AccuWeather's 'This Day in Weather History' blog showcases extreme and unusual weather that changed our world.
What's the world's coldest temperature? It's complicated.
Today, Feb. 6, is the anniversary of the coldest temperature measured in the town of Oymyakon (Oimyakon), Russia. On Feb. 6, 1933, a frigid -90°F (-67.8° C) was recorded there. It's considered by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to be the record low temperature for Asia.
Colloquially, it's considered to be the coldest temperature measured anywhere people live permanently—an estimated 500 to 900 residents live in Oimyakon as of 2018. A monument in the town says that temperatures have fallen as low as -96 F (-71.2 C), but this is not officially recognized by the WMO.
Oymyakon hit the headlines again in 2021, that time for unusually warm weather, when it recorded 88.8 F (31.6 C) on June 29, a difference of 178.8 degrees F (99.4 C) from the record low set in 1933.
But there's another contender not far from Oymyakon: Verkhoyanksk, Russia. That town claimed to have a slightly lower temperature in 1892, but it was taken with a "sprit thermometer," not a modern mercury thermometer, so the WMO does not consider it a reliable record.
In January 2021, Verkhoyansk dropped to -73 F, the coldest in 15 years, after setting a record high for the Arctic Circle of 38.0°C (100.4°) in 2020.
Oymyakon's record, and that for the entire Northern Hemisphere, is beaten by a reading of -93.3°F (-69.6°C) at a weather station in Klinck, Greenland, but no one lives there.
Vostok research station in 2024. (WikiPedia)
The Southern Hemisphere's cold temperature record, and the Earth's, is -128.6°F (-89.2°C), set on July 21, 1983, at Vostok, Antarctica, a Russian research station. Unusually calm weather and high elevation of the station--11,200 feet (3420 m) contributed to the low reading. Vostock and other stations have dipped below -100 F since then, but none have reached that record low.
March 24 is Palm Sunday. That Sunday before Easter, occurring in March or April each year, holds the anniversary of several major tornado outbreaks.
The most infamous event was the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak. That series of storms hit the Midwest on April 11 and was the nation's second-largest tornado outbreak at the time. It spawned 55 tornadoes that killed 266 people over a 16-hour period. Incredibly, when broken down by strength, more confirmed tornadoes were F4 than any other strength, all with winds over 207 mph.
Twin tornadoes between Goshen and Elkhart, Indiana, on April 11, 1965. (Paul Huffman)
One of the most infamous tornado photos from before the modern era was snapped between Goshen and Elkhart, Indiana, on April 11, 1965. The photo was taken by a local newspaper photographer, Paul Huffman, and was one of a series of photos that appeared to show two strong tornadoes in the same location at the same time, the first time that phenomenon was caught on film. Similar twin twister sightings have only happened a handful of times since then.
The event in 1965 might be the most infamous tornado outbreak on Palm Sunday, but it wasn't the only one. In fact, there have been four documented, in 1920, 1936, 1965 and 1994. This happens because the date often falls within the historical average daily uptick of tornadoes that peaks in May.
Tracks of tornadoes during the Palm Sunday 1965 tornado outbreak.
The 1920 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak hit on March 28. More than three dozen twisters swept through the Midwest from Missouri to Michigan and Ohio. Eight of the tornadoes were F4 strength. Tornado forecasting was taboo at the time, and many towns were caught unprepared. At least 153 people were killed by the fast-moving storms.
Beginning on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, and lasting into the next day, more than a dozen tornadoes struck the Southeast. The storms killed at least 454 people, making it the second-deadliest tornado outbreak on record. More than half of the fatalities were from the largest tornado, rated F5, which struck Tupelo, Mississippi, leveling 48 city blocks.
Most recently, 30 years ago on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1994, a severe weather outbreak caused 30 tornadoes that killed 42 people from Alabama into the Carolinas.
As we head into severe weather season, AccuWeather’s Bernie Rayno and Joe Lundberg look back at one of the most devastating tornado outbreaks and look ahead to the severe weather risk this season.
