Witch of November

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The Witch of November is the name given to the winds that blow across the Great Lakes in November. Gordon Lightfoot's song Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald makes reference to the term.

Sometimes the term is November Witch. When the History Channel featured Great Lakes shipwrecks, they used the term November Witch almost exclusively. Similar "witches" have caused numerous shipwrecks over the years.

The winds are caused by intense low-pressure systems moving near the Great Lakes. The system is often fueled by very cold Canadian/Arctic air pulled from the north or northwest meeting warm Gulf air pulled from the south. The systems can be as intense as hurricanes (the storm that wrecked the Edmund Fitzgerald was 978 mb^[1], equivalent to a borderline Category 1/2 hurricane). Another storm that hit in November 1998 was 967 mb^[2], equivalent to a borderline Category 2/3 hurricane.

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