Hurricane Bob 25 years ago

[Ginx snewx]

The beginning of 8 long days without power as the western eyewall of Bob wracked my home in Ashaway RI. I collected over 6 inches of rain and had gusts over hurricane force. The Eye passsed to my east over Newport RI and we were spared the right front quad but it was bad enough. An unconfirmed tornado passed just 100 yards to my south with a path from the top of Collins Rd in Ashaway to  RT 91  in Bradford RI. In its wake were twisted telephone poles, flattened trees and definite rotation in the corn fields. The path was about a 1/4 mile wide. It was never investigated by NWS because of all the other issues. I was a spotter and working with the RI state climatologist office at URI at the time. He and I surveyed the area. I watched and heard this tornado rip through. The power outage with 3 very young kids sucked but fortunately Westerly RI had power so we had my parents house to shower and eat. I had to flag down a Quebec power truck on day 8, I had case of Molson Beer to get him to throw a tripped breaker in my hood. He promptly did and we were back on line. Great storm but we got a huge break by the unraveling and hard right turn. My reports did make it into the official NHC report on Bob so that was cool.

http://www.weather.gov/box/hurricane_bob

[Ginx snewx]

Just now, WxWatcher007 said:

I was too young to remember it, but my dad loves telling the story of driving past downed trees in CT to get my mom to the hospital to deliver my brother. 

What town? Yea often time slow baro pressure induces labor. Is his name Bob? lol

[dryslot]

7 days no power here, 12"+ water in the basement, $2,000.00 worth of property damage

[Ginx snewx]

My hood now report

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/storm_wallets/atlantic/atl1991/bob/preloc/pshbdl2.gif

[CoastalWx]

We went down for a week on the Cape with my family from Canada. I remember 4 days earlier TWC was talking about a depression east of the Bahamas and how it needs to be watched. I joked with my parents how it might be a cane for New England. Fast forward to day before. We went on a whale watch off of P-town. Swells were getting everyone sick.  The strange thing was that nobody really took it seriously it seemed. Certainly the lack of getting information as compared to now probably played a role, but people were very complacent. I was only 12 but I remember telling my parents it could be bad. "We'll just check in the morning" they said. Well at 6am we started to high tail the hell out as it was a cat III. Rt 6 was a nightmare. 20 mile backup and my relative's car was overheating. We were one of the last few cars to get off the Cape. We got home just as the winds picked up and lost power. The storm wasn't too bad in Brockton, but I went to the Cape two weeks later and it was wrecked.

[Ginx snewx]

9 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

We went die for a week on the Cape with my family from Canada. I remember 4 days earlier TWC was talking about a depression east of the Bahamas and how it needs to be watched. I joked with my parents how it might be a cane for New England. Fast forward to day before. We went on a whale watch off of P-town. Swells were getting everyone sick.  The strange thing was that nobody really took it seriously it seemed. Certainly the lack of getting information as compared to now probably played a role, but people were very complacent. I was only 12 but I remember telling my parents it could be bad. "We'll just check in the morning" they said. Well at 6am we started to high tail the hell out as it was a cat III. Rt 6 was a nightmare. 20 mile backup and my relative's car was overheating. We were one of the last few cars to get off the Cape. We got home just as the winds picked up and lost power. The storm wasn't too bad in Brockton, but I went to the Cape two weeks later and it was wrecked.

Great story, wow. Yea there was wall to wall coverage the day before but being a wxnut I was all over it. The pattern was very conducive for a home brew. We were very prepared for the worst. The Cape got smoked.

[Ginx snewx]

Rain/obs in the area , Ashaway was me

[SouthCoastMA]

I lived near swifts beach in Wareham at the time. Dozens of house destroyed due to the surge. If you go down there now..most houses right along the shore are on stilts. 

