On this episode of Invisible Iceberg, AccuWeather Founder & Executive Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers and AccuWeather Network Chief Meteorologist Bernie Rayno share the untold story behind the sinking of the Titanic and reveal how weather played a major role.
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00:00Welcome to Invisible Iceberg, I'm Bernie Reyno.
00:15On today's show, Dr. Joel Myers and I share the untold story behind the sinking of the
00:21Titanic and reveal how weather played a major role.
00:27Plus, in our segment, What If, we take an interesting look at what could have happened
00:32if certain factors played out differently, like what if the iceberg hit the Titanic an
00:38hour earlier?
00:41And are today's cruise ships in danger of hitting an iceberg, especially with our current
00:46warm period?
00:47We'll let you know.
00:49It all starts now on Invisible Iceberg.
00:55Five hundred books and dozens of movies have explored the Titanic's tragic tale, but there's
01:01an untold story behind the sinking of this luxury liner.
01:05It's just one of the fascinating stories in the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and
01:10Weather Shaped History.
01:12Joining me now to help us delve deeper into the Titanic's untold story is AccuWeather's
01:17founder and executive chairman and author of the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate
01:23and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers.
01:26Joel, thanks so much for joining us here today.
01:29It's such a fascinating book.
01:31And we begin with the first topic of that book, one of the many topics, the sinking
01:35of the Titanic.
01:36And why do you think the story of the sinking of the Titanic is so fascinating through the
01:42years and still captures our attention today?
01:47It happened a long time ago.
01:48112 years ago now.
01:52It is quite a story that resonates.
01:55Of all the words recognized around the world, it's number three after God and Coca-Cola.
02:01That's amazing.
02:02It is.
02:03It is.
02:04And it's so many elements of a drama played out.
02:08First of all, think back to then.
02:11It was a totally different era in terms of technology.
02:15This was the biggest man-made structure in history ever created by humans.
02:22It was the unsinkable ship.
02:23It was a creation of humankind, of something that was so advanced it couldn't sink.
02:31But yet it sank on its maiden voyage.
02:34And so many people died, 1,500 people.
02:37It's such a drama and such a story that all captures everybody's interest.
02:45And it's movie after movie has been made about it.
02:49People still talk about it because it touches everybody in a way.
02:52It must have been such a shock to the people of that time.
02:56There is this great ship.
02:59Once again, we think that man conquered nature.
03:02But yet we found out the opposite, didn't we?
03:04We did.
03:05And it's fascinating how it came about.
03:07So it was an unusual year for icebergs.
03:10It was.
03:12It had been warm for a few years.
03:15More ice was melting off of Greenland.
03:17Most of the ice goes north, but some come south in the Labrador Current.
03:22And normally, the icebergs don't survive south of 48 degrees north latitude.
03:28This year, many of them got down to 41 degrees, which is the latitude of New York City.
03:34And in fact, that's where the Titanic encountered this huge iceberg.
03:38Keep in mind, in those days, there were no satellites.
03:41There was no ways to really track the icebergs.
03:43And there were many more that year.
03:45And they knew that.
03:47There was 400 icebergs down at that latitude in April of that year.
03:52Normally, 400 icebergs total break off of Greenland.
03:57And most of them melt long before they get to that latitude.
04:02And just everything that happened led to the ship going down.
04:06There was a mirage, so they couldn't see the iceberg.
04:10When it collided, there was no moon.
04:14It was in the center of a high-pressure area, so it was calm.
04:18So they didn't hear the waves lapping against the iceberg.
04:21The one ship nearby didn't realize there was the iceberg.
04:24It was all because it was an inversion.
04:27Okay, it was very cold.
04:29The ocean was very cold.
04:31Air near the sea was very cold.
04:33But as you went up, it was warmer.
04:36And because of that, what people saw, the lookout, was not real.
04:43Everything looked closer but smaller.
04:45And by the way, they didn't have binoculars.
04:48That's right.
04:49The person who was supposed to be in charge was fired, removed, a day or two before the
04:57Titanic sailed.
04:58And because of that, he forgot to give the key, and the binoculars were locked up.
05:05And so the people on the lookout didn't have binoculars.
