Duxbury Beach Getting Some Jose Surf

Duxbury Beach got in on the Tropical Storm Warning for a while during Jose, so we rolled up last Thursday to see how angry Mother Nature was.

Seas were getting ugly on Tuesday, and they were still ominous on Saturday. That's an 8 tide storm, a very bad thing for coastlines (the No-Name Storm/Halloween Gale/Perfect Storm of 1991 was a 10 tide storm), and Duxbury was very lucky to be on Jose's fringe.

Duxbury Beach gets pummeled in storms, so the residents are rarely caught slippin'. DBC...

Jose hung around off Nantucket for a while, and her huge wind field (tropical cyclones expand in size once they reach cooler waters) made it past Duxbury.

And now, down below, some amateurish video...

There are scholarly articles which say that Duxbury Beach, in her present location on Cape Cod Bay and with the slope of her coastline, can't really generate waves higher than 5 or 6 feet. I won't disagree with scientists more than I have to, and admit that I could be wrong on a technicality, but I have seen ten foot+ waves during the Blizzard of '78 and the Halloween Gale.

Duxbury Beach was still getting heavy rain and 50 MPH gusts on Thursday, which is why a lot if these shots were taken behind houses and crouched under stairways

The cottage that was here before this house is famous for washing into Ocean Road North during the Halloween Gale. It is locally legendary because a glass of wine mitakenly left on the cottage's kitchen table during storm prep was still on the table- unspilled- after the storm.

A fence with almost no chance at all of surviving the waves coming over the wall.

Your fearless reporter was in town three hours before high tide, and had to flee before a waning new moon tide blocked off the neighborhood. 1:30 high tides in Duxbury and a 2:45 school bus rendezvous in New Bedford are incompatible.

Duxbury Beach is stormy enough that kids there used to/may still do Death Runs. Death Runs involve waiting for stormy seas to hit the seawall, dropping yourself onto the beach as a wave recedes, running as far as possible before the next wave comes and pulling yourself back onto the seawall before the next wave hits. 

The child who painted these rocks was most likely not thinking "These rocks will someday be the only bright colors in an otherwise slate-grey hurricane article from some obscure regional publication," but just look how things shook out.

The next three are from Maryellen Federici.

Jose knocked over one of the Don't Run Over My Kids fluorescent lawn jockey dudes.

October Surprise? East Coast Tropical Storm Late Next Week?

Now, we're more than a week away from when we'd need to be worrying about this, but we don't like to have anything sneak up on our readers.

Tropical Storm Matthew formed just east of the Windward Islands today. He's already a very powerful storm, at around 60 MPH. He should blow through the islands tonight and tomorrow, and then move between Hispaniola and South America over the weekend.

The water in this area is very warm, and Matthew should intensify. What he does after that is a bit of a mystery.

The European models drag it into either Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. Not our problem. The GFS model puts it on a run up the Eastern Seaboard. That can be a problem.

It's a problem that looks like this:

Now, we're dealing with a system that is over a week away, and there is a lot of disagreement among the geeks as to what happens to where and when.

There is also this weekend's rainstorm in Massachusetts, which could serve to drag Matthew up here as it pulls away from us.

Even if the storm takes a run up the East Coast, it could hit any Confederate coast state, the DelMarva area or even New Jersey. All of them are more likely to get it than us.

October hurricanes, while unusual, are not without precedent. The Halloween Gale, aka the Perfect Storm, hit at the end of the month.

If it does target us, the due date would be Thursday/Friday.

Here are the zillion spaghetti charts:

Dealing With The Ocean On Duxbury Beach

Living on the coast is pretty much the peak human condition. You can walk around barefoot. The beach is within hollering distance. You have a zillion trillion gallon outdoor pool. If you can convince a girl to visit you, she's a good bet to show up wearing a bikini... something that I took for granted growing up on a beach, and something that I was slow to realize didn't happen everywhere when I went to school in Worcester.

Yup, life on the beach is pretty nice. There are costs, however. That gorgeous ocean can become stormy, and stormy seas can push ashore and inflict catastrophic damage on the houses there. While giant waves can smash houses to splinters, even little waves eat away bites of the shoreline in an endless war of attrition.

