Wikipedia:Peer review/1804 Snow hurricane/archive1

1804 Snow hurricane

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I spent a lot of time researching this article during my first few days back, and I'm proud to say that it's pretty much as comprehensive as it could ever be. Now that it's passed GA (and is classified as A-class), I'm hoping to bring it to FAC soon.

Thanks, Cloudchased (talk) 15:30, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Comments by TropicalAnalystwx13:

• "The 1804 Snow hurricane (also known as the Storm of October 1804) was the first tropical cyclone worldwide in recorded history known to produce snowfall." - is the "worldwide" here necessary?

• Meh.

• "An unusual late-season storm in 1804, it yielded vast amounts of snow, rain, and powerful winds in the northeastern United States." - "in" → "across"?

• Ding.

• "and later transited near Georgetown, South Carolina." - this could be confusing. By definitions, transited means to pass through or across. It through/across near Georgetown, South Carolina?

• Er, fixed.

• "Soon thereafter, its abundant moisture clashed with an influx of cold Canadian air, leading to the deepening of the resulting pressure gradient and provoking inland intensification." - Whose abundant moisture? The trough or the hurricane? I think it's the former, but it's kind of hard to tell.

• The storm's, actually, since Ludlum didn't mention the former in the latter source.

• "While situated over Massachusetts, the gale attained its peak intensity of 110 mph (175 km/h), undergoing an extratropical transition as it drifted towards the Canadian maritimes, consequently gradually weakening." - gale...wuzzat? (wikilink it) This is a pretty long sentence and it doesn't flow well to me. Maybe combine the "consequently gradually weakening" and the final sentence of the first paragraph into 1 different sentence.

• "Gale" implies the same meaning as "hurricane": keep in mind that the latter word wasn't in the English language at that time. :/

• "Still, precipitation persisted for another two days before the snowstorm finally subsided on 11 October." - I thought it was a rainstorm too?

• By the time it arrived in northern New England, it was producing all snow, and that is what's implied by that sentence.

• "Due to its unusual nature, both heavy snowfall and strong winds caused a swath of devastation stretching from the Mid-Atlantic states to northern New England." - New England has a wikilink; those outside of the Northeast may not know what specific region this encompasses.

• It was already wikilinked in the previous paragraph.

• "In the Middle-Atlantic region, moderate damage was observed at sea but little occurred inland." - You mean, like, damage to boats?

• Clarified.

• "Thousands of trees were knocked over, obstructing roads and fiscally damaging the timber industry throughout New England." - You already note that you're talking about New England, so "timber industry throughout New England" → "timber industry throughout the region"?

• Meh, I'm terrible with organization :p – fixed.

• "Significant farm and livestock losses were also inflicted due to low temperatures, wet snow and high winds, which brought down branches in fruit orchards, froze potatocrops, flattened dozens of barns, and killed over a hundred cattle." - I'd suggest a reword, whether you take my suggestion or not... "As a result of cold temperatures, wet snow, and high winds, numerous branches in fruit orchards were downed, potato crops were frozen, dozens of barns were flattened, and over a hundred cattle were killed."

• Reworded, but in a slightly different way; check the diff when I'm done.

• "while structural damage was widespread but generally inconsequential." - I'm not sure if this is entirely necessary since you note how inconsequential it was earlier in the paragraph.

• This bit sort of summarizes a bit of the impact.

• "Dozens of watercraft were destroyed and multiple ships were swept ashore or capsized as an effect of the storm's high winds." - ships capsize because of water, not wind.

• Blah.

• "Several wharves were destroyed, subsequently harming local shipping businesses as a consequence." - what the hell is a wharve?

• wikt:wharf – do you even sail? :p

• "Areas of Massachusetts received up to 7 inches (18 cm) of rain, in contrast to snow totals upward of 48 inches (120 cm) measured in Vermont." - I may be mistaken, but I believe you're supposed to abbreviate both units.

• ...don't know how to do this with the convert template, too lazy to read docs, I'll see if I can fix these later

• "The origins of the "snow hurricane" prior to its approach near New England are mostly unknown." - why use quotation marks here if you don't in the lead?

• Meow.

• "He also speculated that the storm could have formed from the southern Appalachian Mountains before arriving on the Atlantic coast, but given meteorological circumstances, characteristics, and timing, it was evaluated that the storm was of tropical origin." - The mountains are breeding storms now? O_O

• Yes, and that it could have been an intense extratropical system; tweaked.

• "The earliest evidence of a disturbance near the United States was noted on 8 October, when rainfall was recorded in upstate New York, precipitated by the storm's western periphery in advance of an emerging trough." - A nitpick, but "emerging" → "approaching"?

