The Gales of November are comin' early on the Great Lakes, my friends.
No, literally.
The winds have picked up, and the skies are dark and marbled gray with swirling clouds throughout the day. They say barometric pressure is lower than it's ever been seen, and we're going to get conditions rivaling those that took down the Edmund Fitizgerald, one of thousands of ships that have slipped below the waters of the Great Lakes, taking good men and women with them to the icy bottom.
The roar of Lake Michigan is heard over a mile inland. Intermittent rains pound through the ripples of the sky. Dark, angry waters froth and crash against the lighthouses. The air is strangely warm, but the hard wind pulls the heat from everything.
It's expected to continue for days. So we batten down the hatches. Candles. Matches. Last time we saw winds predicted like this the power was out in parts for days.
Yessir. We're in for a storm.
We're in for a storm and it's going to be a mess for a bit.
I fully expect to be out with my Chainsaw when all is said and done, slicing up neighbors' fallen trees. Lotta dead wood's gonna come down. But hey! I won't want or fuel wood, eh? Maybe I'll get lucky and somebody will ask me to haul away an oak for them.
November hits hard. The "November Witch" as it's been known has claimed thousands of lives.
This year isn't particularly unique in its predicted severity.
November 11, 1940 a massive Armistice Day storm saw three ships near the coasts of Ludington and Pentwater in West Michigan sink on the same night all at once: the Novadoc, the Anna C. Minch, and the William B. Davock.
57 men lost their lives in that early November storm.
"The most disastrous day in the history of Lake Michigan shipping was Armistice (now Veterans') Day, November 11, 1940. With seventy-five-mile-per-hour winds and twenty-foot waves, a raging storm destroyed three ships and claimed the lives of fifty-nine seamen. Two freighters sank with all hands lost, and a third, the Novadoc, ran aground with the loss of two crew members. Bodies washed ashore throughout the day. As night fell, a heavy snow storm arrived. Rescue efforts by the Coast Guard and local citizens continued for three days after the storm. Three Pentwater fishermen were later recognized by the local community and the Canadian government for their bravery in rescuing seventeen sailors from the Novadoc. "
And another shipwreck of the 320 foot long Henry Cort in 1935 along the same area.
The "State of Michigan" sank in the same area in 1901...the Iron Sides sank near Grand Haven in 1873...
Storm after storm after storm. Back and back and back.
But of course sailors keep sailing, eh? Folks persevere. And the storms are part of the texture, mystery and mystique of this strange and beautiful place.
From Eclecteblog, a photo of yesterday's sky by the Ann Arbor area (about 150 miles east of muskegon)