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New England Weather

Storm of 1722-23 • February 24

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Chapters Overview 1635 Great Storm 1638 Earthquake The Earthquake of 1663 The Comet of 1664 1667 Strange Appearance 1676 Storm and Shipwreck The Comet of 1680 1682 Strange Appearance Dark Day of 1716 1716-1717 Winter 1718 Wreck of the Whidah 1719 Aurora Borealis Storm of 1722-23 1727 Earthquake 1740-1 Winter 1744 Earthquake 1747-48 Winter 1748 Hurricane 1749 Drought 1755 Great Earthquake 1759 Hurricane 1762 Drought 1768 Lightning 1768 Gale 1769 Summer 1770 Great Freshet 1770 Summer The Storm of October 20, 1770 Summer of 1771 1773 Hurricane The Storm of 1774 The Dark Day of 1780 1782 Hurricane 1785 Great Freshet 1786 Tornado 1786 Snow Storms The Cyclone of 1787 The Meteor of 1787 1788 Gale 1794 Whirlwind The Long Storm of 1798 1799 Hail Storm 1801 Freshet 1802 Great Snow Storm 1804 Storm 1806 Solar Eclipse The Freshet of 1807 The Meteorite of 1807 The Cold Friday of 1810 The Freshet of 1814 The Tornado in 1814 The Gale of 1815 The Cold Summer of 1816 The Tornadoes of 1821 Spring Freshet of 1823 The Spring Freshet of 1826 1826 Avalanche 1827 Gale and Freshet 1827 Wreck of the Almira1830 March Storm The Great Freshet of 1830 1833 Meteoric Display Winter of 1835-36 1839 Storms 1841 October Gale 1842 Snow Storm The Freshet of 1846 1849 October Storm 1851 Lighthouse Storm 1851 Tornado Storm of April, 1852

1719 Aurora Borealis

1727 Earthquake

ON Sunday, February 24, 1722-23, occurred a great storm, which brought in the tide so high that it has been rarely if ever equalled in New England. The wind was strong and from the northeast, which blowing at the time of a very high tide was probably the cause of this flood, which was at Dorchester, Mass., only excelled by that of April, 1852. It was most severe in those parts where the coast lines ran north and south as on the Massachusetts and New Hampshire shores, though in Rhode Island several wharves were broken to pieces and carried away, cellars and warehouses inundated, and more damage done than had occurred from a similar cause for nineteen years. At Boston some hail accompanied the rain.

Cape Cod felt the storm very severely. On the southeast side, at Chatham, a fine harbor had some years before been made by a storm, banks of sand being thrown up as a protection. Over these ridges of sand, the wind now forced the waters, the marshes became overflowed, and a great many stacks of hay were lifted by the water from the staddles on which they stood, and floated away, much fodder for cattle being thus destroyed. A great many acres of marsh were damaged, and much of it ruined for future production of grass by being plowed and torn by the raging waters, or covered with sand from the beach.

On the inside of the Cape, the tide rose four feet, and outside, it was said, from ten to twelve feet higher than was ever known before. At Plymouth, it was from three to four feet above the highest water-marks then known there.

The News-Letter of that time said that the inundation in Boston "looked very dreadful." Damage had resulted from extremely high tides there in former years, but this one rose until it was twenty inches higher than any had been known to rise before. In the morning of the day of the storm the tide had risen even with the tops of the wharves, and slowly came above the timbers, but not anticipating a serious result, people went to the morning services in their several churches. While the preachers were dwelling on the sixteenthlies and seventeenthlies of their sermons the water came higher and higher above the wharves, flowing into the streets and cellars, and covering the floors of the lower rooms of the dwellings and warehouses along the more exposed streets of the town. Meanwhile the people in the churches, — and most of the inhabitants attended church in those days, — were listening to the words of their respective pastors, being wholly unconscious of the inundation and the great damage that was being done to many of their houses and to their furniture and provisions, and of the loss of goods in their stores and warehouses. A great deal of fault was justly found with people who knew of the condition of things because they did not give due notice of it to the owners of the property which was being injured or lost by the flood. In the middle of Union street the water rose as far as the site of the house in which Mr. Hunt lived. It came two or three feet above Long wharf, and flowed into the nearest streets to such a height that a boat could be sailed from the south battery to the more elevated part of King street, as it was then called, and from thence to the hill on which the North church stood. The loss and damage done in Boston was very great.

In the vicinity of Salem, the tide flowed back in places for several miles, and instances occurred in which people were compelled to seek safety in trees.

At Gloucester it was unusually high, and the storm was so violent that the wind and water forced the sand into the "cut," again filling it up.

At Hampton, N, H., the storm caused the great waves of the full sea to break over its natural banks for miles together, and the ocean continued to pour its waters over them for several hours.

The tide was also very high at Piscataqua and Falmouth, doing much damage to wharves and to articles stored in cellars and warehouses.

Source: Historic Storms of New England by Sidney Perley, 1891

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