Abstract
May of 1889 had unusual weather. The earliest recorded formation of an Atlantic hurricane (up to that time) occurred on May 20th. Less than a month later another hurricane was born. Between these events a low-pressure system developed in the western plains and quickly moved east, pulling in additional warmth and moisture from the south and the Atlantic Coast. Large lateral gradients in temperature and pressure developed, rapidly strengthening the storm. The weather system caused damage over large regions of the northeastern U.S. and especially ravaged Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York State. Unintentional cloud seeding from the smoky industries in Johnstown may have enhanced local precipitation in 1889; perhaps also in 1936 and 1977.
“Great floods have flown from simple sources…”
—William Shakespeare, ironically from the play All’s Well that Ends Well, Act II
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Notes
- 1.
The earliest recorded hurricane in the Atlantic is now thought to have spawned in early January, 1938.
- 2.
At the time of the 1889 flood the present-day borough of East Conemaugh was the village of Conemaugh.
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Coleman, N.M. (2019). The Gathering Storm – “A Shower of Fishes”. In: Johnstown’s Flood of 1889. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95216-1_2
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