The Perfect Storm
Jayda Larsen
Physical Science, Salt Lake Community College
ATMO 1010: Severe and Hazardous Weather (PS)
Professor: Dr. Jeana Mascio
December 7, 2023
This film is based on “The Perfect Storm” in 1991. This movie covers the impact of this storm and those who were affected by it. It starts with the main characters who are swordfish fishermen on the Andrea Gail. They have to go back out to sea right before the season ends to try one more time to bring home a lot of fish. Before they left everyone was worried about them due to the weather being very bad in the Atlantic during this time of year. The captain of the ship Billy Tyne is aware of Hurricane Grace but doesn’t seem to care about the updates that are being faxed to him. Another captain from their company named Linda radioed Captain Billy Tyne and told him to be careful the weather was starting to look nasty after she received a fax of both the high and low-pressure systems that were headed towards hurricane Grace before they all collided, and without reconsidering they continued to push through.
Https://allthatisinteresting.com/andrea-gail
The whole movie is based on this storm that occurred and they briefly touch on the importance of this storm but not enough in my opinion. It is so rare for all of these phenomena to line up with one another. The odds of a meteorologist seeing it happen in their lifetime are very slim which is something they did mention in the movie.
Hurricane Grace was headed south while there was a strong disturbance coming from England as well as a high-pressure system coming in over the southeast of Canada with a low-pressure system heading up pushing them to collide and pull in what remained of hurricane Grace. It was a mixture of 3 different types of storms being pulled into one to create “The Perfect Storm”. The odds of all of these happening simultaneously are very slim, which is why it got the name “The Perfect Storm”.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-perfect-storm-1991.htm
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/perfect-storm-1991-30-years-later-andrea-gail/1020583
I think they did a good job explaining why this storm began, they had a meteorologist in the movie explaining what he saw and his thoughts on it. I think they should’ve gone into more detail about it though. The storm itself was portrayed well, being in the middle of the Ocean during a perfect storm is somewhere no one wants to be. The Coast Guard received a Mayday report from Linda on Billy’s behalf. The coast guard tried to save them but they ran out of fuel and had to bail and due to that they lost one of their crew members. It was reported that 13 people died due to this storm. You watched the crew members fight to make their way through the 30-60 ft waves they were facing dead on but sadly it wasn’t enough. They had a 10-day search (109,000 miles) for Andrea Gail but with little debris being found they had to call off the search after being unsuccessful.
Based on the research I did one of the only complaints about the movie was the way they portrayed the captain Billy Tyne. The families talked about their support for the book when it was released but after the movie came out they tried to sue for defamation and the case was thrown out by the court.
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https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/perfect-storm-true-story-sebastian-junger/
References:
Rosenthal, Z. (2021, October 29). 30 years later, the “perfect storm” remains a haunting weather event. Yahoo! News. https://news.yahoo.com/30-years-later-perfect-storm-190303301.html
Lindwasser, A. (2021, September 23). Tragic facts about the perfect storm, the shipwreck story no one lived to tell. Ranker. https://www.ranker.com/list/real-perfect-storm-andrea-gail/anna-lindwasser
ScienceDaily. (2000, June 29). Meteorologists say “Perfect storm” not so perfect. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/06/000628101549.htm