The Last Hurricane Erin Lurked Off NYC on 9/11

Tropical Storm Erin just formed in the Atlantic, and forecasters expect it to strengthen into a hurricane. The last time we had a Hurricane Erin was September 11, 2001.

That Hurricane Erin sat off the East Coast as terrorists attacked New York City, creating one of history's most haunting weather coincidences.

The Weather That Morning

A high-pressure system gave New York City crystal-clear blue skies on 9/11—the kind of perfect September morning that made the horror even more surreal. Hurricane Erin churned offshore to the east, close enough to appear in the same satellite images that captured smoke rising from where the Twin Towers once stood.

The wind pattern between the two weather systems pushed north to south, carrying the smoke from Ground Zero southward over Lower Manhattan and beyond. NASA satellites captured both the hurricane and the smoke plume in a single frame—nature's storm and humanity's tragedy frozen together.