How Edmund Fitzgerald's sinking inspired advances in storm navigation

DETROIT — The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald not only inspired an iconic ballad from Canadian crooner Gordon Lightfoot, it also led to the advancement of Great Lakes weather monitoring and forecasting that has helped ships navigate storms ever since. Forty-eight years ago, the largest freighter in Lake Superior history sank during a November storm. "Back in 1975, there were actually zero wave-monitoring buoys on Lake Superior, which is hard to even fathom," said Matt Zika, a meteorologist at the National Weather Station's Marquette office. "You take Lake Superior, which is basically the size...