You can't beat the inexorable Mother Nature, but you can hold her off for a little while. In fact, if you either A) don't care if the house falls into the sea on the great-grandchildren's watch, long after you've gone to your reward, or B) have faith that the science people will solve the problem in the future, you really have to keep the sea at bay for only 20-75 years or so. After that... SEP.

We're going to tour a few beaches before the weather gets too bad and going to the beach becomes something akin to work. As we go to these beaches, we'll have a look at methods people use to fight Poseidon. 

There is no consensus on protecting beaches. You can see different methods on different beaches, something you'll notice as you read the articles we write about different beaches. You can also see different methods on the same beach, something you'll notice today as we start our series off in Duxbury.

Duxbury Beach has a mix of inhabited, uninhabited and semi-inhabited coastline.

You can see several methods of erosion control at work here. We have a dune, some snow fencing, some rocks, some beach grass, some scrub pine... we could use some beach plum bushes, but this will do.

Shoot, the whole of Duxbury Beach itself is an erosion control machine, as it serves as a barrier beach for Duxbury Proper across the bay.

The house that you can sort of see in the picture above is the last residence on Duxbury Beach. South of that, it's all sand dunes and snow fencing until you get to High Pines.

Beaches tend to get onshore winds, and those winds blow sand across the beach. Any sort of obstruction, be it a plant or a flower or a stone, slows down the wind and allows the sand and grass to accumulate. As the sea grass spreads, the sand is nourished, and other plants begin to appear. These plants block more and more sand. Over time, a dune forms.

If the ocean doesn't interfere, the dune grows and grows. However, that's a big If.

The snow fencing probably performs some erosion control purpose, but the main one I can think of is that it keeps people from walking on the fragile beach grass.

If you need to know how well it works, here's a picture of how the dunes looked when the Trans-Atlantic cable came ashore a little bit after the Civil War ended.... which is why everyone looks like General Sickles.

Duxbury-savvy folks will recognize that this is the area where Ocean Road North and Cable Hill meet. Prior to the cable coming ashore, this area was known as Rouse's Hummock.... after some guy named Rouse.

Most of the present beach south of the Blakeman's pavillion/bath house works along this model, but the dune in this picture is more impressive than anything seen on the beach today.

The dunes are lower because Duxbury Beach suffers from vicious nor'easters. Nor'easters seem to be elementally offended by dunes, because they wash over them regularly.

If that picture of the cable guys doesn't give you an idea how close to the water the dune is, worry you not! My house on Duxbury Beach was right about where the dude in the dark suit is standing off by himself on the top of the dune.

Here's a view from where he was standing 150 years later. There's a house there now, and a seawall in front of it, but those waves have been hitting the area like that once a year or so ever since time began.

There isn't much beach behind the dunes. Duxbury Beach is barely 100 meters wide at her fat points. The picture below is taken after a storm, and it is aimed at what is by far the fattest part of the beach. It turns to marsh just after the houses and trees.

Here is a picture out the back door (Duxbury Beach residents almost universally refer to the door facing the ocean as the front door, and the street-side door as the back door), showing how much slack the marsh is giving you. Much of Duxbury Beach becomes a series of small islands if the storm gets bad enough.

Post-storm, too...

Notice the shark fin in the water to the left of the telephone pole and above the hay bales? Ah, just kidding, that's not a shark.

That flood will take some time to go away, as the water table is maxed out and it's the lowest point in the neighborhood. The marsh will drain itself as the tide goes out, but the meadow is on her own.

They did lay some pipe under the road after this 2007 storm, and all but the final inches of water will flow back into the marsh through them.

Here are said pipes:

There are corresponding pipe holes on the other side of Gurnet Road. The pipes take care of the meadow and the marsh water. The waves are a whole other problem.

I went with the picture below because it was the best one I have that illustrates both the height of the seawall and the erosion of the sand.

The sand depth at the foot of the seawall varies greatly, and can be augmented by seaweed and rocks. It can make a great difference in wave damage.

The seawall/sand ratio is important, as the sand is what the seawall is based in. If there isn't enough sand supporting the wall, the wall can topple forward into the sea.

The seawall blocks waves for a gang o' houses that pay a pile o' taxes into the town coffers. Many are summer residences which pump no revenue-consuming brats into the town's school systems. Hence, the armored seawall.

