"Perfect Storm"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 22:18:15 -0500, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Does anyone know, did the term "perfect storm" originate with Sebastian
>Junger's 1997 book with that title?  Or was Junger employing a preexisting
>term?

Junger was quoting the meteorologist Bob Case.  Whether Case came up with
the term himself, I don't know.

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http://www.usatoday.com/weather/movies/ps/moreperfect.htm
USA Today Weather
07/04/00- Updated 01:41 PM ET

[...]

The meteorologist quoted in Junger's book is having his own second thoughts.

Bob Case of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was
described watching satellite images of a Canadian high-pressure system, a
major low-pressure system in the North Atlantic and Hurricane Grace to the
south.

''Meteorologists see perfection in strange things and the meshing of three
completely independent weather systems to form a hundred-year event is one
of them,'' Junger wrote. ''My God, thought Case, this is the perfect
storm.''

Case, now retired, told the Times from his Pennsylvania home that he meant
to say a perfect set of circumstances had aligned to make the mid-Atlantic
storm intense and long-lasting.

''Now, unfortunately, the combination of the book and especially the movie
have made it the greatest storm, and that's not the case,'' said Case.
----


--Ben Zimmer