Youngsters make love sign on a snow covered hill as they celebrate Valentines Day in Kufri, outskirts of Shimla, India, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Anil Dayal)
Valentine's Day has brought a variety of weather conditions to the United States over the years, from heat waves that sparked spring flames to Artic chills that fueled winter cuddling. Even severe weather, including tornadoes, have happened on Feb. 14.
Most recently in a long list of red-hot weather tidbits from Valentine's Day, lovers huddled together for warmth on Feb. 14, 2021, when temperatures fell below zero F in the heart of the nation from Canada to Texas.
Most of the U.S. had a "white Valentine's Day" that year, with snow on the ground in all continental U.S. states except for Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina. It was a record snowy day for the entire nation since records began in 2005. Dozens of daily record lows were broken in the Plains, and wind chills colder than 50 degrees below zero in Minnesota. A state-wide power blackout from the cold began in Texas on the evening of Valentine's Day.
Five years prior, Feb. 14, 2016, was the coldest Valentine's Day on record for most of the East. New York City dipped below zero, and temperatures fell to 18 below zero in Binghamton, New York.
The most infamous Valentine's Day storm to pierce the hearts of couples in the East recently was the Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2007. Heavy snow accumulated from the Midwest to New England into Valentine's Day, with over 40 inches reported in New York and Pennsylvania. People spent their Valentine's Day dates stuck on Pennslyvania interstates for as long as 24 hours. With nearly 2 feet of snow, Burlington, Vermont, set the record for the most snow in one day at their location -- and the most snow ever tabulated on Valentine's Day at any U.S. station.
The Valentine's Day Blizzard of 2007 brought 10 to over 30 inches of snow from Missouri to Maine. (NOAA)
Prior to 2007, the storm of record for Feb. 14 was "The Saint Valentine's Day Blizzard," which buried New England with 8 foot snow drifts in 1940.
Significant tornado outbreaks occurred on the night before Valentine's Day in 1952, 1956, and 2000. The latter is so-named the "St. Valentine’s Day Tornados" on a historical marker in Camilla, Georgia. That night, 17 twisters dropped down from Alabama to North Carolina, with the last twister touching down early on Feb. 14. Tragically, the storms killed 11 people in Mitchell County, Georgia.
The most powerful tornado to hit during the day on Valentine's Day was outside of typical tornado records, which started in 1950. An F3 tornado hit just northwest of Laurel, Mississippi around noon on Feb. 14, 1901, killing four and injuring 20 over its 14.7-mile track.
The warmest temperature recorded in the nation at official National Weather Service stations on Valentine's Day was 94 F at Thermal, Califonia in 2016. The coldest was 54 degrees below zero F in Glasgow, Montana in 1936. The wettest day was 0.98 inches of rain in Omaha, Nebraska, on Valentine's Day 1969.
A pedestrian walks in a street with balloons in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
Blizzard, Jan. 1967, cars covered with snow, view of Rosemont looking east from California. (Howard B Anderson/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)
Chicago is no stranger to heavy snowfall, but all-out blizzards, like the one expected this week, aren't as common as you might think. A typical winter season can vary from 9 to 90 inches of snow in the Windy City, but it averages around 3 feet each season. Although many snowstorms have occurred over the years, a handful are frozen into residents' memories.
The city's most recent big winter storm was known as the Superbowl Blizzard of 2015. That storm dropped 19.3 inches of snow at O'Hare Airport, where official weather records are maintained, on Feb. 1 and 2, 2015. The New England Patriot's celebratory parade was delayed by the storm.
Four years prior, to the day, a storm called the Groundhog Day Blizzard swept the city. By Feb. 2, 2011, heavy snow had accumulated to 21.2 inches at the airport while high winds, over 60 mph at some locations, piled snow up into 10-foot drifts.
Before the turn of the century, three major winter storms plagued Chicago. The New Year's Blizzard during the first three days of 1999 dropped 21.6 inches of snow at O'Hare. Thousands were stranded by the tempest and dozens of people were killed.
Automobiles sit immobilized along a street in Chicago following a weekend blizzard which dropped over 20 inches of snow. (Getty/Bettmann)
Twenty years prior, the Election Blizzard of 1979 unleashed 18.5 inches of powder on the city. That storm also buried Mayor Michael Bilandic in negative publicity. The Mayor's botched storm response was used as campaign fodder for Chicago's first woman mayor, who won the race later that year.
