Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Weather

Rights and Access Note

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Publication Date

7-1-2008

First Page

208

Last Page

213

Issue Number

7

Volume Number

63

Abstract/ Summary

Ships’ protests have been used for centuries as legal documents to record and detail damages and indemnify Captains from fault. We use them in this article, along with data extracted through forensic synoptic analysis (McNally, 1994, 2004) to identify a tropical or subtropical system in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1785. They are shown to be viable sources of meteorological information. By comparing a damaging storm in New England in 1996, which included an offshore tropical system, with one reconstructed in 1785, we demonstrate that the tropical system identified in a ship’s protest played a significant role in the 1785 storm. With both forensic reconstruction and anecdotal evidence, we are able to assess that these storms are remarkably identical. The recurrence rate calculated in previous studies of the 1996 storm is 400–500 years. We suggest that reconstruction of additional years in the 1700s would provide the basis for a reanalysis of recurrence rates, with implications for future insurance and reinsurance rates. The application of the methodology to this new data source can also be used for extension of the hurricane database in the North Atlantic basin, and elsewhere, much further back into history than is currently available.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Mcnally, LK, Maasch, KA, and Zuill, KJ, 2008, The Use of Ships' Protests for Reconstruction of Synoptic-Scale Weather and Tropical Storm Identification in the Late Eighteenth Century: Weather, v. 63, p. 208-213. Available on publisher's site at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wea.272/abstract

Publisher Statement

© Copyright 2008 by the Royal Meteorological Society

DOI

10.1002/wea.272

Version

publisher's version of the published document

Download

Share

 

Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.