Here's another blurry shot, showing how the Duxbury/Marshfield line has to use boulders to help shore up the wall. OK, "shore up" is probably the wrong term here.

I'd have gone closer to the boulders to try to get a shot that showed them better, but I wasn't trying to get wet.

The seawall is the central defense for the residential area of Duxbury Beach.

It's about 15 feet tall, with maybe half of it buried in sand. It's about two feet thick. It can withstand powerful surf without breaking, although they do break now and then.

It runs in two big lines, one extending from Green Harbor to the Duxbury line, and one from 100 yards past the other one down to the end of Ocean Road South.

The gap in the middle isn't a town vs town thing, as I thought it was until I talked to some old-timers. Now, I know that the gap in between the walls exists because the homeowners there, secure on a small bluff, declined to pay the $500 fee for the wall.

Their houses are still standing, so they currently are having the last laugh. Others are doing for self:

If you go there just after a storm, you get the virgin snowfall-looking sand cover.

It costs a pretty penny to put up your own seawall.

Q) Reason?

A) It's worth it.

This sort of DIY seawall, while very fine-looking, makes up about 1% of Duxbury's seawall shield.

Seawalls can only do so much. A powerful storm surge can make the ocean level with the seawall, and then the waves are rolling straight into the houses.

Some houses still have cellars, but they are a dying breed. You need sump pumps to get the ocean water out of them (I had a beach cellar, and the water came in through the windows, through the floor, and through the walls in the Blizzard of '78 and the 1991 Halloween Gale), and I neither have any pictures of sump pumps nor any desire to look for a Sump Pump video. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Any modern housing constructed on the shores need to be on pilings. This lets the water rush under the house rather than through it, which provides some comfort for the house and saves the lives of the homeowners.

This is a pretty good strategy, as I was trapped in my house on Duxbury Beach for the Perfect Storm in 1991, and I saw houses get torn apart by the surf. I also saw houses get lifted up by the surf and washed back into the road.

Stilt housing came into vogue shortly after that, and none of them have been knocked over yet. They have worked their way into the front line of housing along the coast.

There is some debate, mostly among people who were living on the beach for the peak storm activity of the Halloween Gale and the Blizzard of '78, as to whether the stilt housing will hold up against a 100 Year Storm.

Much like the Blizzard of '78 finished off the dune houses on Duxbury Beach, the next hurricane-force storm might finish off traditional-foundation style housing. Again, only time will tell.

Breakaway stairs are also useful.

They are made light enough to either

A) pull them up onto the wall by hand,

or

B) drag them back to your house with a Jeep if you got lazy or sloppy and forgot to do option A.

There is an option C, but that involves building the stairs out of mortar and cast iron. You don't have to pull these stairs up if a storm comes.

Pic by Sara Flynn

Be sure to check out our Plymouth version of this article.

The Calm Before The Storm

The Duxbury DPW blocking off the opening in the seawall is an omen signifying the arrival of Autumn.

Duxbury Beach, 9/4/16... I'm pretty sure that this is surf from Gaston, but Hermine is helping with the wind.

They'd better take Ol' Glory down soon, as it really has nowhere to go but Off-Pole when the wind increases.

This is pretty much Poseidon starting to steal your stairs. He got interrupted, but he plans to return.

Poseidon won't be getting these stairs. I was hoping to get a shot of somebody boarding up the windows, but Duxbury is fairly North of where the tropical storm is, and they can do a last-minute job if things get threatening.

Astronomically low tide,.. the surf is worked up, but not enough to reach the seawall. That's what night-stalker types on the beach call an "Ankle Breaker."

Tropical storms make for good kite weather. Sorry for the blurry pic, and that's Manomet in the background.

Tropical Storm Watch For Cape Cod, Islands, South Coast, (parts of) South Shore

The situation is going downhill quickly, as they say.

Tropical Storm Hermine emerged off of the Carolina coast as a strong tropical storm, and is forecast to regain hurricane status as it meanders around just south of us.

We could be in for several days of high surf and beach erosion. Like a nor'easter, this storm will aim 4-8 mean tides at Massachusetts beaches.

The National Weather Service has issued a Tropical Storm Watch (meaning that Tropical Storm conditions are possible within 48 hours) for all of the South Coast, both islands, Cape Cod and extreme Southern Plymouth County.