[OceanStWx]

1 hour ago, Ginx snewx said:

The beginning of 8 long days without power as the western eyewall of Bob wracked my home in Ashaway RI. I collected over 8 inches of rain and had gusts over hurricane force. The Eye passsed to my east over Newport RI and we were spared the right front quad but it was bad enough. An unconfirmed tornado passed just 100 yards to my south with a path from the top of Collins Rd in Ashaway to  RT 91  in Bradford RI. In its wake were twisted telephone poles, flattened trees and definite rotation in the corn fields. The path was about a 1/4 mile wide. It was never investigated by NWS because of all the other issues. I was a spotter and working with the RI state climatologist office at URI at the time. He and I surveyed the area. I watched and heard this tornado rip through. The power outage with 3 very young kids sucked but fortunately Westerly RI had power so we had my parents house to shower and eat. I had to flag down a Quebec power truck on day 8, I was  loaded with a case of Molson Beer to get him to throw a tripped breaker in my hood. He promptly did and we were back on line. Great storm but we got a huge break by the unraveling and hard right turn. My reports did make it into the official NHC report on Bob so that was cool.

I was 7, about to turn 8. A weenie was born that day.

I can say with absolute certainty that I'm doing what I do today because of Bob.

Even at that age, I understood how hurricanes worked and that winds would flip directions after the eye, but I'll always remember how ferocious they were when the eyewall came back in. I was able to walk out into my driveway in the eye and squint in the sunshine, but my parents wouldn't let me go any farther than that. 

There was a lot of tree damage in town (7 days without power if I'm remembering correctly), and we took drives every night through town to check out the damage and clean up progress. I remember how narrow the streets seemed, with downed trees, branches, and powerlines constricting things. I still have a scar from climbing out on a downed oak and falling through the canopy, catching my arm on a broken branch.

[Ginx snewx]

9 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

I was 7, about to turn 8. A weenie was born that day.

I can say with absolute certainty that I'm doing what I do today because of Bob.

Even at that age, I understood how hurricanes worked and that winds would flip directions after the eye, but I'll always remember how ferocious they were when the eyewall came back in. I was able to walk out into my driveway in the eye and squint in the sunshine, but my parents wouldn't let me go any farther than that. 

There was a lot of tree damage in town (7 days without power if I'm remembering correctly), and we took drives every night through town to check out the damage and clean up progress. I remember how narrow the streets seemed, with downed trees, branches, and powerlines constricting things. I still have a scar from climbing out on a downed oak and falling through the canopy, catching my arm on a broken branch.

Sweet, a star was born because of Bob. My wx geekdom is a direct result of 38 because my hometwon was the epicenter of destruction and death and I grew up hearing the stories over and over again from my Dad who witnessed the incredible storm surge wave. Hearing his description and reading the other eyewitness accounts of what looked like a fog bank only to be a 30-50 foot wave I am convinced a Meteotsunami occurred.

[OceanStWx]

25 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Sweet, a star was born because of Bob. My wx geekdom is a direct result of 38 because my hometwon was the epicenter of destruction and death and I grew up hearing the stories over and over again from my Dad who witnessed the incredible storm surge wave. Hearing his description and reading the other eyewitness accounts of what looked like a fog bank only to be a 30-50 foot wave I am convinced a Meteotsunami occurred.

I mean if the storm was moving fast enough to keep pace with the wind driven surge, it's entire possible that the central low pressure had an additive effect to cause one. Strong thunderstorm complexes do it, and really that's all a TC is.

[StormSurge]

I had just graduated high school & had been anticipating my next 'cane ever since Gloria. I believe Charlie in '86 was the closest (at least that I can recall) until Bob arrived.

My anticipation was sky-high and it didn't disappoint. I was in Ledyard, CT & we had no power for a week. Not too much damage nearby but a local stream that my friends & I would go tubing on after a good storm in town was raging. I started at UConn Avery Point the following week and there were quite a few large trees down on campus that took awhile to haul away.

The weenie flag was firmly planted that day. I can't wait for my next one!

[tamarack]

28 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

I was 7, about to turn 8. A weenie was born that day.

I can say with absolute certainty that I'm doing what I do today because of Bob.

Even at that age, I understood how hurricanes worked and that winds would flip directions after the eye, but I'll always remember how ferocious they were when the eyewall came back in. I was able to walk out into my driveway in the eye and squint in the sunshine, but my parents wouldn't let me go any farther than that. 

