WITCH: Beware of the November Witch.

Did you think the talk of witches went out with Halloween? This is a different kind of witch. It refers to the frequent and brutal system of storms that scream across the Great Lakes at this time of year.

Have you listened to the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?” Singer Gordon Lightfoot refers to the “witch of November” that sank the ore freighter on Nov. 10, 1975, in Lake Superior. All 29 crew members were killed.

Farmers’ Almanac says, “Though one of the most infamous, Edmund Fitzgerald was far from the only ship to succumb to the Witch of November. The floors of all five Great Lakes are littered with thousands of wrecked vessels.

“More than 6,000 ships were lost on the Great Lakes between the years 1878 and 1897 alone. Over the last 300 years, an estimated 25,000 mariners have lost their lives on the Great Lakes, with the vast majority of those casualties occurring within the icy grip of the November Witch.”

The witches are caused by intense low atmospheric pressure over the Great Lakes pulling cold Canadian/Arctic air from the north or northwest and warm Gulf air from the south.

Weatherbug says the storms have been called many things, including November Gales, White Hurricanes and Freshwater Furies.

The storms “can produce wind gusts greater than 100 mph, drop several inches of rain and snow, and produce record low barometric pressure readings. These killer storms happen with enough regularity that they are known as a bane for the people living along the Lakes, and a foe of the ships that cross them,” Weatherbug reported.