Plymouth, Kingston, Duxbury and points north are not currently under any watches or warnings from the NWS, but that could change with their 5 PM update.

We urge our readers to take whatever precautions are necessary, especially if you are on the coast. Seas will build for several days, and will have some fierce winds behind them.

It's looking like a Sunday night arrival, with a terrible Monday, a rotten Tuesday, and an improving but still coastal-floodish Wednesday and perhaps Thursday.

Two important things to keep in mind:

1) Hurricane Irene barely touched us, and some places had no power for 2 weeks.

and

2) A slight, and I mean slight westward jiggle of the track gives us a direct hit of a powerful tropical storm on Nantucket, and a slightly northern jiggle gives in a Barnstable/Chatham landfall.

Happy Labor Day! We'll be back with many updates.

Add caption

**TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE SOUTH COASTS OF RHODE
ISLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS INCLUDING THE ISLANDS**

NEW INFORMATION
---------------

* CHANGES TO WATCHES AND WARNINGS:
- A TROPICAL STORM WATCH HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR SOUTHERN BRISTOL
MA...SOUTHERN PLYMOUTH MA...BARNSTABLE MA...DUKES
MA...NANTUCKET MA...SOUTHEAST PROVIDENCE RI...EASTERN KENT
RI...BRISTOL RI...WASHINGTON RI...NEWPORT RI AND BLOCK ISLAND RI

* CURRENT WATCHES AND WARNINGS:
- A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR SOUTHERN BRISTOL
MA...SOUTHERN PLYMOUTH MA...BARNSTABLE MA...DUKES
MA...NANTUCKET MA...SOUTHEAST PROVIDENCE RI...EASTERN KENT
RI...BRISTOL RI...WASHINGTON RI...NEWPORT RI AND BLOCK ISLAND RI

* STORM INFORMATION:
- ABOUT 450 MILES SOUTHWEST OF NANTUCKET MA
- 36.1N 75.2W
- STORM INTENSITY 65 MPH
- MOVEMENT EAST-NORTHEAST OR 60 DEGREES AT 15 MPH

SITUATION OVERVIEW
------------------

SITUATION OVERVIEW

TROPICAL STORM HERMINE WILL AFFECT THE RHODE ISLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS
SOUTH COAST WITH WIND...ROUGH SURF...DANGEROUS RIP CURRENTS AND BEACH
EROSION. A TROPICAL STORM WATCH IS NOW IN EFFECT FOR THE SOUTH COASTS
OF RHODE ISLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS INCLUDING BLOCK ISLAND...MARTHA/S
VINEYARD...NANTUCKET AND CAPE COD. TROPICAL STORM FORCE CONDITIONS ARE
MOST LIKELY FROM LATE SUNDAY THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. SINCE HERMINE IS
EXPECTED TO STALL SOUTH OF NEW ENGLAND...SQUALLS WITH TROPICAL STORM
FORCE GUSTS MAY AFFECT THE RHODE ISLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS SOUTH COAST
THROUGH MID WEEK.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS MAY ARRIVE ACROSS BLOCK ISLAND...MARTHA/S
VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET BY SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND SPREAD ALONG THE THE
SOUTH COAST FROM WESTERLY RHODE ISLAND TO CHATHAM MASSACHUSETTS
SOMETIME SUNDAY EVENING. WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 40 AND 50 MPH ALONG THE
IMMEDIATE SOUTH COAST AND ISLANDS MAY DOWN SOME TREES AND LARGE
BRANCHES WITH SCATTERED POWER OUTAGE. SOME TREES MAY BE MORE
SUSCEPTIBLE TO WIND DAMAGE DUE TO STRESS FROM DROUGHT CONDITIONS.