There was a lot of tree damage in town (7 days without power if I'm remembering correctly), and we took drives every night through town to check out the damage and clean up progress. I remember how narrow the streets seemed, with downed trees, branches, and powerlines constricting things. I still have a scar from climbing out on a downed oak and falling through the canopy, catching my arm on a broken branch.

A lot to like in this post.     The NNJ/SNY ice storm of Jan. 1953 was the impetus for both my vocation (forestry) and my wx hobby.  (My aversion to calculus, even when I was getting good grades, switched my career objective.)

Summer 1991 had been dry until we got a 3" rain a week before Bob.  The 6.41" from that 'cane remains the greatest calendar-day precip I've measured.  (24-hr tops of 8.9" was set by the PRE-Doria combo 20 years earlier.)  We had a small timber harvest going on state land about a mile from GYX, on the Allen Road just west of the Pownal-New Gloucester line, and when I tried to access the operation to check on damage, several detours were required as the normal route had four blowouts between I-295 and the site.  At the time it was PWM's greatest 24-hr precip, that record obliterated in Oct. 1996.

Bob is the only TC in my somewhat limited experience which had backside winds essentially as strong as frontside.  An aspen stand on the state's Hebron lot was nearly destroyed, with half the tipped trees pointing NW and half SE.  However, 95% of the rain came prior to the wind shift.  Bob had the strongest winds I've experienced in Maine, and vies with Hazel for 3rd strongest anywhere.  (Not sure whether #1 was the Nov. 1950 apps gale - I was only 4 - or the icy blast of 12/31/1962, both while living in NNJ.)

[Typhoon Tip]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

We went down for a week on the Cape with my family from Canada. I remember 4 days earlier TWC was talking about a depression east of the Bahamas and how it needs to be watched. I joked with my parents how it might be a cane for New England. Fast forward to day before. We went on a whale watch off of P-town. Swells were getting everyone sick.  The strange thing was that nobody really took it seriously it seemed. Certainly the lack of getting information as compared to now probably played a role, but people were very complacent. I was only 12 but I remember telling my parents it could be bad. "We'll just check in the morning" they said. Well at 6am we started to high tail the hell out as it was a cat III. Rt 6 was a nightmare. 20 mile backup and my relative's car was overheating. We were one of the last few cars to get off the Cape. We got home just as the winds picked up and lost power. The storm wasn't too bad in Brockton, but I went to the Cape two weeks later and it was wrecked.

nice account, Scott - 

at the time i was at odds with my parents and they offered up my grand-father's house to live and take care of for a year as an alternative.  i hadn't even gone to college yet and had no outlook at the time, no means or even gumpshon to do anything about it, either.. pretty much just a self-loathing azzhole with a weather addiction - heh.  

anyway, since at the time granmpa was  riddled with cancer and incapable of taking care of himself due to that, and age and so forth, i took it.  he lived in michigan, so being 1,000 miles away from my mother's gaping, yelling square-mouthed cookie slot rage of a mouth was a wonderful alternative.

unfortunately, that was all about a month before Bob happened.  i took it personally too - like, satan was pissed that i escaped hell, so as a petty face smack Bob comes out of nowhere; like it all waited for me to be firmly settled where ever life-inspiring weather was not.  in fact, when all that was happening, i think it was like 72 F with partly sunny skies, no wind utopia where i was in Michigan - Hannibal Lector would have been envious at how painful that rub-in was...ha!  

so, anyway... i did live it a little vicariously through a buddy who took shelter at his parent's house in Plymouth during the storm.  he had a the safer option in Acton Ma where primarily heavy rain resulted.  but ...you know how people are: they seem to want on disaster so he went there - not even a Meteorologist, either, which goes to show you that there is something innate in all people that is deviant in that way.  

so i'm talking to him on the phone and he's occasionally interrupting himself to go... "OOOOHHlly SCHIT that was a loud gust... anyway, so I went to store yesterday and it was packed and, OH Schit, the power just blinked off and on...  But anyway, the shelves were almost empty in the bread aisle and people were banging grocery carts and - " phone goes dead.  

