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Ultimate Chase's Location During Hurricane Noel: Clark's
Harbor and Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia |
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My personal barometer data
during Noel: |
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I
recorded a barometric pressure of 967mb during
Noel's closest approach to my first location at |
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Clark's
Harbor around 2am before I went east to get further
away from the center. |
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Hurricane / Nor'easter Noel
Stock Photos: |
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Hurricane / Nor'easter Noel
Chase Account Below: |
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Chase
Account:
I’ve wanted to document a strong Nor’easter for many
years and finally got my chance with Noel. I started
tracking Noel from his early stages of development
and watched as he made a beeline straight for South
Florida (Where I Live) then turned north. Noel was
forecast to become a strong Nor’easter by all the
computer models and I felt confident enough to take
a chance and fly to Nova Scotia for his arrival.
This was a new experience for me because I’m usually
trying to get as close to the center of the storm as
possible to document the highest winds but in a
Nor’easter it’s the opposite. The winds aren’t as
strong in the center as they are further from the
center to the east. The tricky part is to find this
perfect spot that isn’t too close to the center but
yet not too far away. I arrive the day before Noel’s
arrival and started scouting locations to document
this new journey. When I travel somewhere to
document an event I set goals as to what I want to
achieve and film. This particular event I was not as
concerned with getting high winds but wanted to
document some monster waves that are known to affect
Nova Scotia during these storms. I teamed up with
Canadian Storm Chasers George Kourounis and Mark
Robinson about midday and we decided to keep a close
eye on Noel’s track and determine at midnight if we
should stay put or relocate. We hung tight at
Clark’s Harbor which is on the extreme South-West
coast of Nova Scotia and started to realize that we
would be too close to the center at this location so
we decided to relocate to our east to a famous place
called Peggy’s Cove. I had scouted this location the
day before and liked it because it was a point that
stuck out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and
had a really cool lighthouse that would look great
in the foreground of giant waves. We drove through
the night in the wind and rain and watched as my
barometer bottomed out at 967mb at Noel’s closest
approach. The pressure read lower as we were driving
east but after the 967mb reading I can’t confirm
these lower readings because we were driving on
higher elevations which affects the pressure so the
lowest I can positively confirm is 967mb while at
sea level at Clarks Harbor. After about 4 hours on
the road we arrived just before daybreak and came
across some hazards and obstacles to overcome before
getting out to the lighthouse point. There was storm
surge washing over the road in several places and
parts of the road that might become undermined. Plus
it was pitch dark because the power was already
knocked out and we were getting wind gusts up to
75mph. The strongest winds had already occurred and
it was obvious these causeways had larger waves
before we got there because there were large
boulders in the road that had to get there from
powerful water. We figured out a way to safely get
across the water hazards and George walked ahead and
cleared the road of any objects that could puncture
our tires. As the sun started to rise we made it to
our destination, Peggy’s Cove ! |
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The
moment we arrived at Peggy’s Cove things got really
crazy. With the little bit of daylight we were
starting to receive we could see and hear giant
waves crashing on the rock barrier that was around
this island we were now on. We became concerned
after seeing massive boulders that were lying all
over the asphalt parking lot at the point. Where
these boulders landed the ground was scoured and
cracked and most impressive was a building that had
a giant hole in the side of it where a boulder went
flying though. We knew we had just missed this
happening and had to make sure there wasn’t going to
be anymore flying boulders that could hit our
vehicles and possible injure us. We watched these
waves for some time and waited for the sun to rise
and give us proper lighting to start documenting
this event. I knew the center had already passed
Nova Scotia so the waves were on a downward trend
and wanted to document the tail end of this event so
I started to shoot video and photos. One of my
favorite photos is a classic shot of a lighthouse
with a massive waves crashing into it and I’ve
always wanted to get a shot like that of my own. The
Lighthouse was there and the massive waves were
occurring but the lighthouse was on the wrong side
of the island to get hit by these massive waves. The
waves were really impressive but I was disappointed
that there was really nothing to give these waves
scale to show the viewer just how big these waves
were. I asked George if he would park his vehicle in
front of my shot to help me achieve this and he
agreed. We were getting some massive waves around 30
feet tall off the ocean that would crash into the
rocks and shoot up another 30 feet and this was
really impressive. I was getting good photos but
still not that perfect crazy shot I was looking for
until, Crash, Whoosh, a rogue wave hit the rock hill
and shoot up an estimate 100-120 feet into the air.
The waves were so massive that it looked like they
were crashing in slow motion. I snapped away as fast
as I could and then got so mesmerized by the sound
this wave produced and the size of this monster that
I froze and the massive wave came right at me while
sitting in my SUV. I probably could’ve put my window
up in time but didn’t and I received a salt water
blast like no other. This wave came into my SUV and
soaked all my camera gear. I was at least 200 feet
back and was nowhere near getting wet with the other
waves but this one rouge wave had my name all over
it. Oh yea, what about George whom you see in the
photo with the yellow jacket? He was much closer to
the wave and was outside fully exposed. Luckily
George wasn’t hit by any debris or boulders and came
out OK with no injuries. He said it was one of the
eeriest things he’s ever seen to look straight up
and see this massive wave crashing over his head. We
think this one massive wave was the average sized
wave just hours earlier and there must have been
even bigger waves than this one to leave all these
boulders everywhere. Of all the hurricanes I’ve
documented I’ve never seen waves this big. I quickly
looked at the photo on my digital camera and knew I
had a winner. One of the hardest things to do as a
storm photographer is to show the power of these
storms in a still image. This one photo had achieved
my goal of documenting a massive wave and showing
the power of water. |
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We
continued to document smaller waves waiting for
another one of these massive waves but the waves
only got smaller and smaller and we knew the show
was over. Many locals started to drive out to the
point and we actually had traffic jams with all the
CNN I-Reporters jamming the small roads that lead to
the lighthouse point. We had been up for over 36
hours and was completely fried mentally and decided
to call it a chase and head back to the hotel. I
spent a lot of money traveling to Nova Scotia to
document this Nor’easter and felt justified by this
one single rouge wave. I was getting really
concerned halfway through the expedition that I
would walk away from this event with only so-so
materiel because the strongest winds hit at night
time and it was impossible to document. It’s funny
how these expeditions work. I’m always stressed out
about making the trip worth the expense and
sometimes it’s really easy to get good powerful
shots from the very beginning of the chase and other
times I get right to the end of the storm with
nothing great when all of a sudden something happens
to redeem the trip. |
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Special Thanks
to the great people of Nova Scotia and to Patrick Helliwell
for the advice and tips. |
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Photographer, |
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Website copyright notice below: |
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Hurricane / Nor'easter Noel photography, video, and
stock photos are copyrighted and protected under |
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United States and International copyright laws.
These video stills may not be reproduced in any
form, |
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downloaded, stored, or manipulated without prior permission from
© Ultimate Chase, Inc. |
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