The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: A Meteorological Breakdown 

You don't grow up in this neck of the woods without hearing about the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ and her loss. It was an absolute shocker for the region and continues to haunt Great Lakes mariners to this day.

Just south of where the Fitzgerald sank, at Vermillion, Michigan, a large number of trees were blown down by a downburst. In fact, there several reports of thunderstorms by mariners on Lake Superior that day. When a thunderstorm cluster moves at the same speed as the waves on the lake, the result can be rogue waves.

Amazing work! Well explained, well produced, and perfect explanation of how fetch and the potential of the rogue waves played a part! Once again you knock it out of the park with this one.

This was so well done Trey. Thank you for your diligent, respectful, and honoring work on this.

Some of the terms he coined like the witch of November have absolutely become common parlance in great lakes states. Ohios own Lake erie is considered to be a witches child who fusses and rages seemingly at random. So the maritime tone and some of the parlance has become common and it's nice seeing you dedicate time to this tragedy.

Well done. I am too young for the 75 storm, but was in the thick of the massive low that struck the central plains on Nov 10th-11th, 1998. That one bottomed out at 967 MB or so over Duluth on the 11th. On the 10th, we fought our way from Omaha out to central Nebraska through just awful wind and snow after a concert.

Trey, this was outstanding! I was at Split Rock Lighthouse last year for the ceremonial lighting in memory of the Edmund Fitzgerald. There was a pretty good storm last year as well. I made a RU-vid video about the lighting and tried to compare the two storms at a very high level. This was just so well put together. I know there are dozens of weather events you could review, but another interesting one is the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940. What captivates me is that 100s of duck hunters on the Mississippi went out that afternoon in light clothing with no clue of the impending storm. Dozens died as the blizzard trapped them on islands and the water began freezing. Survivors recall the best hunting they've ever seen as ducks were migrating ahead of the storm. The speed of the weather change from sunny and 70s, to the fight for life and death in hours, has always fascinated me as a duck hunter and weather enthusiast.

I really enjoyed this one great work as always. A breakdown of another Great Lakes cyclone: the 1996 Lake Huron Cyclone could also be interesting for future historical breakdowns.

I couldn’t wait for this video to come out today and it didn’t disappoint! It would be so interesting to see more of these videos about other shipwrecks related to weather. Thanks for this video! 😀

I’m from Michigan and I was born on November 10th (though many years after the sinking). Growing up, my mom always said “happy birthday, and remember the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Thank you for this video!

Duluthian here. Excellent work, as always. I grew up loving both weather and ships, and I remember frequently hearing about this event, but I've never seen anyone properly describe the meteorology behind it. I'd love to see some case studies of some little known Minnesota/Wisconsin tornado events - a supercell partially influenced by Lake Superior produced a damaging EF3 tornado in Siren, Wisconsin, back in 2001 that might be worth a look. Additionally, the tornado outbreak of June 17th, 2010 was notable as being the largest in recorded history in the state of Minnesota, producing a couple of EF4s. Anyways - I love your videos, and this is one of my all time favorite channels. Thanks for all you do!

Man what an absolutely incredible breakdown, Trey! You know I always talk about how much I enjoy learning the 1 or 2 new things each video, but virtually this entire video was learning. I can't imagine how hard this video would have been to do without the script, either, there's so many things to look at and so many details you have to hit. This wreck really is the perfect definition of "wrong place wrong time". The wave height map with the Blue X is literally an "X marks the spot" moment. Rolling waves against the side of a boat that have travelled across the entirety of the lake that also happen to be some of the largest ever seen in the history of the lake is unfathomably bad luck. How many times had they taken that route, even through some stormy weather, and prevailed unscathed? Also that surface low was an absolute monster. The pressure gradient on the back side as it came through was so tight and powerful. If they were seeing that kind of sustained winds, I have to wonder what some of the gusts got up to. I mean that thing was literally a land hurricane as far as pressure and wind speed is concerned. Lots I could talk about with this one, I love seeing you branch out into more forms of significant weather events, and can't wait for more!