[CapturedNature]

I was a year out of school and still had my weather business so I was pretty busy in the lead up to the storm.  I was hoping for a Gloria v2 but wound up on the wrong side and the effects weren't that bad here.  We did have lots of trees/branches down but nothing like areas just to my south and east.  I did pick up 4.65" which I think was my one day peak rainfall until October 2005.

The timing was good being in the day time which meant that you could actually see what was going on.  I kept busy doing hourly live spots on the radio and I remember prepping for an extended power outage like we had with Gloria but it never happened.  I think we just lost power for a few days.

Having had Gloria just six year prior I think helped people be a little better prepared and perhaps Sandy or Irene will help some people but I just can't imagine the world of hurt that will will be in when the next one actually does hit it.  It's been more then a generation and I just don't think people can handle things like they used to.

[ORH_wxman]

There was a lot of street flooding here which was cool to see...at one point they looked like actual rivers with torrents of water, but otherwise it really wasn't bad. There were some decent gusts to maybe 60, but all in all nothing overly memorable for sensible wx or damage. The Dec '08 ice storm produced exponentially more damage. I do remember being glued to the TV coverage though. The Cape got the big winds.

[Typhoon Tip]

  ... hahaha, just to poke the yellow jacket's nest ... that's the la-la 06z oper.  GFS form overnight ..which we've all seen of course - just sayin'.

 

funny how we get a couple of solutions like that every year.  you gotta figure, one of these days:  'POW, right in the kisser!'

[MaineJayhawk]

I was in Lawrence, KS ... probably was sunny and 95F

[CT Rain]

The northern eyewall clipped far SE CT with 80+ mph winds in Mystic. Outside of Groton/Stonington the damage was very Irene and Sandy like in CT.

I was despondent as a kid watching the storm on the Weather Channel from my grandparent's house outside of Syracuse.

[Hoth]

7 minutes ago, CT Rain said:

The northern eyewall clipped far SE CT with 80+ mph winds in Mystic. Outside of Groton/Stonington the damage was very Irene and Sandy like in CT.

I was despondent as a kid watching the storm on the Weather Channel from my grandparent's house outside of Syracuse.

Ditto. I was with my parents on Champlain during the storm. I was seven and remember wishing desperately to be out on Fishers with my grandparents. Not much worth remembering where I was, but the water overtopped the road in front of our house on the island and our neighbor's dock wound up on our beach. Also, surge ruined one of the greens and tee boxes on the golf course. Nowhere even close to the high water mark from Carol or '38, however. One of these days we'll have another. 

[weathafella]

I had moved back to Boston a few weeks earlier.  I left work Monday at Noon and drove in driving rain and wind to my friends place in Belmont where we idiots proceeded to go out in it at Belmont Hill Golf Course.   

[scoob40]

56 minutes ago, MaineJayhawk said:

I was in Lawrence, KS ... probably was sunny and 95F

If you want to take a walk down memory lane weatherwise nothing compares to this forum .

[Typhoon Tip]

...k, so .. getting a consensus here that Bob for the majority left some points on the field ...  

makes sense i suppose; he hooked right and spared a more direct impact to the larger population and infrastructure of the region.  i can only imagine what the ensemble guidance looked like leading, with the usual westerly outliers portending doom.  or who knows - maybe the west members depicted the weaker cyclones.  sometimes that happens.  or, perhaps the were all on-board clear to Concord NH, and the turn was now-casted... fun stuff.  

imagine if Bob stayed N longer before parabolic trajectory .. we DEFINITELY would be weathering different accounts. 

one thing i do recall is my father telling me that it set the 24 hour intensity record at the time, for the Atlantic Basin?  check that - it may have merely been a discussion.  but the weather channel was talking about how fast it went from basically Invest to hurricane in about a day.  that may be why Scott recalls some 'complacency' ... may have been more like completely oblivious.  we almost need these things to eye candy in the Atlantic for a few days to really gin up the awareness.  

