The term “nor’easter” is used to describe certain weather systems in the northeast United States, and is supposedly a common term along the Atlantic seaboard. My problem is that I’ve lived in the northeast part of New Jersey for almost all of the past 50 years, and hardly ever heard the term locally until about ten years ago.
My question is whether maybe I was slow to pick up this term, or perhaps I am correct, and this is one of those terms where (until recently) NJ dialect was very different than others.
I should note that while in general I really am slow to pick up such things, in this particular case, my wife (also a longtime Jerseyan) feels the same as I do, leading me to ask about the thoughts of others.
(I feel this question qualifies for GQ, on the grounds that I’m looking for a factual answer to a question of etymology, even though the evidence is probably rooted in the subjective memories of the Teeming Masses.)
Not much help but I just asked my wife who has lived here in MD for 40 years and she remembers hearing it as a kid. Her family did own boats though which may have made them more likely to be aware of such terms.
It’s much more a coastal term than a regional one, for reasons that will become clear. Essentially, for meteorological reasons I don’t yet understand fully (or even well), conditions will become ripe for a storm to make its way down from essentially the Labrador Sea, moving in what is basically a southwesterly direction – which means that the winds bearing this storm are steadily (if blusterily) coming from the northeast. It happens often enough, and is often severe enough a storm, to have been christened with a special name. (The Upper South, where there’s a significant coastal plain, gets impacted inland as well as on the Outer Banks, while New Jersey and New Hampshire by and large do not, owing to upland formations protecting them to the north and east.)
It’s regional as opposed to what - a “north-easterly wind”?
“Nor’easter” is used here in Sydney. Typically, we might get a “nor’easter” in the morning, followed by a “southerly” in the afternoon. A type of wet weather hat is a “sou’wester”.
I don’t believe this is correct. A nor’easter is any significant low-pressure storm where the center of (counter-clockwise) rotation is just off the coast. IME, these storms usually travel from the south and southwest to north and northeast. When the center of the storm lies just off the coast, the winds in the upper left quadrant of the storm will blow onshore from the northeast - hence the ‘nor-easter’.
The nor’easter going on right now just blew through southern Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc.
I’m not sure where you got this explanation, but it’s wrong. A Nor’easter forms when a low-pressure system that crosses the continent from west to east intensifies as it approaches the east coast, typically somewhere between Cape Hattaras and Long Island. This offshore low-pressure zone then tends to move parallel to the coast (generally toward the northeast). In the northern hemisphere, winds circle a center of low pressure counterclockwise. Because of this rotation the winds on land will blow from the northeast at the height of the strom, hence the name. This despite the fact that the storm itself is moving from the southwest. If you’re far enough out to sea (on the other side of the storm’s center), the winds will blow from the southwest at the height of the storm.
Having lived in New Hampshire, I can say that the state is not immune from nor’easters. In fact, annual snowfall amounts are often greater on the eastern slopes of the White Mountains than the western. As humid air from nor’easters moves upslope, snow is orographically precipitated. This is in contrast to most temperate mountain chains of the northern hemisphere, where orographic precipitation is greastest on the western slopes because of the prevailing westerlies.
Been a coastal New Englander my whole life, and a nor’easter is from gulf stream low pressure compacting arctic high pressure…that’s about it folks. It’s a big crunch usually here in new england. So Polycarp is half right with the cold air from labrador.
All I can safely contribute is that I’ve heard the term nor’easter all my life but as often as not it’s in reference to the rain gear the Gorton’s fisherman and others of his stripe wear in the commercials and movies. I always associated the name with the Atlantic seaboard and New England especially.
Weather in this part of the country, 600 miles inland from the Atlantic, gets essentially no northeasterly action. At least 70% of our weather comes in from the southwest with the remaining 30% from the south and northwest. Rarely we’ll get systems moving in from the north but if we’ve had any from the northeast it didn’t cause much disturbance that I can recall. Even hurricanes that have moved inland from Georgia and the Carolinas would have a southeasterly effect, if any, on our weather.
As far as the 10 year part, I am curious how you missed the Nor’easter of '92. This was the worst storm surge in NJ and LI for 100 years.
I recall a Nor’easter canceling school in the late 70s. 1979 we had a hurricane that canceled a school day in September, so I would guess this Nor’easter was in Late 76 or 77 or 78.
My wife recalls one in January of 85 right before they moved to Seabright, NJ.
I was in NJ at the time, so I missed that one.
The '92 Nor’easter was much worse in NJ than '91. There was tremendous flooding. The Atlantic Ocean breach Seabright in a several locations, including my In-Laws Home. My wife loss her '56 T’bird in this flooding event.
We lived in apartment that looked down on the Matawan Creek*, a small barely tidal shallow creek that during the hight of the Nor’easter had whitecaps on it.
I remember watching live footage of water washing down the steps to the path train at the Hoboken Station.
Thanks for the '78 Blizzard, that was probably the one.
