The Saxby Gale

October 5, 1869 - It was on this day that a powerful tropical cyclone pummeled the eastern coast of Canada. At least 37 people were killed as a massive storm surge slammed into small communities along the Bay of Fundy.

Almost a year earlier, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy named Stephen Martin Saxby started sounding the alarm. His dire prediction first appeared in London's The Standard newspaper on December 25th, 1868:

I now beg leave to the state, with regard to 1869, that at seven a.m., on October 5, the moon will be at that part of her orbit which is nearest to the earth. Her attraction will, therefore, be at its maximum force. At noon of the same day the moon will be on the earth's equator, a circumstance which never occurs without mark atmospheric disturbance, and at two p.m. of the same day lines drawn from the earth center would cut the sun and moon in the same arc of right ascension (the moon's attraction and the sun's attraction will therefore be acting in the same direction); in other words, the new moon will be on the earth's equator when in perigee, and nothing more threatening can, I say, occur without miracle. (The earth, it is true, will not be in perihelion and by some 16 or 17 seconds of semi-diameter.)

With your permission, I will, during September next, for the safety of mariners, briefly reminding your readers of this warning. In the meantime there will be time for the repair of unsafe sea walls, and for the circulation of this notice by means of your far-reaching voice, throughout the wide world.

Most people dismissed Saxby's prediction as lunacy. Some critics believed it was based on astrological musings. In reality, Saxby's prescience was a combination of informed astronomy and good guessing on what weather patterns might be at play.