05:09They were fooled by the inversion that caused the iceberg to be smaller.
05:13So they didn't see the iceberg until it was a mile away.
05:17And the Titanic is sailing at fast speed, and there was no way to turn the Titanic around.
05:24Did anybody try to warn them?
05:26No.
05:27It's interesting.
05:28There's a Titanic in California nearby.
05:29You hear about the Lusitania a lot, but I've never heard about the Californian.
05:34It was close by.
05:35But again, because of the inversion and how the light waves were bent, the Titanic looked
05:43smaller than it was.
05:45So they didn't think it was the Titanic.
05:48They didn't try to radio it.
05:50See, most ships didn't have radios in those days.
05:54They did send pulses, lights, and so on, to try and communicate, but the Titanic wasn't
06:00looking for that.
06:02And so there was no communication between the two ships.
06:04In fact, when it went down, the Californian thought it had just sailed away when it actually
06:09went to the bottom of the sea.
06:12What I find ironic, though, is that the Californian and the Titanic did have a radio.
06:19They both had radios.
06:21And they didn't communicate.
06:22Never because of the fact, because of that mirage that you talked about.
06:26So let's go back to that mirage, because that seems like that's one of the keys to this.
06:31Explain again how that came about.
06:34What were the unique set of conditions, weather-wise, that caused that mirage?
06:39You talked about the climate and the icebergs coming south, but there was a huge weather
06:43tie-in.
06:44Let's go over that again.
06:45So it's sailing west toward New York.
06:48It's in warm weather.
06:49It went through a cold front, strong winds, continues to sail, and winds up hitting the
06:55iceberg right in the center of a high-pressure area.
06:58Light winds, very cold.
07:00An hour earlier, it was 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
07:04Fifty degrees.
07:05Air and what?
07:06When it hit the iceberg, it was 29 degrees, and the ocean was very cold.
07:12A lot of people didn't get into the lifeboats.
07:14The lifeboats were often lowered with only half the people.
07:17It was cold.
07:18Right.
07:19They couldn't believe this big ship was going to sink.
07:23So in the beginning, at lifeboats, as they were lowering them, there was no sign the
07:27ship was going to sink.
07:28It was pretty stable.
07:29And they wanted to stay.
07:30They said, oh, I'm better off here.
07:31I don't have a coat.
07:32You know, I'm going to freeze in the boat.
07:36And they didn't get in.
07:37Actually, what's not known is they had more lifeboats than was required by law.
07:42Not enough for every person.
07:43That was changed afterwards.
07:45So there's so many weather impacts here and so many intrigues around this story that are
07:50so fascinating.
07:51And also the wind, the fact that that was light.
07:54Many times you can hear, if you have a big iceberg, you can hear it a couple of miles
08:00away, the wind pounding against it.
08:03But they didn't have that because the winds were calm.
08:06And this was a huge iceberg, too.
08:09If it hit a smaller iceberg, it would have been OK.
08:12In fact, four of the water compartments, watertight compartments, could have been gashed and it
08:18still would have survived.
08:19But this iceberg was so big, six of them were gashed and it couldn't survive.
08:24They never thought when they built it, it could be gashed by six.
08:28But everything came together to sink the ship.
08:31Probably it taught humankind a little lesson about hubris for sure.
08:38But it has all the elements of a fascinating story.
08:42One of the many things that you said that was interesting, let's go back to the lifeboat.
08:45I saw the movie Titanic, millions, and the one thing that always came up, there wasn't
08:51enough lifeboats.
08:53But let's go over that again.
08:55There maybe wasn't enough for everyone.
08:58But as far as the laws are concerned for that day, there were enough.
09:03Is that correct?
09:04That is correct.
09:05More than enough based on the law.
09:08The laws were changed a year or two later because of what happened.
09:12But I believe they had lifeboats for about 1,200 people, there were 2,500 on board.
09:18But the law required based on the tonnage of the ship, I think a little over 1,000.
09:23So they were in excess of that.
09:25So sometimes movies dramatize things and didn't bring all the elements of the story together.
09:31I've researched it and delved into it, but that's one of the fascinating components.
09:36Another fascinating part of this was the many people that were on board.
