Caught in the Vortex: the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940

Anna C. Minch, Novadoc, William B. Davock

For Great Lakes sailors, the Sunday, November 10th weather forecast did not raise any concerns. The temperature had been unseasonably high in the Midwest. The storm that had begun four days earlier on the West Coast was expected to peter out as it hit the Rocky Mountains, leaving only rain over the Great Lakes. Dozens of freighters were in transit on Lake Michigan.

November 11, 1940

At 3:00 that Monday morning, the 253-foot Canadian freighter Novadoc cleared South Chicago bound for Quebec with a cargo of pulpwood. Built in 1929 in England, the 11-year-old bulk carrier was under the command of veteran sailor Captain Donald Streip, with 18 men serving under him. Noticing the barometer dropping slowly, Streip chose a course to hug the eastern shore of Lake Michigan hoping the landmass would provide a windbreak.

Sunrise, however, revealed no cause for concern. All through the Midwest, people awoke to temperatures in the 60s. Most left their coats at home and headed off to work or to an Armistice Day parade. Hundreds of duck hunters and fishermen enjoyed the calm weather. However, all was not calm that morning at Rosenwald Hall in Chicago when the Midwest Weather Bureau staff began their regular 12-hour day. They had worked the regular half day on Sunday and were surprised on Monday