Chicago's most famous historic blizzard was Jan. 26 to Jan. 27, 1967, when 23 inches of snow piled up, a record that stands today. The 1967 Chicago Blizzard shut the city down completely. Tens of thousands of vehicles were abandoned, the airports were buried under 10-foot snow drifts, and only helicopters could be used for emergency purposes.
Photos of infamous Chicago blizzards almost always include abandoned and buried cars. Why is that? Chicago is the United States' snowiest major city, as defined by having more than 1 million residents, and car ownership is 75%, versus New York City's 45%.
Although any large snowstorm with high winds may be colloquially referred to as a blizzard, the National Weather Service has a strict definition of the word: "Blowing and/or falling snow with winds of at least 35 mph, reducing visibilities to a quarter of a mile or less for at least three hours."
The most recent Blizzard Warning for the Windy City was issued by the National Weather Service in Chicago on Nov. 26, 2018, but that storm underperformed, delivering only 8.4 inches of snow at the airport.
Cars sit in the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive after accidents and drifting snow stranded the drivers during last night's blizzard Feb. 2, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. As of late morning over 20 inches of snow had fallen, making this snowstorm the third largest recorded in the city. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Over 100 people were killed in 22 states and provinces by a powerful winter storm that crossed the U.S. and Canada during Christmas week in 2022. A bomb cyclone in the Plains unleashed the unusually bitter Christmas week chill. More than half of the United States experienced subzero temperatures.
In Denver, Colorado, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, temperatures plunged close to 40 degrees F on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, setting new records. Cut Bank, Montana, recorded an AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature of 69 degrees F below zero that same day. As that cold air swept eastward, 7.3 million customers in the U.S. and Canada lost power from the cold and high winds. Christmas travel was snarled with 18,000 flights cancelled between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28.
A total of 51.9 inches of snow fell at the Buffalo airport between Dec. 23 and Dec. 28., pushing the seasonal total to over 100 inches -- more than the city typically receives during an entire winter season. There were 41 deaths from the storm in the Buffalo area, making it the deadliest storm for the city.
Families are digging out and trying to get home after a holiday weekend blizzard dumped more than 50 inches of snow.
On the morning of Nov. 7, 1940, an incredible video was filmed that amazes viewers to this day. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Washington, began undulating as high wind blew against it, a process known as "aerodynamic flutter" -- although a myth that the bridge was driven to its resonant frequency persists to this day. At 7:30 a.m., the wind was measured at 38 mph, and the bridge's movements were small at first, a few inches, then a few feet of twisting by 10 a.m., when winds were said to be 42 mph, though ships in the channel reported higher gusts.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge undulates shortly before collapsing on Nov. 7, 1940 (Getty Images)
By 11 a.m., the structure's motion had become much worse, with the bridge tilting 28 feet up on one side, then as much down on the other side, every 5 seconds, which caused the bridge to quickly ripple itself to destruction, shortly after the first video was taken. The bridge had been closed by the time it fell, but one car was stuck and went down with the collapse, the driver having escaped. The only fatality occurred inside, as that car contained a pet dog.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses on Nov. 7, 1940 (Getty Images)
It was one of the most remarkable infrastructure failures of all time, especially given that 40 mph winds wouldn't normally do much damage. When the bridge was completed five months prior, the unusual movement of the structure was already known to be an issue, but a minor one that had not yet been tested by higher winds. Cost-saving measures were blamed for exaggerating what might have been a manageable problem. Engineers learned important lessons from the fall, designing future bridges and skyscrapers with reduced or mitigated flutter.
In 2019, previously-unseen footage was found, showing the bridge collapse from the other side.
The aftermath of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse on Nov. 7, 1940 (Getty Images)
NOTE: The speed of the first video has been corrected from the original video by AccuWeather. It was taped at 16 frames per second, and when converted to film at 30 frames per second, it ended up twice as fast as reality.
Thirty two years ago this week, a trio of atmospheric factors came together to form a storm so uniquely dangerous and powerful that its mesmerizing development could only be described in one way: perfect. The story of the storm and the ship that vanished in it occupies a unique place in the American psyche.
