Titanic Weather
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The sinking of the Titanic, 89 years ago, was the greatest marine tragedy of the 20th century. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is the Weather Notebook. According to the Meteological service of Canada the Titanic tragedy is also ranked as the third-biggest weather story of the 20th century and has caused meteorologists like David Howells of England to understand what happened "weatherwise" on that fateful trip.

Howells found from studying maps that along most of its route, the Titanic's first and only voyage probably had fine weather. The passengers probably enjoyed light winds and mild temperatures on their first three days. But on its last night, the Titanic hit a cold front coming off Canada. The temperature dropped from about 43 Fahrenheit to near freezing. The northwest winds behind the front also helped to steer a giant ice field toward the ill-fated ship.

Finally, at 20 minutes before midnight, the ship hit an iceberg that might have weighed up to 300,000 tons. The ship's hull was torn open. There were too few life rafts for all of the people on board and the temperature of the water, owing to the salt in it, was very cold. Salt helps lower the freezing point of water, and the North Atlantic Ocean that night was a frigid 28 degrees-- 4 degrees below freezing.

More than 1500 people died as the ship sank, but one good thing happened later that year. An international ice patrol was formed to scan the seas and help keep other ships from the icy fate that doomed the Titanic.

Thanks today to writer Robert Henson. The Weather Notebook is aproduction of the Mount Washington observatory.