The Day That Changed America: Remembering 9/11, 20 Years On
By Peter HUTCHISON, Catherine TRIOMPHE and Laura BONILLA
07/28/21 AT 9:28 PM
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, New Yorkers woke to crisp blue skies following a storm that had soaked America's northeastern seaboard the day before.
A buildup of high pressure had helped push the cold front out into the Atlantic, creating a weather phenomenon known in aviation parlance as "severe clear."
The cloudless sky was little portent of the dark, history-changing day that was about to unfold.
As New Yorkers began heading to work, 19 hijackers were boarding flights at airports in Boston, Washington and Newark.