88th Annual Meeting (20-24 January 2008)

Wednesday, 23 January 2008: 10:45 AM
A Forensic Meteorological Perspective on the American Revolutionary War Battles of Trenton and Princeton
R04 (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Gerald J. Mulvey, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Redondo Beach, CA; and E. Abrams
This paper describes the methodology of reconstructing meteorological conditions during two related battles of the American Revolution. During this time there was very little meteorological observational infrastructure for the reconstruction of the synoptic and mesoscale meteorological conditions during these events. This lack of observational data poses a significant technical challenge. Nevertheless, the importance of these conditions and the ability of Revolutionary War military commanders to understand the significance of these conditions and exploit them often was a contributing factor in the success or failure of the military action. The forensic weather case of the Battles of Trenton (December 1776-January 1777) and Princeton (January 1777) are reconstructed in this paper using primary and secondary historical sources and existing analyses. The impacts on military operations and on the result of the engagements are explored.

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