ALONG THE SHORE...DANGEROUSLY ROUGH SURF AND LIFE THREATENING RIP
CURRENTS ARE LIKELY SUNDAY INTO THE MIDDLE PART OF NEXT WEEK...
ESPECIALLY ALONG RHODE ISLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS SOUTH COAST BEACHES. A
STORM SURGE OF 2 TO 3 FEET MAY OCCUR DURING THE SUNDAY NIGHT AND
MONDAY HIGH TIDES ALONG THE RHODE ISLAND COAST FROM WESTERLY TO POINT
JUDITH. A 1 TO 2 FOOT STORM SURGE IS LIKELY ALONG THE REST OF THE
RHODE ISLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS SHORELINES. HIGH SURF ON TOP OF THE
ELEVATED WATER LEVELS MAY CAUSE MINOR TO MODERATE BEACH EROSION ALONG
THE RHODE ISLAND COAST BETWEEN WESTERLY AND POINT JUDITH INCLUDING THE
MISQUAMICUT BEACH AND CHARLESTOWN AREAS. MINOR BEACH EROSION IS
POSSIBLE ALONG THE REST OF THE OCEAN EXPOSED RHODE ISLAND AND
MASSACHUSETTS SHORELINES.

A FEW HEAVY DOWNPOURS ARE POSSIBLE SUNDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK
ACROSS RHODE ISLAND AND SOUTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS...BUT FLOODING OF
STREAMS AND RIVERS APPEARS UNLIKELY AT THIS TIME.

POTENTIAL IMPACTS
-----------------

* WIND: PREPARE FOR DANGEROUS WIND HAVING POSSIBLE SIGNIFICANT
IMPACTS ACROSS THE SOUTH COAST. POTENTIAL IMPACTS IN THIS AREA
INCLUDE:

- SOME DAMAGE TO ROOFING AND SIDING MATERIALS, ALONG
WITH DAMAGE TO PORCHES, AWNINGS, CARPORTS, AND SHEDS. A FEW
BUILDINGS EXPERIENCING WINDOW, DOOR, AND GARAGE DOOR FAILURES.
MOBILE HOMES DAMAGED, ESPECIALLY IF UNANCHORED. UNSECURED
LIGHTWEIGHT OBJECTS BECOME DANGEROUS PROJECTILES.

- SEVERAL LARGE TREES SNAPPED OR UPROOTED, BUT WITH GREATER
NUMBERS IN PLACES WHERE TREES ARE SHALLOW ROOTED. SEVERAL FENCES
AND ROADWAY SIGNS BLOWN OVER.

- SOME ROADS IMPASSABLE FROM LARGE DEBRIS, AND MORE WITHIN URBAN
OR HEAVILY WOODED PLACES. A FEW BRIDGES, CAUSEWAYS, AND ACCESS
ROUTES IMPASSABLE.

- SCATTERED POWER AND COMMUNICATIONS OUTAGES,
BUT MORE PREVALENT IN AREAS WITH ABOVE GROUND LINES.

* FLOODING RAIN:
LITTLE TO NO IMPACTS ARE ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME ACROSS
SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

* TORNADOES:
LITTLE TO NO IMPACTS ARE ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME
ACROSS SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS
----------------------------------

* EVACUATIONS:

IF YOU ARE EXCEPTIONALLY VULNERABLE TO WIND OR WATER HAZARDS FROM
TROPICAL SYSTEMS, CONSIDER VOLUNTARY EVACUATION, ESPECIALLY IF
BEING OFFICIALLY RECOMMENDED. RELOCATE TO A PREDETERMINED SHELTER
OR SAFE DESTINATION.

IF EVACUATING AWAY FROM THE AREA OR RELOCATING TO A NEARBY
SHELTER, LEAVE EARLY BEFORE WEATHER CONDITIONS BECOME HAZARDOUS.

* OTHER PREPAREDNESS INFORMATION:

NOW IS THE TIME TO CHECK YOUR EMERGENCY PLAN AND TAKE NECESSARY
ACTIONS TO SECURE YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS. DELIBERATE EFFORTS SHOULD
BE UNDERWAY TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY. ENSURE THAT YOUR
EMERGENCY SUPPLIES KIT IS STOCKED AND READY.

WHEN MAKING SAFETY AND PREPAREDNESS DECISIONS, DO NOT FOCUS ON THE
EXACT FORECAST TRACK AS THERE ARE INHERENT FORECAST UNCERTAINTIES
WHICH MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT.

IF YOU LIVE IN A PLACE THAT IS PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO HIGH WIND,
SUCH AS A MOBILE HOME, AN UPPER FLOOR OF A HIGH RISE BUILDING, OR ON
A BOAT, PLAN TO MOVE TO SAFE SHELTER. TAKE ENOUGH SUPPLIES FOR YOU
AND YOUR FAMILY FOR SEVERAL DAYS.

