So, what is a perfect storm?
When a hurricane collided with storm fronts in the North Atlantic in October 1991, it created what one weathercaster called “the perfect storm,” which in turn devastated the New England coast, birthed the Sebastian Junger novel of the aforesaid name, served Wolfgang Petersen with meat (or was it fish) for a movie (opening Friday) and provided George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg an opportunity to do a wet ‘n’ macho look.
But, really, what is a perfect storm? We asked some people who have obviously considered this question before.
Al Roker, NBC’s “Today Show” feature and weather reporter
`The perfect storm is a nor’easter snow-storm on a Sunday night so when you’re snowed in, you get a three-day weekend.”
Steve Lyons, Weather Channel meteorologist and tropical program manager
`I’m an old Southern California surfer. . . . My perfect storm is close to what happened in December 1969 in the central Pacific. We had a typhoon come up from Taiwan and swing toward the northeast to the central Pacific and it merged with a mid-latitude cyclone — a cyclone that was already there — and the merge of those two produced a giant cyclone that was extremely intense. It pro-duced an intense large-scale windfield . . . the whole central mid-Pacific was under 40 m.p.h. or higher winds. And that produced some phenomenal waves on the order of 75 to 80 feet over a very large area. And those waves moved away to Hawaii and produced some of the largest waves in the last century. Those waves were estimated to be at least 60 feet. Even the big-time surfers couldn’t ride them.”
Steve Baskerville, WBBM-Ch. 2 weather anchor
`The first thing that came to mind is that I like quiet storms – Smokey Robinson had a song called, `Quiet Storm.’ (To me), it’s when it starts to snow at 7 in the morning and then it’s 8 o’clock at night and you have 13 inches on the ground and you can’t and don’t want to go out.”
Brant Miller, WMAQ-Ch.5 meteorologist
`I’m kind of partial to winter, to Currier & Ives. . . . After the rush hour on Friday, a snowstorm comes in and you get enough snow that you can run the snowblower in the alley. It’s beautiful the next morning and you don’t have to be anywhere . . . You get a crack-ling fire in the fireplace. No one’s power went out. And no one’s car slid off the road. And by Monday morning it was just a memory.”
Paul Sirvatka, associate professor of meteorology at the College of DuPage and tornado chaser
`It’s a supercell — a big thunderstorm that produces several tornadoes. The most important thing, though, is that I predict where it’s going to occur and I am able to be there to watch.”
Tom Skilling, WGN-Ch. 9’s chief meteorologist
`Winter storms are fascinating because there is such a mix of weather. You have tornadoes or strong thunderstorms on one side and you could have a blizzard going a couple hundred miles away. It’s just amazing — the temperature grading and the wind-fields. Everything is just working on a thing like that.”