My father worked on the boats as a cook for many years.....including the Fitz.... I've been aboard her a few times myself.... We knew many of the men personally...... Rest in Peace.... Michael Armagost- 37- Third Mate- Iron River, Wisconsin Fred Beetcher- 56- Porter- Superior, Wisconsin Thomas Bentsen- 23- Oiler- St. Joseph, Michigan Edward Bindon -47- First Asst. Engineer- Fairport Harbor, Ohio Thomas Borgeson -41- Maintenance Man- Duluth, Minnesota Oliver Champeau- 41-Third Asst. Engineer- Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin Nolan Church -55 -Porter -Silver Bay, Minnesota Ransom Cundy- 53- Watchman- Superior, Wisconsin Thomas Edwards-50- Second Asst. Engineer- Oregon, Ohio Russell Haskell -40- Second Asst. Engineer- Millbury, Ohio George Holl -60- Chief Engineer- Cabot, Pennsylvania Bruce Hudson- 22- Deck Hand -North Olmsted, Ohio Allen Kalmon -43- Second Cook- Washburn, Wisconsin Gordon MacLellan- 30- Wiper- Clearwater, Florida Joseph Mazes- 59- Special Maintenance Man -Ashland, Wisconsin John McCarthy -62-First Mate -Bay Village, Ohio Ernest McSorley -63 -Captain -Toledo, Ohio Eugene O'Brien- 50- Wheelsman -Toledo, Ohio Karl Peckol -20- Watchman -Ashtabula, Ohio John Poviach -59- Wheelsman- Bradenton, Florida James Pratt -44- Second Mate- Lakewood, Ohio Robert Rafferty -62 -Steward -Toledo, Ohio Paul Riippa -22 -Deck Hand -Ashtabula, Ohio John Simmons -63 -Wheelsman -Ashland, Wisconsin William Spengler -59- Watchman- Toledo, Ohio Mark Thomas -21- Deck Hand- Richmond Heights, Ohio Ralph Walton -58- Oiler- Fremont, Ohio David Weiss -22 -Cadet -Agoura, California Blaine Wilhelm -52- Oiler- Moquah, Wisconsin

This video as well as the maritime horrors episode on this accident are now my evening plans

Thanks for a very well organized video. The points and relevance to the sinking were clearly presented. On 11/10/23, I watched the livestreamed memorials at Split Rock Lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Both were incredibly moving and dignified. RIP Edmund Fitzgerald crew; never forgotten.

Upper Peninsula Mentioned!! But seriously this is a fantastic breakdown, your videos get better everytime I swear. Fantastic work Trey! Very glad for this one as someone who has always loved the great lakes and now lives near Superior. im fairly certain I used to have a wooden model of the Edmund Fitzgerald as a kid.

Oh, how utterly fascinating! Thank you, that was really amazing to watch.

It takes time but this channel will definitely take off eventually. I thought you already had way more subscibers because of the quality and knowledge you share! Keep up the great work

This is awesome!! Your severe weather event studies are my favorite but this is refreshing. I'd love more of this especially with one of my other interests, aircraft.

Truly incredible work. I've grown up hearing my dad sing this song my entire life and never knew. Thank you so much for this!

Man this is the weather nerds dream. Thanks a lot!❤

Great video!

The inconvenient truth of the Fitz is the ship was ridden hard and put away wet it’s whole service life. It was a tired, fatigued boat and this storm just finished the job…whether or not it bottomed out. Rest easy, men.

Awesome stuff Trey! You know how much I love the song so hearing the meterology behind the tragedy was fascinating!

I’ve been interested in the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald since I first heard the story when I was in elementary school 25 years ago, and I’ve tried to learn as much as I can since. This is one of the best videos I’ve seen about the loss of the Fitzgerald. Well done!

The meteorologists had to play catch-up with this storm. Back in 1975, weather models were quite primitive when compared with today's high resolution models. The LFM model, had a resolution of 190.5 km, meaning that there were only a couple of grid points over Lake Superior. Temporal resolution was every twelve hours, so woeful in providing guidance to mariners. As a result, the NWS updated their forecast and warnings, based on on-scene weather observations by mariners. The NWS had 26 cooperating weather observation vessels on the Great Lakes in 1975, one of which was the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Nice work Trey !

I grew up in NJ, and was 15 when the Fitz was lost. I remember it being all over the news for over a week, then in the spring the song came out and the ship and crew truly became legend…

Excellent video. I'll be visiting Detroit next week and I'll stop by the "musty (later rustic) old hall" to pay my respects.

This is really really cool stuff man, just another reason why I really love this channel!!

Thanks man another great video!!

Interesting switch up! Looking forward to absorbing this one!

Great meteorological analysis as always, Trey! Have you ever watched Historic Travels? He's another one of my favorite RU-vidrs, a guy named Sam from (I think) West Virginia who started out doing videos on just the sinking of the _Titanic_ , exploring more technical and human aspects of the ship and the night she sank than I would have thought possible. He's since branched out into other historic shipwrecks (including a video on the _Fitz_ ) and just ships in general.