09:41You talked about from different classes.
09:44There were a lot of people that were very influential at the time that went down in
09:51the ship.
09:52And one wonders how much that could have changed history.
09:55No question.
09:56The richest man in the world, Astor, went down with some influential writers and famous
10:02people that obviously advisers to presidents and so on.
10:06A lot of those people wanted to be on the maiden voyage.
10:09It was history-making voyage and never thought in a million years the ship would sink.
10:14Everything coming together to its demise, it's an amazing story.
10:18Coming up next in our segment, what if we dive deeper into the untold story of the Titanic
10:24to reveal what might have been if certain things played out differently?
10:29Like what if the iceberg hit the Titanic an hour earlier and later?
10:34We look at the mega cruise ships of today.
10:37Are they at risk of being hit by an iceberg, especially with our current warm period?
10:41We'll be back after the break.
10:54And welcome back.
11:05It's time for our segment, what if, where we take an interesting look at what could
11:10have happened if things played out a little differently that tragic night the Titanic
11:15sank.
11:16Joining me again is Acuwe, the founder and executive chairman and author of the book
11:19Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and Weather Shaped History, Dr. Joel Myers.
11:24And you know, Dr. Joel, I think we could spend about two days on this topic because there
11:29were so many things that just conspired against the Titanic.
11:34If just one of them would have changed, but they all went against them, we're going to
11:38try to cover some of that in this segment here.
11:41Now, what if, let's talk about timing and as a meteorologist, timing is everything.
11:46What if the encounter with the iceberg would have happened an hour earlier?
11:52How could have that changed things?
11:53In a number of ways.
11:55First of all, if probably they would have seen the iceberg further, remember it's a
12:01moonless night.
12:04There's not much wind when it hit, and that's rare.
12:06But if there still would have been a moonless night, but there would have been some wind.
12:11So the lookouts would have heard the iceberg earlier, there would have been more notice
12:16and maybe only four of the watertight compartments would have been gashed and it wouldn't have
12:22sunk.
12:24If it did still get the damage and sink, a lot more people would have survived because
12:28the water temperature and the air temperature was much higher.
12:31Even in an hour's travel, it was about 50 degrees, not 29.
12:35And so people would have survived in the water longer.
12:40It was colder because we had an area of high pressure building in.
12:44Well, a cold front had gone by.
12:45And then high pressure built in.
12:47But that played a role, isn't it?
12:49And it's oftentimes an area of high pressure covers such a small area.
12:55The center does.
12:56The center of the high.
12:57Yeah.
12:58So there's such a small area.
12:59And in the center, the wind is virtually caught.
13:02Now, at any given time, look at the globe and we look at wind flow.
13:06Only a few percent of the world, 3, 4, 5 percent has little or no wind because that's what's
13:12covered near the center of a high pressure area.
13:15If it is, we said an hour earlier, there was wind.
13:19And so that wind would have caused the waves to blow up against and create a noise.
13:26And they probably would have seen the iceberg two or three or heard it two or three miles
13:29away, whereas they didn't hear anything in calm air because it hit the iceberg right
13:36in the center of a high pressure area on a clear, moonless night.
13:40So there was no light from the moon, which normally there's some, even if it's late.
13:46And so all these things played a role.
13:47So an hour earlier, most of those people probably would have survived.
13:51And there was also a change in the steering system, which led to the demise.
13:57Something that is not often talked about.
13:59That's correct.
14:00A whole new steering system was put on the Titanic.
14:04And apparently, where you normally turn right, now you turned left.
14:09And of course, they weren't trained enough to do that, to make a rapid change.
14:14So they turned it the wrong way to begin with.
14:18First of all, they only had a mile, and it's going so fast, and the ship is so big.
14:25People talk about it as often, you need room to turn around a big ship.
14:30They use it for all kind of metaphors.
14:32And it's particularly true there, and they turned it the wrong way.
14:36Let's talk about something that I've never heard of either.
14:39A change of the crew.
14:41In fact, there was the second officer was demoted before.
14:46A day or two before.
14:47A day or two before.
14:48How did that play a role?
14:49Well, he had the key to the lockbox at the binoculars.
14:55And in the change that occurred, there was not a transfer of that key from the person
15:00who was very disappointed.
