Go Back
Storm turns deadly in California with wind damage, power outages. Follow live updates. Chevron right

Ashburn, VA

53°F
Chevron down
Use Current Location
Recent

Ashburn

Virginia

53°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Ashburn, VA Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

Video

Podcasts

Winter Center

News Videos BLOGS Personalities

Weather Blogs / WeatherMatrix

Weather maps from the night the Titanic sank

Unusually cold weather in April 1912 may have contributed to the unusually cold weather that plagued the Titanic as it went down that fateful night.

By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor

Published Apr 12, 2022 8:49 AM EDT | Updated Apr 18, 2022 3:08 PM EDT

Copied

110 years ago tonight, the unsinkable ship sank. For this anniversary of the Titanic, we just wrote a really interesting article examining three photos that claim to be of the iceberg that sunk the gargantuan vessel.

Of course, my first thought when I heard this idea was: Most icebergs look alike, there were probably hundreds of icebergs out that night, and how could you definitively tell which one was the one that sunk the Titanic? But the article is fairly convincing about one of the photos in particular.

Although the weather itself didn't contribute directly to the sinking of the Titanic, the low temperatures and ocean temperatures certainly contributed to the tragedy. in helping research this article, I've attempted to recreate some weather maps from that day, and there are some interesting stats. The color maps were created from the NOAA 20th Century Reanalysis (V3) data, which attempts to create data to present high-resolution, color graphics showing the daily weather from 1836-2015.

A little too calm?

The ship that night was under a particularly strong high-pressure system, which may have caused unusually calm seas that made the iceberg hard to see without ripples at the base (Washington Post). The weather map shown here shows this high-pressure system analyzed as a 1036 mb high (unusually strong but nowhere near record territory), as of the next morning (in all of these maps, I've placed a red "X" approximately where the tragedy occurred.

Some articles also state, unequivocally, that a mirage may have formed that caused the icebergs to be obscured. While that is also possible, and calm weather could lead to that, atmospheric optics is an extremely complicated field, so I can't say for sure. Here's what the pressure map would have looked like in a color analysis, from the NOAA data:

What was the actual weather during the sinking? We know it was cold. A cold front had passed through the day before, as you can see on the weather map at the top. Air temperatures were said to have fallen from the 50s in the morning to freezing just before it sank and water temperatures were near 28 degrees which is close to saltwater freezing temperature (WeatherWise Magazine). This map that I created from the NOAA Reanalysis shows the average temperature for the day (~40 F). This isn't super exciting since we already have the actual numbers I've just quoted.

But here's where it gets interesting. Check out the temperature anomaly map. Presumably, it would have had to have been unusually cold for the icebergs to be widespread and the water so cold at that location in April. The anomaly map for the day confirms that temperatures were below normal by as much as 8 K (14.4 F) compared to normal temperatures for the day.

More importantly, there's a 3 K (5.4 F) below normal area near the event, for the last 30 days, which tells the story why there were an unusual (but not unprecedented) number of icebergs and near-freezing saltwater conditions on the ship's route (that wouldn't normally be expected in April). I created the color maps myself with the NOAA Reanalysis tool. I haven't seen these particular weather maps for the Titanic sinking before, but these generally agree with the maps in this research paper which ran its own model for the night in question and has a much better and deeper analysis than I had time to do in this cursory look.

Report a Typo
Comments that don't add to the conversation may be automatically or manually removed by Facebook or AccuWeather. Profanity, personal attacks, and spam will not be tolerated.
Comments
Hide Comments

Weather News

Winter Weather

Video shows why you shouldn’t park near Lake Erie shoreline in winter

Mar. 21, 2023
Astronomy

Moon to align with 2 planets this weekend

Mar. 21, 2023
Winter Weather

Snow to bury parts of north-central US

Mar. 21, 2023
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

News & Features

AccuWeather Prime

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

ABOUT THIS BLOG
WeatherMatrix
Jesse Ferrell
AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Manager Jesse Ferrell covers extreme weather and the intersection of meteorology and social media.
  • Astronomy
    with Dave Samuhel
  • Canadian weather
    with Brett Anderson
  • Global climate change
    with Brett Anderson
  • Global weather
    with Jason Nicholls
  • Northeast US weather
    with Elliot Abrams
  • Plume Labs on Air Quality
    with Tyler Knowlton
  • RealImpact of weather
    with Dr. Joel N. Myers
  • WeatherMatrix
    with Jesse Ferrell
  • Western US weather
    with Brian Thompson

Featured Stories

Live Blog

Astronomy news: Californians 'in shock, amazed' at mysterious lights

LATEST ENTRY

Astronomers identify objects that appeared over California

1 day ago

Climate

'The climate time-bomb is ticking,' new UN report warns

1 day ago

Weather News

Scientists were first who dared to forecast 'an act of God'

AccuWeather Weather Blogs Weather maps from the night the Titanic sank
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2023 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Do Not Sell My Data checkmark Confirmed Not Selling Your Data

We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

I Understand

Get AccuWeather alerts as they happen with our browser notifications.

Notifications Enabled

Thanks! We’ll keep you informed.

FEEDBACK