November gale, the Witch of November, or November Witch, refers to the strong
winds
Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...
that frequently blow across the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
in autumn. The "witches" are caused by intense low
atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure, also known as barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1013.25 millibars, 7 ...
over the Great Lakes pulling cold Canadian/Arctic air from the north or northwest and warm Gulf air from the south. When these cold and warm air masses collide, they can result in
hurricane force winds that stir up large waves on the lakes.
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...
's song "
The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''''"'' makes reference to the Witch of November: the storm that wrecked the ''
Edmund Fitzgerald
SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald'' was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29 men. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America ...
'' was 978 mbar, equivalent to a borderline
Category 1/2 hurricane. Similar witches have caused numerous shipwrecks over the years. Another storm that hit in November 1998 was 967 mbar, equivalent to a solid
Category 2 hurricane. A still stronger storm, of
October 2010, brought
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
and
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
record low barometric pressures of, respectively, 954.96 and 961.06 mbar (both equivalent to a
category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale) and lashed
Duluth
, settlement_type = City
, nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City
, motto =
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...
with 81 mph wind gusts and 19-foot seas
[NOAA Buoy Dat]
Accessed 27 October 2010 during the night of October 26–27, 2010.
References and notes
See also
*
List of storms on the Great Lakes
Ever since people have traveled the Great Lakes (North America), Great Lakes, storms have taken lives and vessels. The first sailing vessel on the upper lakes, the ''Le Griffon'', was lost on its return from Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay in ...
*
Meteorological explanation for the formation of a November gale
*
Mishipeshu
Great Lakes
November events
Winds
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