Remembering a rare New England hurricane

On today’s date, the “Great New England Hurricane of 1938” smashed without warning across a portion of the nation that rarely experiences such storms: New England. The tropical cyclone grazed Cape Hatteras, N.C., about 3 a.m. on Sept. 21 and, from there, Weather Bureau forecasters believed the hurricane was headed northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, as such storms typically do. This was in the days before aircraft reconnaissance, weather radar or satellite surveillance. Unrealized by the forecasters, the hurricane instead accelerated north at 50-60 m.p.h.—the highest forward speed a hurricane has ever attained—and blasted with Category 3 intensity (winds 111-130 m.p.h.) across Long Island, N.Y., and into Rhode Island and surrounding areas by early afternoon. The sun had been shining only two hours earlier. Winds and storm surge claimed nearly 600 lives, and left New England in a shambles.
--By Richard Koeneman, WGN Weather Center Meteorologist