1912: The Sinking of the RMS Titanic

1912: The Sinking of the RMS Titanic

Author: AccuWeather April 15, 2022 Duration: 4:46
This Date in Weather History
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1912 was a year of promise. The start of World War I was still two years away and science and technology were ascendant, with the outlook that humans had finally conquered nature, and their inventions could overcome anything. Albert Einstein had already been working on his theories around relativity that would revolutionize Physics. In practical terms, the first decade to the 20th century saw the invention of the vacuum cleaner, the air conditioner and the electric washing machine. It seemed like science was triumphant. It was with that attitude that British White Star Line commissioned the building of the largest ship ever constructed. The Titanic. The ship would have every technological advantage and be unsinkable. It left the British Isles at Queenstown, Ireland, on Thursday, April 11, 1912 on its maiden voyage. The weather awaiting the Titanic in North America was cold. In Boston, a few thousand fans shivered as snow flurries fell and the Red Sox beat Harvard University 2-0 in the first game ever played at Fenway Park. On April 12, the winds were west-southwest at about 20 mph and the noon temperature was about 60 degrees where the great ship was on the Atlantic Ocean. As the ship continued west, the skies got cloudier as a weak cold front approached. The noontime temperature on Saturday, April 12, was still at 60 degrees, but another cold front (associated with those Fenway flurries) was to the west and north of the ship. As the Titanic passed through the second cold front on Sunday, April 14, the winds switched to northwest and increased to 25 mph. The noon temperature was 50 degrees, but by 7:30 p.m., the temperature had dropped to 39. On Sunday, nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing, and the skies cleared and the winds calmed. A large Arctic air mass was now over the area on the clear, star-lit night with subfreezing temperatures and calm winds that resulted in a sea “like glass.” Icebergs were known to be in the region, but the calm winds made spotting them difficult. To spot icebergs during the night, lookouts searched for wind-driven waves breaking around their bases, but because of the calm weather this effect did not occur. The ship struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. Sunday, April 14. While the seas were relatively calm, that NW flow of air behind the front and actually steered a giant ice field toward the ship that night. The ship hit the iceberg that has been estimated as possibly weighing up to 300,000 tons, and the ship’s hull was torn wide open. It then took less than three hours from that point for the Titanic to sink. The temperature of the water was estimated to be as low as 28 degrees – even lower than the conventional 32-degree freezing point, as salt helped to lower its freezing point. Even though many people went into the water and survived the initial crash and sinking, the extremely cold-water temperature caused almost all in the water to suffer hyper-thermae and die quickly. Just hours before the wind has been west and the coldest water had not been pushed around the great ship. The water temperature may have been as high as 50 which would have allowed people to survive much longer in the water. At 2:20am on Aril 15, 1912 the Titanic slipped below the water. The unimaginable had happened, the unsinkable ship went to the deep. Faith in the promise of technology and science was shaken.

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Every day has a story written in the wind and rain, and This Date in Weather History uncovers those narratives. With AccuWeather Meteorologist Evan Myers as your guide, this daily podcast connects the present to pivotal moments where weather dramatically altered the course of events. You might hear about a forgotten blizzard that stranded a city, a hurricane that redirected a war, or a simple shift in the breeze that allowed a historic discovery. It’s more than just a list of facts; it’s a look at how the atmosphere has been a relentless and fascinating character in the human drama. Each brief episode offers a specific, grounded tale, revealing how the climate has shaped cultures, economies, and personal lives in ways we often overlook. Tune in for a thoughtful blend of meteorology and historical context, delivered with the authority of AccuWeather. This podcast turns the calendar into a map of atmospheric intrigue, reminding us that the past is always present in the sky above.
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