Perfect storm
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A perfect storm is a situation where, by the confluence of specific events, what might have been a minor issue ends up being magnified to proportions that are out of control. In such a situation, it is clear that if one element was removed from the mix, the whole matter would have collapsed, but because just the right things were in the mix, the situation balloons.
Compare with butterfly effect.
See also
- The Perfect Storm, a book (1997) and a feature film based on it (June 2000).
The phrase "the perfect storm" is associated with meterological events in October 1991, when a powerful weather system gathered force, ravaging the Atlantic Ocean over the course of several days and caused the deaths of several Massachusetts-based fisherman and billions of dollars of damage.