it did so, a strong area of high pressure was burgeoning over eastern Canada, producing a tremendous pressure gradient between the high and the lowering pressure of the gale center. The stronger the pressure gradient, the more fierce the winds.

Surface analysis for Oct. 30, 1991. A tightening pressure gradient between the mature storm system (surface pressure of roughly 972 millibars) and an area of high pressure stretched out from the Carolinas northward to far eastern Canada. The "Perfect Storm" reached its peak intensity on this day producing ferocious northeasterly winds across coastal New England and battering the shoreline with tremendous wave action. Source: hpc.ncep.noaa.gov

Winds already increased to tropical storm-force near the center of the storm and along the New England coast of the United States.
According to the best-selling novel "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger, it was during this intensification phase of the low that presumably sunk the fishing boat "Andrea Gail" on Oct. 28.
Then it got even more meteorologically complex.

Ingesting a Hurricane Remnant

On Oct. 29, the large non-tropical low near Nova Scotia began to absorb Hurricane Grace, wrapping in its tropical moisture and likely receiving an injection of energy.
You can see the evolution of this development in this YouTube video clip with Stu Ostro’s analysis from The Weather Channel’s coverage of the storm.

Visible satellite image of the Perfect Storm ingesting the remnant of what was once Hurricane Grace on October, 29, 1991, at 11:01 a.m. ET.

Grace was whipped quickly just south of Bermuda, then was caught up in the eastern side of the massive "Perfect Storm's" circulation.On the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 30, the storm reached its peak intensity as the pressure lowered to an estimated 972 millibars. As it peaked in strength, the storm then began to drift southwest toward the New England coast on Oct. 30 and 31.

The sun rises over the fisherman's statue June 21, 2000 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The 2000 movie ''The Perfect Storm'' is based on the lives of six Gloucester fisherman who lost their lives in the 1991 storm.
(Darren McCollester/Newsmakers)

Impact

High winds lashed the New England coast on Oct. 30 and 31, with peak Massachusetts gusts of 78 mph at Chatham, 74 mph at Thatcher Island and 68 mph at Marblehead, and 63 mph at Newport, Rhode Island.
These high winds whipped up pounding surf caused by the long overwater fetch length and duration of the Perfect Storm, leading to coastal flooding and damage.
Waves 10 to 30 feet high were observed from the Canadian Maritimes to North Carolina's Outer Banks. Tides reached levels not seen in 47 years in New Jersey and, in some parts of the Delmarva Peninsula, eclipsed those seen during the infamous Ash Wednesday storm of March 1962.
Damage at the coast was extensive.

"Hundreds of homes and businesses were either knocked from their foundations or simply disappeared. Sea walls, boardwalks, bulkheads and piers were reduced to rubble over a wide area. Numerous small boats were sunk at their berths and thousands of lobster traps were destroyed. Flooding was extensive, invading homes and closing roads and airports."  - NOAA/NCEI Report on the Perfect Storm

The damage in Massachusetts was described as the worst since the infamous Blizzard of '78.
The evolution of the Perfect Storm didn't end there.

The 'Unnamed Hurricane'

This is where it got weird.
As the overall storm began to weaken after lashing the East Coast as far south as North Carolina, a tiny circulation within the storm intensified into a full-fledged hurricane on Nov. 1, 1991.
(MORE: The 35 Strangest Weather Events I've Seen in My Lifetime)

Satellite images taken 24 hours apart on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 1991 showing the "Perfect Storm" morphing into the "Unnamed Hurricane."

The U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters even took flight into this hurricane, measuring maximum flight-level winds of 99 mph a few thousand feet above the ocean.
This hurricane was never named, for fear of alarming and confusing the public after the hard hit from the Perfect Storm. The so-called "Unnamed Hurricane" remained well out to sea and only limped ashore as a weakening tropical storm in Nova Scotia the next day.

The Halloween Blizzard of 1991

As the Perfect Storm was morphing into an unnamed hurricane, a blizzard of historic proportions was raging over parts of the upper Midwest.
The path of this early-season winter storm was pretty remarkable. With the Perfect Storm acting as an atmospheric block on the East Coast, a track from west to east was a no-go. There was only one way to go.
The storm developed over the far western Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 30, strengthening and tracking north-northeast toward Minnesota and Wisconsin on Halloween and Nov. 1.

Its connection with the Gulf of Mexico allowed for plentiful available moisture, resulting in historic snow totals for this part of the upper Midwest.
The Halloween Blizzard set the largest single-storm snowfall record for the city of Minneapolis, dropping more than 2 feet of snow (28.4 inches).

Snow totals across the state of Minnesota from October 31 through November 3, 1991. Blue colors indicate 8 to 20 inches of snow. Purple indicates 20 to 32 inches of snow. Parts of the Arrowhead (white colors) picked up 32 inches or more.

In Duluth, Minnesota, the 36.9 inches of snow that fell was the largest amount on record for the state, surpassing all snow totals from a single storm during any of the winter months. This record was later eclipsed by a lake-effect snowstorm on Jan. 6-8, 1994 when 47 inches fell over Finland in Lake County.
Snow fell for 72 consecutive hours in Duluth, and winds gusting from 30 to 50 mph created blizzard conditions in outlying areas and whipped the heavy snow into huge drifts, burying vehicles and crippling travel.
Farther south, with warmer air nosing in just above the ground, a major ice storm unfolded. Southern Minnesota and Iowa felt it the worst.
According to the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1 to 2 inches of ice accumulated from southwest Iowa into north-central Iowa, and 2 to 3 inches of ice accumulated across south-central and southeast Minnesota.
The Halloween 1991 Blizzard was one of only four Category 5 winter storms of record in the Upper Midwest, as categorized by the Regional Snowfall Index.
(MORE: Ranking the Most Extreme U.S. Winter Storms)
The surreal satellite image taken on Nov. 1, 1991, showing both the Unnamed Hurricane in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Halloween blizzard in the Upper Midwest remains a favorite of meteorologists to this day.
(IMAGES: The Most Iconic Hurricane Images of All Time)

Visible satellite image of the "Unnamed Hurricane" capping off the "Perfect Storm" off the New England coast, and the Halloween Blizzard in the Upper Midwest (far left of the image) on Nov. 1, 1991, at 11:01 a.m. ET.
(NOAA)

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.