In the fall of 1913, a violent force was unleashed across the Great Lakes. More than a century later, it still goes by many names. All are deadly: The White Hurricane. The Big Blow. The Frozen Fury.
What remains staggering all these years later are the details of the devastation. At least 250 sailors lost, a dozen ships sunk, and 30 vessels left stranded or smashed against rocky shorelines from Lake Superior to Lake Erie.
It was five days of chaos that packed blizzard conditions as well as hurricane-force winds. Fast-moving “trains” of huge waves – some topping 30 feet high – lashed ships that were desperately trying to make their last runs of the season.
If you were out on the lakes, caught in this unexpected storm, it would have been something out of a nightmare. Mariners reported winds gusting to 100 mph in some spots, amid monster 36-foot waves.
The National Weather Service produced this highlights list of the Great Lakes region’s worst storm in history.
Two Storms Colliding
A devastating convergence of storm systems in November 1913 created what remains the Great Lakes’ worst natural disaster.
The catastrophic weather event, known as the “White Hurricane,” struck the Great Lakes between November 7-11, 1913, bringing a lethal combination of blizzard conditions and hurricane-force winds that left a path of destruction across the region.
The type of storm collision course that caused the White Hurricane is the same kind of fierce “November Witch” storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.
Weather experts now classify the 1913 disaster as a “meteorological bomb” that occurred in two distinct phases.
The initial “Pre-Storm” began on Nov. 7, battering Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.
“The Pre-Storm was formidable in its own right, with storm-force winds, heavy snow, lake-effect snow squalls, freezing sprays and high seas,” the National Weather Service said in its forecast recap of the event. “Several large ships were severely damaged and run aground across the breadth of the lake.”
A list of the boats lost in The White Hurricane of 1913.
Then Came The White Hurricane
The second and more destructive phase hit on Nov. 9, when an “unusual atmospheric phasing” occurred as the initial storm collided with another system developing in the southeastern United States. Sailors reported towering waves up to 36 feet high.
According to the NWS, this two-storm collision created a “meteorological bomb” that produced “prolonged, hurricane-force winds, blinding snow squalls, freezing spray and massive wave trains over the Great Lakes.”
Lake Huron suffered the most catastrophic losses, with eight ships sinking and 187 lives lost during a single six-hour period. Among the vessels claimed by the storm was the Charles S. Price, a relatively new 524-foot steel-hulled ship that capsized in Lake Huron on Nov. 9, taking all 28 crew members to their deaths.
Recorded wave heights from the White Hurricane in 1913.National Weather Service
Communication limitations in 1913 contributed to the disaster’s severity. Weather warnings were transmitted by telegram to over 100 stations, where volunteers would raise flags or lanterns as signals. However, ships already navigating the lakes had no means of receiving these crucial updates.
“Even the forecasters were caught by surprise by the strength and longevity of the powerful storm,” the NWS noted.
A century later, in 2013, the NWS in Detroit employed modern technology to simulate the historic storm. Their findings validated sailors’ accounts, confirming hurricane-force gusts between 80-90 mph over Lake Huron on the night of Nov. 9, when many vessels were lost.
Amid the tragedy, there were stories of survival. The L.C. Waldo ran aground on Gull Rock in Lake Superior on Nov. 8. After a 90-hour ordeal, rescuers managed to save all 22 crew members, two women, and even the ship’s dog.
Another vessel, the Muskegon-built Lightship LV-82 Buffalo, sank with its six-person crew. Unlike many lost ships, it was later salvaged in 1915, repaired and returned to service by 1917.
Image of the lightship LV-82 Buffalo after it was raised in 1915. The ship was sunk with all hands during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913. It was repaired and returned to service in 1917.Wikimedia Commons
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