15:01All of a sudden, he was demoted for whatever reason.
15:05And so the officers and the people on the bridge didn't have any binoculars.
15:12And so they might have recognized or seen the iceberg earlier, could have been, of course,
15:17there was still a mirage, but we know that's the case.
15:20They didn't, and they didn't break, they didn't think it was serious enough to break open
15:24the whatever, if they could have, and getting the binoculars out.
15:28So they didn't have binoculars.
15:29A simple key.
15:30A simple key.
15:31It's fascinating.
15:32One of the more interesting what-ifs, and I think, and of course, my opinion on this,
15:41the Californian.
15:43It really could have, it started with them and it could have ended with them.
15:48You hear about the Lusitania all the time, but I never heard until I read your book about
15:53the Californian.
15:54That could have saved the Titanic.
15:55Fascinating.
15:56It was not that far away.
15:57On a number of occasions.
15:59There are assumptions there.
16:01They both had radios, but they didn't radio each other.
16:04They sent up, the Titanic sent up flares once it hit the iceberg, and the California made
16:11the assumption that it was something else.
16:14They didn't take it as, I guess there was no standard SOS, the flares.
16:20So they just thought it was something else.
16:23It wasn't a call for help.
16:24They didn't respond to that.
16:26They thought it was a smaller ship, it wasn't a Titanic, because of the effect of the refraction
16:32from the inversion, and so many things all conspired to defeat the Titanic and lead to
16:41this tragedy.
16:42It's amazing, the Californian, two or three of those events by itself, so that was one
16:47of the critical what-ifs of what happened on the Titanic.
16:51It happened so long ago, but yet we're still talking about it to this day.
16:56Today, we think of all the technology we have, satellites to track the icebergs.
17:02None of that existed then.
17:04Individual ships reporting, couldn't even radio back where they were, because there
17:09was no communications.
17:11Radio just went so far, and so it was a totally different world.
17:16None of that information existed 112 years ago, but they just built this huge structure
17:23that was supposedly indestructible, and humans found out again that sometimes we live on
17:29the premises and we have more confidence in things than we should.
17:33All right.
17:34Great stuff.
17:35Thanks, Dr. Joel.
17:36All right.
17:37Up next, we look at the megacruise ships of today.
17:40Are they at risk of being hit by an iceberg, especially with our current warm period?
17:45We have the answer after the break.
17:53Welcome back to Invisible Iceberg.
18:06I'm Bernie Raynaud.
18:07So a common question we hear a lot, especially with the current warm period is, are today's
18:12cruise ships in danger from icebergs?
18:14So let's dive into it.
18:16As discussed, the warm periods of the early 1900s allowed icebergs to survive to much
18:20farther southern latitudes.
18:22In the case of the Titanic, an iceberg was able to travel south well beyond 45 degrees
18:27north.
18:28Now, the current warm period is even stronger than that of the early 1900s.
18:32In fact, here is the annual temperature anomaly.
18:35Here's where we were back in the early 1900s.
18:38Here we are today.
18:39So it is possible and even likely that an iceberg could move south into the main shipping
18:44lines of the northern Atlantic Ocean.
18:46Now, despite this threat, the likelihood of a collision and sinking of a vessel from an
18:51iceberg collision is extremely unlikely.
18:54And the reason, advanced technology.
18:56Today there is daily monitoring from satellites, flights, ships and radar.
19:01And in addition, improved numerical models of iceberg drift and deterioration has taken
19:06the guesswork out of the location of icebergs.
19:09Now the U.S. Coast Guard International Ice Patrol, or IIP, compiles this information
19:14into a daily report that shows exactly where the icebergs are and the amount of sea ice.
19:20Now according to the IIP, no ship that has heeded their warning has struck an iceberg
19:25in over 100 years.
19:27That's our show for today.
19:29For more information and get your copy of the book Invisible Iceberg, When Climate and
19:34Weather Shapes History by Dr. Joel Myers, go to InvisibleIceberg.com.
19:39And a big thanks to all of you for watching.
19:42If you have any questions or comments, send us an email at questions at AccuWeather.com.
19:47We look forward to seeing you next time.