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First NY Weatherman
Mon Apr 21, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
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 -- its 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 him 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. This 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.
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