Times Change but the Challenges Remain: Successes, Failures, and Impacts from the Portland Gale of 1898

On November 26th, 1898 a devastating Nor’easter struck the New England coast and decimated New England’s marine industry and portions of coastal geography. More than 400 ocean vessels were lost during the storm, the most notorious of which was the The Steamer Portland of Portland, ME, a paddle wheeler passenger steam boat. Nearly 200 lives were lost when The Steamer Portland went down during the storm. The tragedy of this event is enhanced by the fact that it could have been avoided. On the afternoon of November 26th, the U.S. Weather Bureau in Boston, MA issued a storm warning. This warning verified as heavy snow, storm surge, and wind gusts close to 45 m/s battered the coast of New England. While the verification of this forecast was an enormous success considering the lack of forecasting resources available at the time, there was obviously a significant communications failure as The Steamer Portland and hundreds of other ocean vessels were destroyed during the storm.
In this case study we constructed a timeline of the weather and events leading up to the sinking of The Steamer Portland to provide insight into some of the communication challenges meteorologists faced in the late 19th century. The storm was simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) using Twentieth Century Reanalysis data as initial/boundary conditions. Linking together simulated weather conditions, observed weather conditions, and historical reports we identified the key miscommunications and atmospheric conditions that led to the sinking of The Steamer Portland. After the event, there were two key changes made in New England’s marine industry; 1. Engineers began discontinuing paddle wheel steam ships which were unstable in open seas and migrated to the construction of vessels propelled by screw propellers. 2. A new requirement was made that a copy of passenger manifests be left on shore, as the only passenger manifest associated with The Steamer Portland went down with the ship. These changes have persisted to this day as many vessels are still built with screw propellers and onshore passenger manifests continue to be a requirement. While forecasting and communications have improved drastically over the past 120 years we continue to face the same challenges meteorologists faced during The Portland Gale of 1898. A significant weather event can be very well forecast, but without proper communication the impacts can still be astounding.