[CT Rain]

23 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

...k, so .. getting a consensus here that Bob for the majority left some points on the field ...  

makes sense i suppose; he hooked right and spared a more direct impact to the larger population and infrastructure of the region.  i can only imagine what the ensemble guidance looked like leading, with the usual westerly outliers portending doom.  or who knows - maybe the west members depicted the weaker cyclones.  sometimes that happens.  or, perhaps the were all on-board clear to Concord NH, and the turn was now-casted... fun stuff.  

imagine if Bob stayed N longer before parabolic trajectory .. we DEFINITELY would be weathering different accounts. 

one thing i do recall is my father telling me that it set the 24 hour intensity record at the time, for the Atlantic Basin?  check that - it may have merely been a discussion.  but the weather channel was talking about how fast it went from basically Invest to hurricane in about a day.  that may be why Scott recalls some 'complacency' ... may have been more like completely oblivious.  we almost need these things to eye candy in the Atlantic for a few days to really gin up the awareness.  

 

Yeah the track from BID to south of BOS definitely limited the damage outside of Buzzards Bay and the Cape. Would have been much worse if it tracked from PVD up through ORH.

[Baroclinic Zone]

Wife is from Stonington and remembers this. Just out of HS.

Myself, don't recall a thing.

[Typhoon Tip]

i've often thought that seasonal climo has spared New England through the decades if not centuries... 

we are essentially AT the warmest SSTs of the season over the west Atlantic. obviously... the difference between now and Sept 15 isn't all that great; but, still... the shelf waters just beneath the NY bite due pass from marginality at the surface squarely into too cold by then (most years), and that's about on top of what SNE climo for hurricanes there is... Most in history seem to do a swipe up this way after the first of September and in fact, ...i have weather books that describe great tempest after great tempest occurrences throughout October and November, which is definitely getting real late for the that gossamer warm layer that caps the terminus of the Labridor cold conveyor.  thing is... our 'canes tend to turn the corner E of the Carolina's and then really haul some serious ass ...that's how they get this far N while not completely losing tropical characteristics.  in fact, i've discussed this with advanced Mets before and most concur that just about every one of them, by the time they succeed our latitude they are already beginning to take on hybrid physics - kind of have to be, because they are gulping in near-by continental dry air as they rail their way on up. 

i suppose the epic disaster novel goes like:

- unusually wet and warm summer along and east of the eastern Cordillera ... such that the air is in situ anomalously rich in theta-e.  that's mitigating the continental toxic air mass as much as possible, such that when it starts getting entrained it's not as poisonous?   that's one... 

- the cyclone translation takes place in the last two weeks of August at the apex SSTs over the shelf waters, to also mitigate cold water-atmosphere coupled air mass entrainment from being AS detrimental as it gradually gets post that approximate time range. 

- the other larger scale mechanics do not interfere ...such as increasing shear over the system (which can be alleviated by the storm acceleration in forward motion (-SRH) ) etc.

the first two of these three ideas are theoretical more so... but it seems intuitive to me that cyclone maintenance begins at mitigating known detriments.  Suppose a monster cranking Category 4 if not 5 winds is poised somewhere 300 naut miles ENE of the outer most, lower Bahamas, and all available guidance and all available observations fit in with this above synopsis... 

one word:  PAIN

anyway... these perfections are probably less collocated in time in latter Sept - early Dec, when it appears the bell-curve of events are located.  

[dendrite]

All I remember was losing power during the Miss Teen USA pageant. I was 12 and pretty pissed at the time.

[ORH_wxman]

8 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

i've often thought that seasonal climo has spared New England through the decades if not centuries... 

we are essentially AT the warmest SSTs of the season over the west Atlantic. obviously... the difference between now and Sept 15 isn't all that great; but, still... the shelf waters just beneath the NY bite due pass from marginality at the surface squarely into too cold by then (most years), and that's about on top of what SNE climo for hurricanes there is... Most in history seem to do a swipe up this way after the first of September and in fact, ...i have weather books that describe great tempest after great tempest occurrences throughout October and November, which is definitely getting real late for the that gossamer warm layer that caps the terminus of the Labridor cold conveyor.  thing is... our 'canes tend to turn the corner E of the Carolina's and then really haul some serious ass ...that's how they get this far N while not completely losing tropical characteristics.  in fact, i've discussed this with advanced Mets before and most concur that just about every one of them, by the time they succeed our latitude they are already beginning to take on hybrid physics - kind of have to be, because they are gulping in near-by continental dry air as they rail their way on up. 

i suppose the epic disaster novel goes like:

- unusually wet and warm summer along and east of the eastern Cordillera ... such that the air is in situ anomalously rich in theta-e.  that's mitigating the continental toxic air mass as much as possible, such that when it starts getting entrained it's not as poisonous?   that's one... 

