From a haunting video of a thunderstorm at the World Trade Center to a hurricane off the coast, this is the weather of September 11th.
ByJesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor
Published Sep 11, 2019 5:20 PM EST
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I've wanted to write this blog for 18 years. Every anniversary I haven't been able to do it, for one reason or another, and part of me has been in fear of having to relive that morning.
Today some new weather-related news from that fateful day in 2001 came into light, so I've finally decided to talk about what the weather was like on September 10-11, and what our experience was like at AccuWeather covering the tragedy.
First, the new information. A new video of a thunderstorm, taken as late as 11:00 in the evening, has surfaced, and it may well be the last video ever taken in the World Trade Center. An artist was videotaping (yes, taping) lightning from the 92nd floor of the North Tower, that would be impacted by a Boeing 767 plane hours later.
A composite image made from screen shots taken from the short film 'September 10, 2001, uno nunca muere la vispera' by New York City-based artist Monika Bravo
(Vimeo / Monika Bravo)
Before today, I was not aware that video even existed. Today, I pulled an archived radar loop of the storms near NYC. The World Trade Center was hit at least six times by separate thunderstorm cells that day.
Here's what was happening that fateful morning, weather-wise:
On the morning of September 11, 2001, brilliant sunny skies were the rule from Long Island through the I-95 corridor into Virginia, including New York City.
The NOAA weathermap at 8 AM, September 11, 2001.
That weather was not unusual. On average, the most likely month to see a sunny day in the city is in August, but September comes in second, and a high pressure system had built into the Northeast.
Just off the coast, a cold front began to push Hurricane Erin out to sea. That cold front had, the previous evening, produced the thunderstorms over New York City. The presence of a hurricane off the coast was also not unusual, with the peak of Hurricane season occurring, on average, on September 10th.
A high pressure system controlled New York City's weather on September 11, 2001, as Hurricane Erin loomed off the coast to the east. This satellite image shows both the hurricane and the smoke rising from Ground Zero where the Twin Towers once stood. The prevailing wind between the two systems was north to south, which caused the southward drift of the smoke. (NASA / AccuWeather)
(NASA / AccuWeather)
Because of the position of the high pressure (which brought the sunny weather) and Hurricane Erin, both were encouraging a wind flow from north to south, which dictated where the smoke plumes travelled on that fateful Tuesday morning.
Had the sky not been visible from the ground, or if airport delays had been in effect due to adverse weather, September 11th -- or at least the eyewitness reports of it -- would have been a lot different.
Now, here's my story:
I arrived at work at AccuWeather HQ in State College, PA on September 11, 2001 at around 8:00 AM. I flipped on the TV at my desk (one of only a couple at AccuWeather) and turned on the Weather Channel to see what they were up to. I posted our first weather story of the day, which was about Hurricane Erin.
The first weather story posted to AccuWeather.com on September 11, 2001.
At 8:45 AM, my friend Carl sat at his desk next to me and said "you'd better turn on Fox News, there's something going on in New York City." I did. The first plane had hit the North tower and it was smoking, live on television. Several people gathered around the television. At 9:02 AM, we watched the second plane go behind the South Tower, but never come out. An explosion followed. It just didn't make sense. The hosts of the morning show weren't sure what had happened either. We watched in awe at the collapse of the first tower, then the second. We heard about Shanksville and the Pentagon. At 10:45 AM, Carl emailed me this screencapture of CNN.com, because we realized we were observing a major historical event.
CNN.com at 10:45 AM on September 11, 2001.
I noticed that you could see the smoke from the WTC on the satellite image on AccuWeather.com, and since this was the first weather-related aspect to the disaster, I put up a quick story about that.
The first 9/11 weather-related story, released on AccuWeather.com at 12:50 PM.
I took another screenshot of CNN.com at 4 PM -- they had greatly expanded their website and coverage. After that, most of us left work early, wondering what other targets planes were going to hit and if we were safe. Then we picked up our kids at school and tried to explain what had happened.
CNN.com at 4:00 PM on September 11, 2001.
In the coming days, we struggled to come to grips with how we could cover this world tragedy from a weather perspective. It wasn't referred to as "9/11" or "September 11th" that day. We didn't know what to call it.
On September 12th, we realized there was more we could do to help. We launched a story with weather for the rescue efforts (which were obviously still ongoing in New York City and Washington, D.C.)
The next day, we split out the NYC and D.C. forecasts into separate stories, and added smoke plume forecasts for New York City -- because the collapsed towers were still spewing a lot of it. This is what the front page of our website looked like:
The AccuWeather.com website on September 17, 2001.
The news stories, which I was coding the HTML for (by hand) popped up in their own window. Here's a screenshot of the NYC story:
A story published on AccuWeather.com on September 13, 2001.
A story on AccuWeather.com published on September 16, 2001.
A graphic from an AccuWeather.com story the week after 9/11, showing the weather in Washington, D.C. and the location of the Pentagon.
By the end of the month, war was about to be declared on Afghanistan and we were covering the weather for the troops as well.
The AccuWeather.com "War Forecast" graphic covering weather for the troops in Afghanistan, for September 25, 2001. We produced this map daily for the rest of 2001.