Crazy how everything came together perfectly for this to happen! Another great video, I learned a ton about how weather affects the lakes!

Arguably the most infamous disaster on the Great Lakes. The storm was basically just so strong and one of the more perfect storms you could get for the Great Lakes and it's basically legendary at this point and you really just don't see a set up like this for the Great Lakes hardly ever. I agree with one of the comments in here that the NWS and agencies were playing catch up with this storm but at the same time, even in the 70s a lot of weather aspects that we knows now were still in their infancy or rather our understanding was still rather iffy. That and also the fact with Captains still on the Great Lakes and Oceans even at this time were known to be stubborn and these big ships almost felt like bricks and they could handle any storm thrown at them. Though, this was just a crazy storm and today, ships will anchor up close to shore or behind one of the many islands till the worst of the weather passes. I think there actually thresholds that ships will not venture out on too these days and the Fitzgerald disaster helped with that. One thing people sometimes forget with the disaster is that Fitzgerald and Anderson captains were good friends and spent nearly their entire careers on the Great Lakes so they did have experience with big storms but this was just a insane beast more than even they were expecting. Even the SS Arthur M. Anderson Captain Mr. Cooper said they didn't think they would make it at times cause it was the worst storm they ever seen or experienced. This is a Captain that has been on the lakes for DECADES so they know what they were talking about. Fitzgerald though, did have a lot of issues with it as a ship that made it a little more sketchy to handle this storm than the Anderson did and so that likely did have some impact. Still, this was a combination of factors and Fitzgerald just had hours of issues and hence why the Anderson was concerned with them. As you said it was the perfect storm of wrong place at the wrong time. They just fell behind the Anderson with all the problems they were dealing with and that 3 Sisters Wave likely was the kicker of this and new simulations Trey and new research shows that that the flooding and hatch cover damage and stuff was showing that the Fitzgerald was sitting INSANELY low in the water. Like the water line was potentially only about 5-10 Ft below the deck but because it was pretty dark out still at the time the crew had no clue and likely all the crew at the time were on the bridge or below in the engine rooms. There's an amazing interview with Captain Cooper of the Anderson "Through the eyes of Capt. Cooper: The night the Edmund Fitzgerald went down" but what he believes how the ship ended is pretty current with new data that she likely had broken her keel under the waterline around the bow 1/2 of the ship and flooding was impossible for the crew to see and likely got hit with the first wave of the 3 Sisters and she never surfaced and the bow basically went on a one way trip to the bottom. The ship was longer than the depth of the water so the stern stayed on the surface and corkscrewed off with the metal bending and battering it took before it snapped and sank too. Since there was no mayday or transmition it's now believe that the Fitz crew on the bridge only realized they were screwed was when they didn't feel the rocking of the waves and pressure increasing as they were way underwater the time and the bridge flooded out rapidly. Remember too it was near dark and near whiteout outside too in that storm so knowing if you were on the surface or underwater would only be subtle too given how low they were riding in the water already with the ore and flooding. Likely rolling of the boat would be less and give a sense that stuff was ok and hence they radioed in "We're holding out own".....a false sense of security but not knowing how screwed they were. They would have gone from surface to the bottom of the Lake in under 14 seconds. Truly terrifying to feel like you are on the surface and then you don't feel the waves anymore and it's pitch darkness like they would be seeing outside. Just infamous disaster but one that we likely should never see again given all the technology and satellite monitoring of the lakes and how most captains know to usually play it safe. Also of note, the Anderson is still on the lakes today and give Mr. Cooper credit cause he went back out there to go find the Fitz and his friend and that crew. They made it to safety and Whitefish Bay but they went back out there at the discretion of the Coast Guard cause for the Coast Guard the conditions were too insane for them to conduct a search and rescue till the storm let up. Google "Arthur M Anderson Master Salute to the Edmund Fitzgerald" and it's from 2020 on the Duluth Harbor Cam on a very snowy night and the near whiteout conditions would almost be like what it was out on that night but far worse. Still it gives a taste of what it was like out there at the time and she is the lasting legacy of her sister ship she was lost on that morning.

I really liked this! Since I'm from Michigan it was cool to see something local. Great Job!!

Terrific work. Thank you for doing this.

Great work as always

Super cool idea for a video. I knew it’d connect back to tornadoes somehow lol. This is like the Jarrell of marine tragedies.