Bob Case, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston, gave the storm the "perfect" moniker while watching it unfold. His use of the term would go on to serve as inspiration for author Sebastian Junger, who wrote a critically acclaimed 1997 novel about the storm, detailing the tragic fate of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing vessel from Gloucester, Massachusetts.
The Andrea Gail was lost at sea with six crew members on board following a fishing trip in the northern Atlantic that ran them straight into the storm. A movie by the same name, starring George Clooney, was released in 2000.
Sebastian Junger, right, author of "The Perfect Storm" poses with actors Mark Wahlberg, center, and George Clooney on "The Perfect Storm" film set. The movie is based on an actual storm that occurred in October 1991 off the coast of Nova Scotia, which took the lives of six crew members on board the Andrea Gail, a seventy-foot fishing boat. (Claudette Barius/Warner Bros via Online USA)
The Perfect Storm began with a strong disturbance that passed through New England on Oct. 27, 1991. A high-pressure system built over southeast Canada, allowing a low-pressure system that formed along a trailing cold front to intensify rapidly. This process was enhanced when what remained of Hurricane Grace, approaching from the south, passed through the area and provided ample tropical energy to create an intense storm that looped off the Northeast coast before making landfall in Nova Scotia.
Buoys recorded waves of over 100 feet at sea and hurricane-force wind gusts were observed on land, with waves causing considerable damage to coastal areas along the East Coast of the United States, according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.
Read More About The Perfect Storm
The Perfect Storm (Halloween Storm) as seen by satellite on the morning of Oct. 30, 1991. (NOAA)
During the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record at the time, a season which brought Katrina, Rita and other blockbuster storms, Hurricane Wilma formed on Oct. 18, 2005. The same day, Wilma rapidly intensified over the Caribbean to have the lowest barometric pressure on record for an Atlantic tropical storm, at 26.05 inches of mercury (882 millibars). Sustained winds were estimated at 185 mph, tying for the number two spot for highest winds, exceeded only by Hurricane Allen in 1980.
Wilma caused half a billion (USD) in damage in Mexico after making landfall as a Category 3 storm on the Yucatan Peninsula, then took an unusual path across Florida from southwest to northeast, causing damage across the southern third of the state. Hurricane Wilma would be the last major hurricane (Category 3 or above) to make landfall in the U.S. for 12 years, until Hurricane Harvey in 2017. After Wilma, the record 2005 Atlantic hurricane season continued, spawning six additional tropical storms in the Atlantic, requiring the use of the Greek alphabet for the first time.
Hurricane Michael crashed ashore in the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10, 2018, near Mexico Beach and the Tyndall Air Force Base, with extreme winds and towering storm surge. At landfall, the storm’s maximum sustained winds were estimated at 160 mph, or Category 5 strength, by the National Hurricane Center in a post-season analysis.
This earned Michael the title of the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle, and the third strongest, measured by pressure, to hit anywhere in the United States. It had been more than 26 years since a Category 5 storm struck the U.S. coast, the last storm to do so was Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Michael killed 74 people as it carved a destructive path.
Extensive damage continued well beyond the landfall point: 50,000 structures were damaged -- 3,000 were destroyed -- inland across Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Tree damage was extensive, with 2.37 million acres of forestland damaged by the storm in Florida and Georgia. The storm surge cut two new inlets in St. Joseph Peninsula State Park on Cape San Blas, Florida.
Storm surge reached 9 to 14 feet at Mexico Beach to Indian Pass, Florida, according to the National Weather Service, with catastrophic damage in those towns. Entire neighborhoods were wiped out. Damage was estimated at $25 billion. Survivors told AccuWeather their stories of resilience one year and five years after the storm.
On Oct. 10, 2018, Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle as a Category 5 hurricane. The storm remains one of the strongest to ever hit the U.S.
