The “gales of November” (also referred to as “Witch of November”) is used by Great Lakes sailors to refer to the peak storm season, which usually occurs in November. Storms during this time frame can be brutal, but also are marked by rapidly changing weather conditions, which can make it difficult to navigate the waters.

The Great Lakes Storm of 1913, historically referred to as the “Big Blow”, the “Freshwater Fury”, or the “White Hurricane”, was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that devastated the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and the Canadian province of Ontario from November 7 through November 10, 1913 in which 30 ships were damaged and twelve ships sank.

The “gales of November” was popularized by the Gordon Lightfoot song after the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald which sank on the evening of November 10, 1975, 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point on eastern Lake Superior.

So I don’t think I will go out on a boat in Lake Superior on November 10th and just watch the these calm waves from shore instead.

Gales of November