This is the path of the 1938 Hurricane that devastated New England and other areas on the Eastern Seaboard. |
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An editorial from The New York Times, published Sept. 21, 1938, the day the hurricane hit New England. praising the forecasting prowess of what was then called the U.S. Weather Bureau:
Every year an average of three such whirlwinds sweep the tropical North Atlantic between June and November. In 1933, there was an all-time record of twenty. If New York and the rest of the world have been so well informed about the cyclone, it is because of an admirable, organized meteorological service.
From perspectaweather.com:
The storm began on Sept. 9 (a Friday, although some reports say the storm formed as early as Sept. 4) near the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic. About a week later, the captain of a Brazilian freighter sighted the storm near Puerto Rico and radioed a warning to the U.S. Weather Bureau and it was expected that the storm would make landfall in south Florida where preparations frantically began. By Sept. 19, however, the storm suddenly changed direction and began moving north, parallel to the eastern seaboard. It had been many decades since New England had been hit by a substantial hurricane and few believed it could happen again. The storm picked up tremendous speed as it moved to the north following a track over the warm Gulf waters.