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Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America pp 99–106Cite as

The Sitka Hurricane of October 1880

Abstract

This study reconstructed a unique and previously poorly understood storm known as the October 1880 Sitka Alaska Hurricane. Data were comprised of daily instrumental records from military posts, exploration surveys, and ship logbooks, as well verbal descriptions from diaries. Hourly pressure data from the USS Jamestown were corrected for elevation, latitude, and gravity, and a meteogram was constructed to assess the specific storm impact at Sitka. Pressure records reveal that the Sitka hurricane is clearly a very abnormal weather event, likely one of the strongest storms ever to strike western North America in the historical period. The plotting of data indicates that the storm track originated off Eastern Siberia and had no associations with any possible typhoon from the western Pacific Ocean.

Keywords

  • Sitka
  • Alaska
  • Logbooks
  • USS Jamestown

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge help from the staff at the United States National Archives in Washington, DC, the Smithsonian Institution, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum Library. We also thank Mike Chenoweth for insightful discussions. Some funding for archival research was supported by NSF Grant ATM-0502105.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of South Carolina, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA

    Cary J. Mock & Stephanie F. Dodds

Authors
  1. Cary J. Mock
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  2. Stephanie F. Dodds
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cary J. Mock or Stephanie F. Dodds .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Geography, University of Vermont, University Place 94, Burlington, 05405-0114, U.S.A.

    Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux

  2. Dept. Geography, University of South Carolina, Columbia, 29208, U.S.A.

    Cary J. Mock

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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Mock, C.J., Dodds, S.F. (2009). The Sitka Hurricane of October 1880. In: Dupigny-Giroux, LA., Mock, C. (eds) Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2828-0_7

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