Thirty-five years ago, a pair of historic storms lashed the East Coast and upper Midwest in late October, one of which was so meteorologically spectacular, it earned the name "The Perfect Storm."

The tragic tale of a crew of six fishermen lost at sea off the coast of Newfoundland during the storm was the subject of a 1997 bestseller by Sebastian Junger and the 2000 movie starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane.

What made the storm off the East Coast "perfect" was a confluence of factors, including a strengthening non-tropical low off Atlantic Canada, a former hurricane, strong high pressure over eastern Canada and the eastern U.S., then a bizarre transition to another hurricane.

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The Atlantic low

After a strong cold front swept off the East Coast, an area of low pressure developed along the front east of Nova Scotia on Oct. 28, 1991, quickly intensifying into the following day.

As it did so, a strong area of high pressure was burgeoning over eastern Canada, producing a tremendous pressure gradient between the high and the lowering pressure of the gale center. The stronger the pressure gradient, the fiercer the winds.

Winds already increased to tropical-storm-force near the center of the storm and along the New England coast of the United States.

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According to the "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger, it was during this intensification phase of the low that the fishing boat "Andrea Gail" and its crew sank on Oct. 28.

Eating a hurricane

Then it became complicated.

On Oct. 29, the large non-tropical low south of Nova Scotia began to absorb Hurricane Grace, wrapping in its tropical moisture and likely receiving an injection of energy.

You can see the evolution of this storm in a YouTube clip in which The Weather Channel's Stu Ostro referred to it as a "monstrosity."

Grace was whipped quickly just south of Bermuda, then was caught up in the eastern side of the massive Perfect Storm's circulation.

On the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 30, the Perfect Storm reached its peak intensity as the pressure lowered to an estimated 972 millibars. As it peaked in strength, the storm then began to drift southwest toward the New England coast on Oct. 30 and 31.

Impact

High winds lashed the New England coast on Oct. 30 and 31, with peak Massachusetts gusts of 78 mph at Chatham, 74 mph at Thatcher Island and 68 mph at Marblehead. A 63-mph gust was reported at Newport, Rhode Island.

These high winds whipped up pounding surf caused by the long overwater fetch length and duration of the Perfect Storm, leading to coastal flooding and damage.

Waves 10 to 30 feet high were observed from the Canadian Maritimes to North Carolina's Outer Banks. Tides reached levels not seen in 47 years in New Jersey and, in some parts of the Delmarva Peninsula, eclipsed those seen during the infamous Ash Wednesday storm of March 1962.

Damage at the coast was extensive.

The coastal flooding in Massachusetts was described as comparable to that from the infamous Blizzard of '78.

The evolution of the Perfect Storm didn't end there.

The 'Unnamed Hurricane'

This is where it got weird.

As the overall storm began to weaken after lashing the East Coast, a tiny circulation within the storm intensified over the warm Gulf Stream into a full-fledged hurricane on Nov. 1, 1991.

The U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flew into this hurricane and measured maximum flight-level winds of 99 mph a few thousand feet above the ocean.

However, to avoid alarming and confusing the public after the hard hit from the Perfect Storm, this hurricane was never named.

The so-called "Unnamed Hurricane" remained well out to sea and only limped ashore as a weakening tropical storm in Nova Scotia the next day.

The Halloween Blizzard of 1991

As the Perfect Storm was morphing into an unnamed hurricane, a blizzard of historic proportions was raging over parts of the upper Midwest.

The surreal satellite imagery showing both the Unnamed Hurricane in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Halloween Blizzard in the upper Midwest remains a favorite of meteorologists to this day.

The path of this early-season winter storm was remarkable. With the Perfect Storm acting as a giant East Coast road block, the Midwest blizzard couldn't move eastward.

The storm developed over the far western Gulf off the Texas coast on Oct. 30, then strengthened and tracked north-northeast toward Minnesota and Wisconsin on Halloween and Nov. 1.

Its connection with the Gulf tapped plentiful moisture, wringing out historic snow totals in parts of the upper Midwest.

The Halloween Blizzard set the heaviest single-storm snowfall record for Minneapolis, dropping more than 2 feet of snow (28.4 inches).

In Duluth, Minnesota, the 36.9 inches of snow was an all-time state snowstorm record, surpassing all snow totals from a single storm during any winter month, much less October or November. This record was later eclipsed by a lake-effect snowstorm on Jan. 6-8, 1994, when 47 inches fell in Lake County.

Snow fell for 72 straight hours in Duluth. Winds gusting up to 60 mph created blizzard conditions in outlying areas and whipped the heavy snow into drifts up to 10 feet, burying vehicles and bringing travel to a halt.

Hundreds of motorists had to take shelter after becoming stranded, a number of roofs collapsed under the weight of the snow and at least 20 people died from traffic accidents or heart attacks while removing snow, according to NOAA.

With warmer air nosing in just above the ground, a major ice storm unfolded. Southern Minnesota and Iowa felt it the worst.

According to the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1 to 2 inches of ice accumulated from southwest Iowa into north-central Iowa, and 2 to 3 inches of ice accumulated across south-central and southeast Minnesota.

The Halloween 1991 Blizzard was one of only four Category 5 winter storms of record in the upper Midwest, as categorized by NOAA's Regional Snowfall Index.

(MORE: Ranking the most extreme US winter storms)

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.