A ferry negotiates the Intracoastal Waterway by the Ben Sawyer Bridge in Sullivans Island, S.C., in this Sept. 28, 1989 file photo. The bridge was damaged by Hurricane Hugo. The ferry is carrying equipment from Mount Pleasant to Sullivan's Island until the bridge is repaired. The main span of a swing bridge wrenched off its foundation during Hurricane Hugo's 135 mph winds . (AP Photo/The Post and Courier, Wade Spees)
After killing more than 70 people and causing widespread destruction in the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, Hurricane Hugo made landfall at Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, just before midnight on Sept. 21, 1989. The Category 4 storm caused massive damage with extreme storm surge on the Carolina coastline and high wind damage far inland due to its quick movement. A total of 35 people were killed by the storm in the United States.
Hugo was the nation’s costliest hurricane at the time, and remains the most devasting hurricane to affect South Carolina. Over 9,000 square miles of trees were felled in the Francis Marion National Forest, where 65 percent of the bird population was killed or missing.
AccuWeather meteorologists Dan Pydynowski and Jesse Ferrell were children living in North Carolina when Hugo struck, but the storm, which remained a hurricane far into the state, played an important part in forming their career paths. Pydynowski, who resided in Charlotte at the time, said that the wind and noise from the hurricane were incredible, with breaking and falling trees that sounded like bombs going off.
Ferrell, who lived in the North Carolina foothills at the time and witnessed trees falling around his house explained, “For the first time in my life, I thought ‘OK, this is enough severe weather. I’m scared now.’ But Hurricane Hugo solidified my career path in meteorology.”
A 3D perspective satellite view of Hurricane Hugo on Sept. 21, 1989 (NASA)
NOTE: This entry was written before Post-Tropical Storm Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia with 70 mph sustained winds on Sept. 16, 2023.
Atlantic Canada is no stranger to hurricanes, strong tropical storms or damaging winter storms. Dozens of storms have lost their tropical characteristics before making landfall in the region, but have still done considerable damage. Most recently, Hurricane Fiona came ashore in Nova Scotia on Sept. 24, 2022, with 100 mph sustained winds but was considered a post-tropical cyclone. Fiona set a new record low pressure reading for the country. Damage was extensive and it was the costliest extreme weather event in the region’s history.
Selected tropical systems affecting Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada, between 1950 and 2022.
Officially, more than two dozen hurricanes have made landfall in Nova Scotia. The most recent to affect the province was Dorian in 2019. Hurricane Dorian caused immense destruction in the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, then moved up the coast to North Carolina, out to sea, and made landfall on Sept. 8, 2019, as a Category 1 hurricane. The strongest storms to make landfall in the province were Category 3 hurricanes -- an unnamed storm in 1927, Hurricane Ginny in 1963, and Juan in 2003.
New Brunswick, to the northwest of Nova Scotia, is mostly in its shadow for approaching coastal storms. Only one hurricane made landfall exclusively in that province, Hurricane Carol in 1953, at Category 1 force.
Structures float in the water in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona in Rose Blanche, Newfoundland, Canada September 25, 2022. (REUTERS/John Morris)
Farther to the east, eight hurricanes have made landfall on the island of Newfoundland, the most recent being Hurricane Larry in 2021 and the strongest being Michael in 2000, which made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane.
Only one hurricane has officially made landfall in the state of Maine since 1900. Hurricane Gerda came inland just west of Cross Island on the evening of Sept. 9, 1969. There was minor damage from Massachusetts up the coast, but no injuries or fatalities were reported. Hurricane Bob in 1991 and an unnamed storm in 1944 both lost their hurricane status just before officially hitting the state. In 1985, Gloria traveled over Maine as a hurricane after making landfall on Long Island and Connecticut.
In 1878, the world's first telephone exchange began operations, Thomas Edison patented the cylinder phonograph, and the last Salem witch trial took place. And on Aug. 9, 1878, New England's second-deadliest tornado tore through the state of Connecticut.
According to the New England Historical Society, the twister moved over water in the village of Community Lake, creating a 200-foot-high waterspout, then hit the town of Wallingford, destroying almost 100 structures. A total of 34 people were killed, mostly by collapsing buildings. It was a macabre record for New England that stood until the 1953 Worcester tornado, in which 94 people perished in Massachusetts.
