|
|
|
|
Titanic Weather
Mon Apr 14, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. The sinking of the Titanic 91 years ago this
month, was the greatest marine disaster of the 20th Century. You've heard that before. But to
the Meteorological Service of Canada, the Titanic tragedy was also the third biggest weather
story of the past century, and that had prompted meteorologists like England's David Howells
to ponder what happened "weatherwise" on the voyage.
Howells' study leads him to believe that Titanic enjoyed good weather through the first three
days of the trip. The passengers likely strolled the decks amid light winds and mild
temperatures. But on that last night, a cold front rolled in from Canada, and the evening
temperature dropped from 43 degrees to near freezing. Northwest winds associated with the
front also pushed a large ice field toward the fated ship.
Then, at 20 minutes before midnight, the ship hit an iceberg which may have weighed 300,000
tons. The ice sliced a gash in Titanic's hull, filling several compartments with water, and
the unsinkable ship was doomed. History tells the rest: too few life rafts, stories of courage
and cowardice, and death in sub-freezing waters. Ocean waters -- because of the salt -- can
remain liquid to below temperatures at which pure water would freeze. The North Atlantic that
night was 28 degrees. Fifteen-hundred were lost.
Writer and meteorologist Bob Henson brought us today's script. The Weather Notebook is
produced by the Mount Washington Observatory, in conjunction with the National Science
Foundation, and Subaru of America. The Weather Notebook's cross-country tour, 2003, was
sponsored by Davis Instruments, at www.davisnet.com.
Today's Links
Davis Instruments
http://www.davisnet.com/home_flash.asp
|
|
