"A Perfect Storm", How Long Has That Phrase...

[sandyRoe]

...been in common usage?

[Moorea7]

Google states "since 1998"

[jno]

May 30 1850. Though it doesn't seem to have caught on till 1997

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_storm

[Peter Pedant]

twenty years - not more

1628 - ye grete storm ( probably a storm surge ) which went inland in the somerset for miles ! 6 or ten

it might have been this one - where cloudesley shovell lost a fleet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_storm_of_1703

[Peter Pedant]

erm and they did not say 'parfick'

[juliecarlstan]

.....uhhhh..As long as there's been really perfect storms?

[sandyRoe]

It needs more than just the storm.  In 1953, I think, a combination of a high tide and a storm resulted in flooding in parts of the east coast of England which resulted in more than 300 deaths.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah. That sounds just perfect.