Perfect storm

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This article is about the occurrence of events. For the comic, see Perfect Storm (comic). For other uses related to the 1991 Halloween Nor'easter, see Perfect storm (disambiguation).

The phrase perfect storm refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the result of their chance combination. Such occurrences are rare by their very nature, so that even a slight change in any one event contributing to the perfect storm would lessen its overall impact.

The term is also used to describe a hypothetical hurricane that happens to hit at a region’s most vulnerable area, resulting in the worst possible damage by a hurricane of its magnitude.

[edit] 1991 Halloween Nor’easter

The 1991 Halloween Nor’easter is also known as the Perfect Storm. At its peak force it stretched from the Labrador Coast down to Jamaica and was 2,000 miles across. The nor'easter ravaged the Atlantic Ocean over the course of several days, resulting in the deaths of several Massachusetts-based fishermen and billions of dollars in damage. In October 1991, the merging of two low-pressure areas, a large flow of warm air from the south, cold air from the north, and moisture feeding into the storm from the Gulf stream all conflated with cold air from strong northwesterly winds and warm air from strong northeasterly winds to create an exceptionally powerful storm across a very large area. Had the storm been more concentrated, it might have resembled a hurricane. Because the storm occurred without the typical hurricane warnings, fishermen and smaller vessels at sea were caught off-guard in hurricane-like conditions.