- the cyclone translation takes place in the last two weeks of August at the apex SSTs over the shelf waters, to also mitigate cold water-atmosphere coupled air mass entrainment from being AS detrimental as it gradually gets post that approximate time range. 

- the other larger scale mechanics do not interfere ...such as increasing shear over the system (which can be alleviated by the storm acceleration in forward motion (-SRH) ) etc.

the first two of these three ideas are theoretical more so... but it seems intuitive to me that cyclone maintenance begins at mitigating known detriments.  Suppose a monster cranking Category 4 if not 5 winds is poised somewhere 300 naut miles ENE of the outer most, lower Bahamas, and all available guidance and all available observations fit in with this above synopsis... 

one word:  PAIN

anyway... these perfections are probably less collocated in time in latter Sept - early Dec, when it appears the bell-curve of events are located.  

 

 

Given the historical frequency of hurricane landfalls in New England, we've definitely been in a pretty big drought recently. The late 19th century and then again from the 1930s-1960ish were exceptionally prolific compared to what we've seen in the past 4-5 decades (and obviously even more so since 1991).

[Typhoon Tip]

12 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

 

 

Given the historical frequency of hurricane landfalls in New England, we've definitely been in a pretty big drought recently. The late 19th century and then again from the 1930s-1960ish were exceptionally prolific compared to what we've seen in the past 4-5 decades (and obviously even more so since 1991).

yeah, there's that too!  

add that as the 4th requirement:  there actually need BE a system poised just east of the Carolina's readying its self to haul ass.. .haha

seriously though, having a dearth of events is bad for a few reasons of course.  anecdotally the message loses panache as stories fade in time.  successive generations become lesser and lesser respective of such perspective - (sorry for the rhyme) 

but what you end up with?  How about 10 billion dollars worth of Long Island civility and culture, sticking out blithely like an arrogant stick ... poking the Atlantic bear.  i mean it's to the point now were we're proverbially daring it for christ sake. and as Ryan alluded, gee how Bob took that course of least regret out of shear convenience to said arrogance.

my 'perfect scenario' above not only corrects that arrogance ...if not entirely, definitely afflicts a humility that challenges the very endurance of man, and it would mean (apply buns as needed...) a disruption that would make Katrina seem like the epicology of a teenage girl's end of the world -

[ORH_wxman]

3 minutes ago, Typhoon Tip said:

yeah, there's that too!  

add that as the 4th requirement:  there actually need BE a system poised just east of the Carolina's readying its self to haul ass.. .haha

seriously though, having a dearth of events is bad for a few reasons of course.  anecdotally the message loses panache as stories fade in time.  successive generations become lesser and lesser respective of such perspective - (sorry for the rhyme) 

but what you end up with?  How about 10 billion dollars worth of Long Island civility and culture, sticking out blithely like an arrogant stick ... poking the Atlantic bear.  i mean it's to the point now were we're proverbially daring it for christ sake. and as Ryan alluded, gee how Bob took that course of least regret out of shear convenience to said arrogance.

my 'perfect scenario' above not only corrects that arrogance ...if not entirely, definitely afflicts a humility that challenges the very endurance of man, and it would mean (apply buns as needed...) a disruption that would make Katrina seem like the epicology of a teenage girl's end of the world -

 

The amount of wealth and buildup on the coastlines of LI and southern CT/RI since 1938 and Carol in 1954 has been immense. It's only a matter of time until another one hits and it's going to be ugly when it does.

 

We also have the issue of so many residential areas having mature trees vs the middle 20th century. That could be a mess with widespread timber destruction in a repeat of one of those storms.