This is a brilliant video. So interesting!

these videos are so interesting!!!

i didn't even know this happened, very interesting breakdown!

I highly recommend watching the documentary that was on Discovery with Clive Cussler that went in depth on what might have caused the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. They dove the wreck to bring up the ship's bell and were the last to be given permission to dive the wreck. It is illegal to dive the wreck as it is considered a burial site and is considered sancrosanct.

With his course direction and the wind from his port rear, the helm had to correct starboard or the wind would have tended to blow him broadside. Then you get a starboard list and extra water in the hold sloshing around, with a cargo of loose taconite pellets. I’ve kayaked downwind in measly conditions of a 30mph tailwind, and the wind is pushing you in front of the waves, trying to turn you broadside. Any additional loss of critical buoyancy was obviously fatal in those conditions.

Yes!!!! you gotta do more of these kind of videos. mixing two things i love to learn about in one video

22:00 ive seen this effect here on Fort Peck Lake Montana....... . when that wind can blow down the whole length of the lake.... you can leave a bay with 1 or 2 foot waves.... then in the middle of the lake.... you are hitting 5 or 6 foot waves..... . near the dam, the lake "widens"..... and ive seen a "column" of LARGE waves just marching down to the dams toe the lake might be like 3 miles wide at that point..... with a 1/2 mile or so of MASSIVE waves . . crossing the middle can become impossible at times one day the winds went from 5MPH max..... to about 55 sustained, gusts to 70...... in about 30 seconds (it was WILD!!!!) several boats got swamped or pushed into the dam that day..... with 1 sinking . . . fort peck may be small next to a great lake...... but its still a pretty large lake!!! 1500 miles of shoreline.... ~220 feet deep . it has its own lake effect snow..... at least till it freezes over it messes with storms.... sometimes making them stronger, sometimes making them fall apart

I do remember an interview with captain from the Arthur m Anderson they reported wind gusts at caribou Island of over 90 mph from a lighthouse station!!!

Nice meteorological breakdown.

Brilliant Trey! Love these types of explanations. I figure I understand tornadoes pretty well now, I can look at a hodograph and mumble "oh yeah look at that EML" and I'd be right, but hurricanes and extratropical cyclones/snow and I'm helpless. Keep doing more of these! Edit: wintertime Skew-Ts are kinda an unexplored country for me. The best I can do is to look at a Skew-T near home and see if it'll snow or rain, but I can't predict anything like I can with severe weather. Any help you can give would be very appreciated! Maybe case studies of the 1977-78 winter blizzards?

This is great.

Given that the last synoptic chart shows the situation some hours later, it seems like the accident happened in that small sector of the surface low that is prone to so-called sting jets.

i think they bottomed out.....which would explain why the railing went down railings going down is a VERY VERY VERY bad sign (it means your boat is trying to fold in half) . i think they were taking on a bit of water from this......but were able to "hold their own" until the waves became too tall.... and started to overwhelm the bulge pumps . eventually it got low enough in the water to start down-flooding..... a hatch might have caved in.... or a large wave put enough water on deck to cancel out the buoyancy..... and it went down like a rock . . they MUST have known they were in a bad situation..... as a door or 2 were open and LOCKED!!! in the open position what i make of this is.... "we want to be able to have a quick escape" . i think they knew they were taking on water..... and just like several airline crashes.... they didnt want to declare a mayday because they didnt know the full situation (and didnt want to cause risk to someone else), they were too confident (biggest ship, ship next to them is OK)...... or just wanted to get home after a long day at work or a mix of all 3, usually . . . either way...... that railing being down is NOT!!! a good sign they could have "bent" the ship when they bottomed.... (people also say she was getting old and rusted out.... which makes her even weaker, especially after a bottom) . . . i can see myself wanting to push home..... its so close, just a few more miles and ill be in a warm bed with my wife and dogs the damned ship will hold together.... like it has every other time . and then ya blow a tire.... or that tired old engine/trans gives out and now you are in the middle of nowhere and have to hike 5 miles to make a cell phone call (and hopefully its not -50F with a 60MPH wind... like is common in NE MT lol)

🍁

Lake Superior is a vicious one

NICE

Explain the bent canopy.

This is fascinating! What a great idea. I'm turning into quite the stan.😅

If she hadn't bottomed out she'd made it. Not dogging the hatches bite them too.

A “perfect storm” scenario. Also a good illustration that disasters are never single-point failures. This was really fascinating! (Also, I was 15 in 1975 and, yikes 🫤)