ALWAYS HEED THE ADVICE OF LOCAL OFFICIALS AND COMPLY WITH ANY ORDERS
THAT ARE ISSUED. DO NOT NEEDLESSLY JEOPARDIZE YOUR LIFE OR THE LIVES
OF OTHERS.

WHEN SECURING YOUR PROPERTY, OUTSIDE PREPARATIONS SHOULD BE CONDUCTED
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BEFORE CONDITIONS DETERIORATE. THE ONSET OF
STRONG GUSTY WINDS AND HEAVY RAIN CAN CAUSE CERTAIN PREPAREDNESS
ACTIVITIES TO BECOME UNSAFE.

BE SURE TO LET FRIENDS AND OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS KNOW OF YOUR
INTENTIONS AND WHEREABOUTS FOR SURVIVING THE STORM. FOR EMERGENCY
PURPOSES, HAVE SOMEONE LOCATED AWAY FROM THE THREATENED AREA SERVE AS
YOUR POINT OF CONTACT. SHARE VITAL CONTACT INFORMATION WITH OTHERS.
KEEP CELL PHONES HANDY AND WELL CHARGED.

BE A GOOD SAMARITAN AND CHECK ON THOSE WHO MAY NOT BE FULLY AWARE OF
THE SITUATION OR WHO ARE UNABLE TO MAKE PERSONAL PREPARATIONS.

VISITORS TO THE AREA SHOULD BECOME FAMILIAR WITH NEARBY SURROUNDINGS.
IF YOU ARE A VISITOR, KNOW THE NAME OF THE COUNTY OR PARISH IN WHICH
YOU ARE LOCATED AND WHERE IT IS RELATIVE TO CURRENT WATCHES AND
WARNINGS. IF STAYING AT A HOTEL, ASK THE MANAGEMENT STAFF ABOUT THEIR
ONSITE DISASTER PLAN. LISTEN FOR EVACUATION ORDERS, ESPECIALLY
PERTAINING TO AREA VISITORS.

CLOSELY MONITOR NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR OTHER LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS FOR
OFFICIAL STORM INFORMATION. LISTEN FOR POSSIBLE CHANGES TO THE
FORECAST.

* ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION:
- FOR INFORMATION ON APPROPRIATE PREPARATIONS SEE READY.GOV
- FOR INFORMATION ON CREATING AN EMERGENCY PLAN SEE GETAGAMEPLAN.ORG
- FOR ADDITIONAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS INFORMATION SEE REDCROSS.ORG

NEXT UPDATE
-----------

THE NEXT LOCAL STATEMENT WILL BE ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER
SERVICE IN TAUNTON MA AROUND 230 PM, OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT.

Holiday Storms In Massachusetts

Massachusetts is expected to feel some effects from Tropical Storm Hermine. As it stands right now, we should be getting it on Labor Day.

We'll do some forecasting in our next article, but today we want to point out a pair of unique weather milestones that you may see Monday.

1) This is the second Tropical Storm Hermine we've had to deal with. A minimal-strength Tropical Storm Hermine came ashore in New Bedford back in 2004.

and

2) We'll be getting a Holiday Storm.

Green Harbor, MA

Storms are always bad things (although we could use the rain), but they are worse when they fall on a holiday. Plans go awry, travel becomes dangerous, and what should be a festive event instead becomes arduous and perhaps even deadly.

Tropical Storm Hermine may become the storm for Labor Day. "Labor Day Low" is a good and accurate name for it, although it's not really that catchy.

That may be a good thing. As bad as Hermine may be for your golf outings and cookouts, it doesn't look to be a storm that will rank well historically. It will be very much like a nor'easter, especially in terms of duration and intensity. It may not really deserve a cooler name, unless it intensifies or makes a direct landfall.

Duxbury, MA

Hurricane Earl in 2010 just missed being a Labor Day storm, passing on Saturday, September 4th. Earl missed Cape Cod, but still did some damage. One Yarmouth motel had an 85% decrease in rentals, despite dropping their price from $135 to $85.

