WTKR NEWS 3 — Hampton roads has seen its fair share of spooky weather, but one Halloween storm still stands out decades later.
“The Perfect Storm” also known as the Halloween Storm of 1991 lashed the east coast with destructive winds, flooding and massive surf. The damage expanded far beyond U.S. borders.
The system caused more than $200 million in damage from the Caribbean to Canada. Waves reaching 30 feet were common. Isolated rogue waves towered 90 feet high. Hurricane-force winds hit 80 miles per hour, pounding coastal communities and ships at sea.
One of those ships was the Andrea Gail. Six crew members were killed off the coast of Sabel Island in Canada when the storm claimed their fishing vessel. This tragedy inspired the movie “The Perfect Storm,” starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.
It all began when an area of low pressure formed to the east of Nova Scotia while Hurricane Grace churned west of Bermuda. A strong ridge of high pressure steered the two systems into each other, and Grace was absorbed by the coastal low. The storm quickly strengthened into a hurricane, but it never received an official name to avoid confusion with Grace.
On November 2, the storm made landfall over the same place it originated—Nova Scotia, leaving a haunting legacy still remembered each Halloween along the Atlantic coast.
