The Armistice Day Storm

November 11, 1940, began as a calm, mild late-autumn morning across the Midwest. By afternoon, one of the most catastrophic storms in Great Lakes history had descended without warning. When it was over, 154 people were dead — including 64 sailors on Lake Michigan — making it the deadliest single weather event in the history of the Great Lakes.

The Armistice Day Storm exhibit at the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum reconstructs that terrible day with chilling precision. Weather maps, survivor accounts, vessel histories, and period documentation trace how two dramatically different air masses — one warm and moist from the south, one brutally cold from the north — collided over the lake with lethal force.