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Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix
The weather of 9/11
From a haunting video of a thunderstorm at the World Trade Center to a hurricane off the coast, this is the weather of September 11th.
By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor
Published Sep 11, 2019 5:20 PM EST
I've wanted to write this blog for 18 years. Every anniversary I haven't been able to do it, for one reason or another, and part of me has been in fear of having to relive that morning.
Today some new weather-related news from that fateful day in 2001 came into light, so I've finally decided to talk about what the weather was like on September 10-11, and what our experience was like at AccuWeather covering the tragedy.
First, the new information. A new video of a thunderstorm, taken as late as 11:00 in the evening, has surfaced, and it may well be the last video ever taken in the World Trade Center. An artist was videotaping (yes, taping) lightning from the 92nd floor of the North Tower, that would be impacted by a Boeing 767 plane hours later.
A composite image made from screen shots taken from the short film 'September 10, 2001, uno nunca muere la vispera' by New York City-based artist Monika Bravo
Before today, I was not aware that video even existed. Today, I pulled an archived radar loop of the storms near NYC. The World Trade Center was hit at least six times by separate thunderstorm cells that day.
Here's what was happening that fateful morning, weather-wise:
On the morning of September 11, 2001, brilliant sunny skies were the rule from Long Island through the I-95 corridor into Virginia, including New York City.
The NOAA weathermap at 8 AM, September 11, 2001.
That weather was not unusual. On average, the most likely month to see a sunny day in the city is in August, but September comes in second, and a high pressure system had built into the Northeast.
Just off the coast, a cold front began to push Hurricane Erin out to sea. That cold front had, the previous evening, produced the thunderstorms over New York City. The presence of a hurricane off the coast was also not unusual, with the peak of Hurricane season occurring, on average, on September 10th.
A high pressure system controlled New York City's weather on September 11, 2001, as Hurricane Erin loomed off the coast to the east. This satellite image shows both the hurricane and the smoke rising from Ground Zero where the Twin Towers once stood. The prevailing wind between the two systems was north to south, which caused the southward drift of the smoke. (NASA / AccuWeather)
Because of the position of the high pressure (which brought the sunny weather) and Hurricane Erin, both were encouraging a wind flow from north to south, which dictated where the smoke plumes travelled on that fateful Tuesday morning.
Had the sky not been visible from the ground, or if airport delays had been in effect due to adverse weather, September 11th -- or at least the eyewitness reports of it -- would have been a lot different.
Now, here's my story:
I arrived at work at AccuWeather HQ in State College, PA on September 11, 2001 at around 8:00 AM. I flipped on the TV at my desk (one of only a couple at AccuWeather) and turned on the Weather Channel to see what they were up to. I posted our first weather story of the day, which was about Hurricane Erin.
The first weather story posted to AccuWeather.com on September 11, 2001.
At 8:45 AM, my friend Carl sat at his desk next to me and said "you'd better turn on Fox News, there's something going on in New York City." I did. The first plane had hit the North tower and it was smoking, live on television. Several people gathered around the television. At 9:02 AM, we watched the second plane go behind the South Tower, but never come out. An explosion followed. It just didn't make sense. The hosts of the morning show weren't sure what had happened either. We watched in awe at the collapse of the first tower, then the second. We heard about Shanksville and the Pentagon. At 10:45 AM, Carl emailed me this screencapture of CNN.com, because we realized we were observing a major historical event.
CNN.com at 10:45 AM on September 11, 2001.
I noticed that you could see the smoke from the WTC on the satellite image on AccuWeather.com, and since this was the first weather-related aspect to the disaster, I put up a quick story about that.
The first 9/11 weather-related story, released on AccuWeather.com at 12:50 PM.
I took another screenshot of CNN.com at 4 PM -- they had greatly expanded their website and coverage. After that, most of us left work early, wondering what other targets planes were going to hit and if we were safe. Then we picked up our kids at school and tried to explain what had happened.
CNN.com at 4:00 PM on September 11, 2001.
In the coming days, we struggled to come to grips with how we could cover this world tragedy from a weather perspective. It wasn't referred to as "9/11" or "September 11th" that day. We didn't know what to call it.
On September 12th, we realized there was more we could do to help. We launched a story with weather for the rescue efforts (which were obviously still ongoing in New York City and Washington, D.C.)
The next day, we split out the NYC and D.C. forecasts into separate stories, and added smoke plume forecasts for New York City -- because the collapsed towers were still spewing a lot of it. This is what the front page of our website looked like:
The AccuWeather.com website on September 17, 2001.
The news stories, which I was coding the HTML for (by hand) popped up in their own window. Here's a screenshot of the NYC story:
A story published on AccuWeather.com on September 13, 2001.
A story on AccuWeather.com published on September 16, 2001.
A graphic from an AccuWeather.com story the week after 9/11, showing the weather in Washington, D.C. and the location of the Pentagon.
By the end of the month, war was about to be declared on Afghanistan and we were covering the weather for the troops as well.
The AccuWeather.com "War Forecast" graphic covering weather for the troops in Afghanistan, for September 25, 2001. We produced this map daily for the rest of 2001.