Popular Science: How the Witch of November doomed the ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’

Fifty years after the Great Lakes freighter sank, scientists can explain the weather that still haunts Lake Superior.

On the afternoon of November 9, 1975, when the SS Edmund Fitzgerald set out on its 746-mile run from Superior, Wisconsin, to Detroit, Michigan, Lake Superior was mostly calm. Even so, the crew likely saw the red sky from the intensifying storm gathering over the Great Plains. While the National Weather Service had posted gale warnings for the Lakes region, the approaching storm likely didn’t phase the crew.

Gales alone rarely troubled ships the size of the Fitzgerald. In 1975, the 700-foot-long and 39-foot-high Fitzgerald was one of the largest boats on the lakes. But as the ship made its way out of port that night, meteorological forces invisible to 1970s forecasting technology were conspiring—the dreaded Witch of November was swooping in unseen. By 1:00 a.m. on November 10, the Fitzgerald was already reporting 60-mile-per-hour winds and 10-foot-high waves...

How the Witch of November doomed the Edmund 'Fitzgerald'

Many thanks to Sarah Durn, Popular Science Associate Editor.

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