An Unintended Case Study of the Side Effects of Sharing Historical Research with the General Public and Others: An 80th Anniversary Update to the Story of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938

The Great New England Hurricane of 1938 continues to be of great interest to a variety of audiences that range from weather history enthusiasts and the regional population of New England to emergency managers in the region and meteorologists. This presentation is a light-hearted yet serious showcase of how the publication of a book on the meteorological and social history of the storm for its 75th anniversary and other related activities, such as presentations of various types, museum exhibits, and casual conversations, resulted in the gathering of new information that would have otherwise been likely inaccessible to the author. The topics include new details about items leftover from the storm relief efforts, pre-hurricane forest coverage percentages, and the visualization of precipitation observations, as well as a look at new studies and emerging tools available since the original publication. An 80th anniversary update of the book published by the American Meteorological Society takes advantage of this fortunate academic Catch-22.