• Fixed.

• "The following morning, the though's motion near the Virginia Capes area was accompanied by intensifying winds and a change in their direction; initially southwesterly force 3, the incoming gale's winds rapidly turned towards the west-northwest, escalating to force 6 by the afternoon." - the what's motion? Is "area" after "Virginia Capes" necessary, since the Virginia Capes themselves are an area?

• It's deliberate to note that it's not a town – most people outside of VA don't know about the Capes.

• "Historical records chronicled the remainder of storm's track along the East Coast of the United States." - missing a "the"? (after "of")

• Oi has wunnerful grammers, ho urr.

• "A "dreadful squall" occurred near Cape Henry at noon, and historical documents confirm it quickly reached Chesapeake Bay later that morning, maintaining west-to-north winds." - what does that last part (west-to-north) mean?

• Um, west → north? If you really want me to diagram it I will, but...

• "The swiftly eastward-moving northern segment of the trough steered the course of the storm northeasterly due to a strong westerly circulation, leading it over New England." - I don't understand the part after "due"...

• Reworded... ?

• "As the hurricane weakened throughout the night, it underwent an extratropical transition, evidenced by a passageway of weak winds off of the trough's center." - wha?

• Something about elongation... I don't get it. :/ I'll send you the text from Ludlum over on IRC later.

• "The snow hurricane brought strong gusts, blankets of snow, and heavy rain throughout New England and across the Mid-Atlantic region." - not fond of the use of "blankets", it's not really encyclopedic. =P

• ...yeah.

• "Even farther north, entire swaths of forest were leveled, and heavy snow blocked roads, paths, and turnpikes." - how far north? Santa's workshop north or Canada north?

• Hey, I've inched up from the Mid-Atlantic to Can... oh.

• "A negative storm tide at Baltimore grounded multiple boats, and farther north at Philadelphia, an arriving ferry was inundated by a sudden gale." - what is a negative storm tide?

• Something like this, except while tropical.

• "The snow hurricane's impact in New York state was largely insignificant, though rain totals reached 2.27 inches (5.8 cm) in New York City,[7] while to the west in the Catskill Mountains, up to 18 inches (46 cm) of snow accumulated, despite reports of fast-melting snow at Rochester." - this is a big sentence with a good deal of commas. Let's incorporate a semicolon or two or just split it into two sentences.

• Spli t.

• "Shipping was slightly disrupted throughout the state of New York, with high winds forcing ships to travel with lowered sails, and also prevented vessels from docking at New York Harbor on 10 October." - for parallelism, "prevented" needs to become "preventing" to match "forcing".

• Fixed and removed the preceding "and".

• "In Boston, strong winds, described as "unprecedented in the annals" of the city, were documented during the afternoon of 9 October, blowing off the steeple of the Old North Church, which was eventually repaired and restored several times, was blown down by once more in 1954 by Hurricane Carol and mended yet again." - another big sentence.

• Split ag ain.

• "Churches and meetinghouses in Salem, Beverly, Charlestown, and Danvers were also seriously harmed." - "harmed" seems weird given the context.

• Yeah. >:c

• "A residence in Boston caved in, killing one person and injuring three others, and consequently was to be taken down." - it had to be taken down? But it caved in, meaning it did that itself..?

• Like, dismantled.

• "At the town of Lynn, the storm was reportedly the most severe since the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635, with roofs torn off structures, fences and chimneys toppled, and orchards bearing the brunt of formidable destruction." - "At the town" → "In the town"?

• Fixed.

• "Despite being heavily occupied, the port at New Bedford fortunately experienced no losses of ships or boats." - fortunately adds a humanistic aspect to this article, which is a no-go.

• I'm writing like this too much, now I'll have to copyedit Havana :( – er, wait, I was already planning to do that. :b

• "Due to its unusual nature, the hurricane of 1804 set several major precedents which have only rarely occurred since then. " - do not deprive the storm of its awesome title. "the SNOW hurricane of 1804". :)

• DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN.

• "Other than that, there has been only one other confirmed snowfall event as a result of a tropical cyclone while still considered to be tropical, which was caused by Hurricane Ginny in 1963, generating accumulations of 13 inches (33 cm) in Maine." - "Other than that" → "Since that time"?

I believe that is all. Very nice job on the article, and good luck on your endeavor to get this to FA status! TropicalAnalystwx13 (talk) 06:07, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

Yay, thanks for the really thorough and comprehensive review! I'll send over the excerpt from Ludlum when you get on IRC today, and I'll also look into the {{convert}} templates as well. Cloudchased (talk) 13:02, 2 January 2014 (UTC)