First NY Weatherman
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is the Weather Notebook.

Centuries before skyscrapers or stately homes defined the big Apple, New York City had a weatherman-it's first, in fact. He was Robert Juet of Limehouse, England, first mate aboard Henry Hudson's ship the Half-Moon.

In 1609, Hudson sailed from Holland searching for the Northeast passage but bad weather and a mutiny led by Juet caused to head for the New World.

In early-September, the Half-Moon entered the waters off Sandy Hook, sailing past Staten and Coney Islands, then up a large river. As recorded in his diary, a cold frontal passage on the 4th, led to fair and very hot conditions. It lasted two weeks.

September Twelve. Very fair and hot. In the afternoon at two o'clock we weighed, the wind being variable, between the north and the north-west; so we turned into the river two leagues and anchored.

The seventeenth. fair sun-shining weather, and very hot.....

In early October, conditions changed dramatically. A severe storm struck the ship in the waters between Hoboken and Manhatta. "

The third was very stormy, the wind at east north- east. In the morning, in a gust of wind and rain, our anchor came home, and we drove on ground, but it was oozy. Then as we were about to heave out an anchor, the wind came to the north north-west, and drove us off again. Then we shot an anchor, and let it fall in four fathoms water, and weighed the other. We had much wind and rain with thick weather, so we rode still all night.

The storm, either a nor'easter or a small hurricane, moved by quickly, allowing the Half-Moon to clear Sandy Hook and re-enter the Atlantic, homeward bound.

Our program is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Juet's journal entries
http://www.lihistory.com/vault/hs216a1v.htm

More about the Half Moon
http://www.lihistory.com/2/hs214a.htm