Hurricane Bob August 19, 1991

Where were you 19 years ago today? I was on the air at WLNE TV 6 in Providence with John Ghiorse and Steve Cascione,calling the play by play as Hurricane Bob roared into Buzzard's Bay. Asthe storm center came ashore rapid weakening spared much of southernNew England from Hurricane Damage, but the coast from Rhode Island toCape Cod endured serious coast flooding, severe wind and salt damage,and pretty much an early end to the summer tourist season. At the TVstation we had gusts of 40-60 mph, with a gust to 75 on the back sideof the departing storm. The most amazing feature of Bob is how quicklythe storm went from a wave on an old front stalled over the Bahamas toa Hurricane in just 18 hours, then 24 hours later the storm was atBlock Island. That is the nature of hurricanes in New England. The onesthat hit are moving very quickly. So a beautiful day today can be ahurricane tomorrow. Storms that move slowly or meander around the Carolina'susually miss New England. We have nothing to worry about today ortomorrow, but this is the heart of hurricane season, and we arevulnerable for the next 6 weeks. Many runs of the GFS weather forecastmodel have a hurricane near New England around September 30th. But thisis the same model that keeps showing rain for next week, every week. Sofar we miss the rains. Another Low is south of New England today, thatlooked like a hit form last Saturday. The model shows a possible rainstorm for us Sunday into Monday, but we would not be shocked to seethat one miss to the south too. In the meantime, enjoy a warm sunnyThursday. A cold front brings a shower or storm north tonight andtomorrow morning. Then we get new warm & dry air form Canada for Friday &Saturday. For the third Saturday in a row we have low temperatures inthe 40s and 50s, before a beautiful warm Saturday Afternoon. The cloudsarrive Sunday, and maybe rain at night.
For more on New England Hurricanes, Wikepedia has great analysis, andthe Mass.Gov site also has great write-ups on our Major Hurricanes past.
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