Five Storms That Quietly Redrew the Lower Cape — And Still Shape It Today

If you’ve ever stood on North Beach and thought,
“It feels like this place moves.”

You’re right.

The Lower Cape — Chatham, Orleans, Harwich, Brewster — looks solid. Fixed. Familiar. But much of what we think of as permanent coastline is younger than some of the houses sitting behind it.

There are inlets here that didn’t exist forty years ago.
Beaches that used to connect differently.
Dunes that were taller. Harbors that were narrower.

This week’s snowstorm reminded us how exposed we are.

But long before plows and weather apps, storms were already reshaping the land under our feet — sometimes in ways you can still see.

Here are five that didn’t just make headlines.

They changed the map.

1717 — When the Cape Disappeared Under Snow

The Great Snow of 1717 wasn’t a single storm. It was a series of nor’easters that hit New England over weeks in February and March.

Colonial records from Massachusetts describe drifts high enough that people exited homes through second-story windows. Livestock were buried. Travel stopped entirely.

In 1717, Orleans and Harwich were small coastal settlements. No plows. No state aid. Just houses, marsh, and shoreline.

We don’t have survey maps from that winter — but historical accounts confirm prolonged isolation and agricultural loss across the region.

What still feels familiar?

If you’ve ever watched snow pile up against a cedar-shingled house near Pleasant Bay, or driven Route 28 in whiteout conditions, you’re feeling something settlers felt 300 years ago:

On the Lower Cape, when weather closes in, you are on your own.

Sources:
Massachusetts Historical Society archives
Boston Public Library colonial storm accounts

1938 — The Hurricane That Lowered the Dunes

On September 21, 1938, the Great New England Hurricane struck southern New England. While landfall occurred west of Cape Cod, the Lower Cape experienced powerful surge and wave energy.

National Weather Service records document storm surge between 14–25 feet in southeastern Massachusetts.

In Chatham and along Atlantic-facing beaches, dunes were flattened. Barrier beaches were overwashed. Sand was pushed inland.

Post-1938 shoreline surveys show measurable differences from pre-storm maps.

If you’ve noticed that certain Atlantic-facing dunes in Chatham feel long and low instead of steep and protective, 1938 is part of that story.

It reduced natural buffers that had built up over decades.

Some of those dune systems have never fully returned to their previous height.

Sources:
National Weather Service – 1938 Hurricane Archive
National Archives storm records
Cape Cod National Seashore coastal change documentation

1987 — The Night the Ocean Cut Through North Beach

January 1987.

A nor’easter hit hard enough to breach North Beach in Chatham. The Atlantic cut a new inlet straight into Pleasant Bay.

Locals still call it “the Break.”

It didn’t close.

NASA satellite imagery from 1984 through the 1990s shows the barrier widening, shifting, reconnecting. South Beach Island eventually changed its relationship to the mainland.

Boaters had to relearn channels. Tidal currents strengthened. Properties once shielded by sand found themselves facing open ocean influence.

If you’ve ever heard someone say, “Before the Break,” — that’s not nostalgia.

It’s geography.

Sources:
NASA Earth Observatory – Cape Cod barrier evolution imagery
Town of Chatham Coastal Resources Department
USGS Coastal Change Hazards Portal
Cape Cod Life historical documentation

1991 — The Waves That Cut the Beaches Back

The October 1991 Perfect Storm didn’t make landfall here as a hurricane — but wave heights along the Massachusetts coast reached 25–30 feet, according to National Weather Service records.

On Atlantic-facing beaches in Chatham and Orleans, dunes were cut sharply. Sand moved offshore. Scarps — steep sand edges — formed where dunes had been shaved back.

Residents in the early 1990s documented visible narrowing along sections of outer beach.

If you’ve walked certain stretches and felt they seem tighter than old photos suggest, that narrowing accelerated in this era.

Not overnight.

But enough to matter.

Sources:
National Weather Service archives
Massachusetts coastal erosion studies

2013 — Proof That the Cape Is Still Moving

In early 2013, another nor’easter reopened an inlet within the Chatham barrier system.

NASA imagery confirms continued reshaping of North Beach and South Beach Island.

It reinforced something coastal scientists have documented for decades:

Barrier beaches here are temporary structures.

If you’ve watched Monomoy grow or shift, if you’ve noticed boat channels change depth, if you’ve seen dunes rebuilt after winter — you’re watching storm history continue.

Not past tense.

Ongoing.

Sources:
NASA Earth Observatory updated imagery
USGS shoreline monitoring
Town of Chatham coastal management reports

Before the Break

If you grew up here, you’ve probably heard it.

“Before the Break…”

Before the inlet opened.
Before South Beach shifted.
Before the dunes flattened.

Storms here don’t just pass through. They leave behind new directions, new currents, new views out the window.

Some people remember when Pleasant Bay felt calmer.
Some remember when North Beach stretched differently.
Some remember walking places you can’t walk now.

That’s not nostalgia.

That’s a map changing within a lifetime.

So when someone says, “This one was historic,” they might be right.

The real question is:

What will we still be pointing at in 30 years and saying,
“That’s when it changed”?