What Does 'The Gales Of November Came Early' Mean? The Viral 'Gordon Lightfoot' And 'SS Edmund Fitzgerald' Memes Explained

If you're the kind of person who gets their news from memes, you may have heard that the gales of November came early this year. That might not mean a whole lot to you unless you're a fan of 1970s freighter ships or Gordon Lightfoot.

For everyone who doesn't fall under one of these categories, here's what you need to know about the "gales of November coming early."

What Is The 'Gales Of November Came Early' Meme?

On November 10th, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a freighter ship, sank while crossing Lake Superior. While there's no confirmed reason why it sank, one popular theory claims that stormy weather had to do with the disaster. Specifically, people point to the so-called Witch of November, aka the gales of November, which refers to the strong winds that blow across Lake Superior in the fall.

A year after the disaster, musician Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about the tragedy called "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald." In the song, Lightfoot sings, "That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed / When the gales of November came early." Now, this string of lyrics has become the subject of memes on social media, with the earliest known meme to use the lyrics dating back to June 2019 on the /r/memes subreddit.

How Is 'The Gales Of November Came Early' Used In Memes?

Memes using the lyrics "the gales of November came early" became increasingly popularized online over the course of the 2020s on sites like Reddit and X. The memes tend to reference the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, often with little context as to the actual disaster. They also tend to reference the Gordon Lightfoot song and the singing of the song as November 10th arrives.

Recently on X, the memes have come back in full force with a more ironic and nonsensical twist. Essentially, users are taking old, established meme formats and attaching references to the gales of November to them in any way possible. These memes are likely only going to keep getting bigger as the anniversary of the tragedy inches closer.

For the full history of the gales of November came early, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.