A blizzard in 1969 struck western Massachusetts on the day after Christmas, but it didn't hit our reading area. We have a few other near-misses, and I don't know dates of other religions well enough to tell you if there was a Passover nor'easter or a Ramadan blizzard.

The longshot chance for a worthy Holiday Storm status application would be if Hermine bopped around just south of us for 3 days. "72 Hours Of Labor" or something like that would be a sweet headline.

You can't have a lame storm holding a holiday name. Every storm I'll be listing below was a Doozy. They wrecked shop, and no one would contest their ownership of a certain day. "The Arbor Day Sunshower" isn't really going to impress future weather historians.

Several storms in Massachusetts history have sort of placed their claim on certain holidays. Hermine is close to staking one for Labor Day, but that is just one of the many holidays that we celebrate in Massachusetts.

Here are a few other notable holiday storms. Blizzards are represented harder than hurricanes because A) winter is longer and B) August, a prime month for summer storms, has no holidays.

Duxbury Beach, MA

The Halloween Gale

This was the worst holiday storm. Technically, the height of it was on Devil's Night. However, nor'easters are the gift that keeps giving, and the Perfect Storm laid into us for 8-10 tides.

She should have been Hurricane Henri, but the National Weather Service felt that naming the storm would have some adverse publicity thing that might endanger someone.

There was no landfall with this hurricane, but it inflicted ridiculous coastal damage onto eastern Massachusetts. I was trapped in a waterfront house on Duxbury Beach for this worst part of this one. If they had the internet back then, I would be YouTube Famous, as waves were breaking on top of the two story house I was in.

It was close as I've come to being killed, and I was, at various points in my life, a bouncer, a night-shift gas station attendant, a guy getting a tour of a nuclear power plant, a graveyard shift night auditor at a drug hotel, a lifelong drug user, a Boston schoolteacher and someone who has A) had a shotgun pointed in his face during an armed robbery, B) had more than one episode in his life where he fought more than one person at once, C) suffered two electrocutions.

The April Fool's Day Blizzard

Sandwich, MA

April snow in Massachusetts isn't that unusual, but 28 inches of it in a day is a bit notable. 1997 gave us that.

This storm also had the coastal flooding component. Winds reached hurricane force along the Massachusetts coast.

I also caught this one from Duxbury. This was before the neighborhood was built up, so i had the only fireplace on my street.... which means that I had a dozen neighbors laying on my floor in front of it once the power went out.

It's also the event where I had an Australian nanny from the neighborhood call me during the height of the storm and ask "When does the Army come and take all the snow away?"


The Groundhog Day Blizzard

There are several contenders for this title, but we'll use the recent one from 2015 because I have pictures of it.

This was very nearly the Super Bowl Blizzard, as it nearly struck on the day that the New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks for the Lombardi Trophy. It came the day after instead, and everyone blamed Punxsatawney Phil.

This could have very easily been the Malcolm Butler Blizzard, as at least one blizzard I can think of (the infamous Lindsay storm, named after a poor-responding NYC mayor) is named for a minor celebrity. Barry White should have had his own blizzard, IMHO.

This was from that winter where it snowed every 3 days and we had a blizzard every Monday. I could probably find the snowfall totals in our archives, but they matter very little. We had meters of snow on the ground before the blizzard, and whatever powder this storm dropped was akin to getting a glass of water and pouring it into a lake.

I wasn't in Pennsylvania for this storm... but if I was,and if that little groundhog stuck his head up out of his little hidey-hole, I would have kicked it.

Ocean Bluff,  MA

The Inauguration Day Blizzard

I'm not sure if Abe Lincoln or Will McKinley had snowstorms on the day that they took office, but it is definitely a bad thing if they did. JFK's ascension into the Presidency was marked by a now-ominous snowstorm back in his native state.

"It's like raaaaaaaaaaaaainnnn on your wedding day...."

20 inches of snow fell across Massachusetts, and even JFK got some snow on the ol' Chowderhead down in DC.


The Ash Wednesday Storm

OK, we're pushing it now. I also think that I may be missing a Columbus Day hurricane, an Easter blizzard or a Thanksgiving nor'easter.

Ah, well... maybe some old-timers can help us out in the Comments section.

This was a furious nor'easter that did damage up most of the mid-Atlantic and New England coastline in 1962.

Duxbury, MA