MacKinley Atkinson

5/5/19
Podratz
Signature Assignment
The Perfect Storm
The perfect storm is a movie with a massive hurricane in it, massive waves and crazy
windspeeds. A group of fishermen on a boat called the Andrea Gail from Boston, Massachusetts
had a bad year fishing and they got one shot to go back out for more money. They decide to
head out far from their normal fishing grounds in hopes for a huge score. They knowingly go
out with a tropical storm developing behind them. They make it to the Flemish Cap and score
huge loads of fish. Their ice machine breaks and the only way to get the money is to get back to
land before the fish spoil. They underestimate the collision of the stormfronts and the trek that
running through a hurricane would be.
With this synopsis we can answer a few questions about the accuracy of the events that
occurred in 1991. According to Bob Case the meteorologist in charge of the forecast at the time
of the storm said,

The "three storms," he said, were in fact a large high-pressure system over Canada, a
low-pressure system traveling along a slow-moving cold front, and the tropical
moisture from Hurricane Grace, which was dissipating at the time.
Case describes the situation as follows. The high-pressure system, originating in
northern Canada, provided a large pool of cold air. The edge of this cold air-the cold
front- pushed off the New England coast on Oct. 27. A weak low-pressure system was
moving along the front.
The cold air behind the front and warm air ahead of it caused a strong temperature
contrast to form over a relatively small area. Such a sharp temperature change caused
the low to rapidly intensify. The result was what meteorologists call an "extra-tropical
cyclone."
To summarize what is said, it was an event unlike any other. It was not as powerful as the
movie portrays and who knows if a massive wave is what caused the death of all the fishermen,
but the storm was a mix of three. It is probably every meteorologists dream to see this unfold
with no harm to anyone. We learned through this course how fronts occur and how pressure
affects the formation of clouds. It was unique that we had a tropical storm, a high-pressure
system and a low-pressure system all in one place. We can learn from this storm like any other
scientific reaction, you get enough energy, something big is about to occur, like an explosion.
 A storm in this location will not create such lasting affects as if this storm happened in
Florida or the gulf. The direct affects of this storm were the people who died and the families
who suffered the losses. The indirect affect had to do with how the coast guard will deal with
situations with boats in storm moving forward. People in the seals died that day as well and
eventually had to pull away from the boat because things got too dangerous. I do not think
anything drastically different could have happened on the governments end. I think the people
on the boat made their own decisions and the government could not have stopped them from
going.
Moving forward I think this movie is a great lesson on never underestimate mother
nature and to not be so greedy. I know money is tight and people have families to feed and bills
to pay, the goal is surviving this life. Life is more important than anything you can earn or buy
with money.
 Works Cited
Science Daily, “Meteorologists Say Perfect Storm Not So Perfect”, sciencedaily.com, June 29,
2000 accessed May 5, 2019.

Jackie Powder, The Baltimore Sun, “Plunged into the storm” www.baltimoresun.com, June 26,
2000 accessed May 5, 2019