Jim
The Matawan creek is the same creek, before a dam was put in, that had the famous shark attacks that inspired Jaws.
I’ve been a new englander since birth and I’ve heard the term nor’easter all my life. It’s definitely a term that’s been popular in these parts for more than the past decade. Maybe getting a nor’easter has just been less common in NJ than it is in NH & MA? Weather patterns change and all.
I’m sitting in North Wildwood, NJ right now, in Cape May County, NJ about 5 miles north Of Cape May…I am looking at the Ocean…about 75 yards to the sand and 150 more to the water. Soon, I will be 50 yards to the water when it breaches the street.
…we’ve always known the term and some folks could be seen crying at it if you mention 1992. 200 yards of beach gone in a few hours? Yeah, we know the term Nor’ Easter. In North Jersey, depending on the local geology, a Nor’ Easter could be a nuisance. Down here is SJ, the geology dictates that would fear Nor; Easters more than Hurricanes. It ain’t even close.
Thank the Weather Channel for popularizing it. Someone native to Chicago – and in Chicago – told me to ‘enjoy you Nor’ Easter’ this weekend.
Also, please note something about Nor’ easters vs. Hurricanes: Even though Nor’ easters barely scrape up Hurricane force winds, two important things happen during many Nor’ Easters. First, the duration and the length of the wind over the water can cause bigger/greater waves and tidal surges, and the direction of the worst winds at the worst time can add to the problem.
Maginifying the problem: Doesn’t help that many of the areas that deal with Nor’ Easter aren’t geologically prepared to deal with them. Many areas are just ‘spits’ of land – nothing more than sand deposits that we call ‘barrier islands’. Nothing is anchored to the bedrock…we are just glorified sand bars. Islands of sand…big water…winds…erosion and an entire economy depending on a series of sand spits. Yeah, we don’t like Nor’ Easters. Still haven’t seen things quite right from 1992…and the area looked the same from the 1940’s…so just one wrong Nor’ Easter can be devastating.
OK, I think I may remember this one. If it’s the one I’m thinking of, the storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico, catching everyone by surprise, and roared across Florida and the southeast US before it tore up the entire Atlantic seaboard.
I lived on South Beach in Miami Beach at the time, and my wife and I watched it pass from our balcony. It was very intense but it moved through very quickly. A day later, my ship (110’ cutter) sailed from Miami to Gitmo and, for two days, we got the snot beat out of us punching through 15’-25’ waves the entire time. Lots of puking and exhaustion going on; it wasn’t pretty. Ah, those were the days…
As I recall the '92 was a good size storm that came North and was originally expected to pass over us, doing damage and some flooding but nothing severe. Another front developed somewhere maybe around Maine and caused the storm to stall over the Hudson River and Raritan Estuary and also fed it. The winds were bad, the rain was terrible and the storm surge was almost mythic.
I cannot find an article describing the build-up of the storm and its stall.
I recall another piece of the puzzle, the prior years storm had removed a lot of sand and left little protection for the sea wall to stop the storm surge. It was the '92 storm that finally inspired a massive Beach replenishment of the Jersey shore. It was this or abandon many of the coastal towns.
The Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) has been working its way down the Jersey coast since 1992.
First the ACOE is involved in a study and feasibility assessment years before any action is taken. The bat signal for help comes from municipalities that have affected coastline(s).
The crudest form of replenishment is bringing/pumpimg in sand (from donor areas, such as off coast), and creating protective dunes. The donor sand is sacrificial. Some donor sand is placed in areas away from the immediate area, say a few miles to the north, so that natural littoral action can move the sand in a sort of natural replenishment to a southern coastal area a few miles away.
There are actually other ways to replenish a beach through restoration of natural littoral movement, for example. Sometimes, doing nothing is actually the best answer. Depends so much on the geology. Heck, a pumping station could be used to pump sand past a modified inlet that otherwise might stop the sand’s migration.
Driven by the effects of Nor’ Easters, over the past 15-20 years there have been huge leaps in understanding how beaches work with surrounding areas. For example, beaches near inlets now get a very deep second look before anything is done after an erosion event. Beaches and nearby inlets have a synergy in the way sand moves around the area. Something as simple as an inlet jetty changes virtually everything.
To tie this all back to the OP, it is the dreaded Nor’ Easter that has prompted the intensification of beach hydraulic studies in knowledge in the 1990’s. The term has gotten much more popular thanks to the media and to the folks whose business is dealing with their aftermath.
I apologize for misspeaking on this topic: the garment I was remembering as a nor’easter is actually the sou’wester and I guess I just misapplied the one for the other in my memory. I still claim I’ve heard the terms all my life, but must have had the wrong association for quite a while, too.
Very interesting discussion, and I’m learning a lot.
Bottom line is that I was in error on the mechanism, but not on the results: Off-coast low pressure systems in the Western Atlantic result in arctic air and water being drawn south by the counterclockwise flow of air around them. Hence the cold blustery storms associated with the term Nor’easter along much of the East Coast.