Damage from the Aug. 9, 1878 Wellington Tornado in Connecticut (NY Public Library)
After the Wallingford tornado, a 12-year-old boy rode on horseback to a nearby town to find help but destroyed telegraph lines prevented further communication until a train came into town that night. Connecticut Public Radio said the tornado was described as "a new experience" for New Englanders, because few residents had ever witnessed such a storm.
On the afternoon of Aug. 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed during a thunderstorm at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, killing 137 people. After the longest court trial in aviation history, it was determined that wind shear (wind speeds and directions changing rapidly in a small area inside the thunderstorm) caused the crash.
The crash of Delta Flight 191 on Aug. 2, 1985 (NTSB)
The specific type of wind shear that impacted the airliner was a downward plunge of air later codified as a microburst, a type of downburst. At the time, aircraft and airport radar could only detect where rainfall was located at low resolution (see example below). Following the massive accident and investigation, Doppler Radar, which can detect differing wind directions and speeds, was mandated for all consumer airliners in 1988. The accident, investigation and aftermath are detailed in AccuWeather Retired Meteorologist Mike Smith's book "Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather."
Airport radar at the time of the Delta Flight 191 crash on Aug. 2, 1985. (NOAA)
It was nearly 90 years ago when stifling heat, drought conditions, dust storms and damage to crops and cattle -- all on top of the years-long Great Depression -- caused unfathomable damage for millions of Americans, particularly those in areas of the United States that came to be known as the Dust Bowl, spanning the years 1934 to 1937.
Buried machinery in a barn lot in Dallas, South Dakota, May 1936.
High-temperature records that still stand to this day were set in 13 states during the month of July 1936, including 121 degrees in Kansas and North Dakota, and 120 degrees in Oklahoma and South Dakota. All-time records reached as far east as Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Intense heat expanded the number of areas facing drought conditions and massive dust storms resulted in official estimates of at least 5,000 deaths nationwide that summer.
“The longevity of a heat wave has a big effect. I think a lot of deaths were unreported because they did not classify deaths the way we do today,” said AccuWeather Founder Dr. Joel Myers in 2021. “It may have been 50,000 people."
The Kinzua Bridge following the 2003 tornado. (AccuWeather/Brian Lada)
When it was built, the Kinzua Bridge was dubbed the “eighth wonder of the world,” and served as a pivotal transportation route for locomotives. However, the famed railroad structure would meet an untimely end more than 100 years after it was first constructed. On July 21, 2003, a powerful tornado touched down and wiped out the structure in a flash.
17. July 1971. AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE II, ERIE RAILWAY SURVEY. - Erie Railway, Bradford Division, Bridge 27.66, Spanning Kinzua Creek Valley, 1.5 miles northeast of Kushequa, Mount Jewett, McKean County, PA. (Boucher, Jack E.)
In less than 30 seconds, over a century of history collapsed as the tornado destroyed most of the viaduct with winds over 110 mph. The tornado's vortex impacted the viaduct from different directions, causing it to oscillate and collapse in several phases. What was left of the structure was turned into a skywalk and visitor center.
Kinzua Bridge, prior to its destruction by a tornado. Kinzua Bridge State Park, McKean County, Pennsylvania. (IvoShandor/Wikimedia)
On July 7, 2005, a hurricane named Dennis formed in the Caribbean. Dennis caused flooding in Jamaica and landslides in Haiti, killing 55 people. Peaking as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph sustained winds, it was the strongest hurricane to form before the month of August at the time. After making two landfalls in Cuba as a Category 4, it set its sights on the Florida Panhandle, where it made landfall at Santa Rosa Island as a Category 3 storm and caused $2.5 billion (2005 USD) damage. It claimed more than a dozen lives.
Navarre Beach, Fla., July 18, 2005 -- A beach-front home damaged by Hurricane Dennis. Hurricane Dennis damaged roads, disrupted electrical service, and left sand and debris in its wake. (FEMA)
The blockbuster hurricane season of 2005, which included the famous hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, soon overshadowed Dennis. In fact, the next storm on the list, Emily, broke Dennis' record for the strongest hurricane in July only six days later.
A radar animation shows Hurricane Dennis making landfall on the Florida Panhandle on July 10, 2005.
On the day after a derecho in the East, we look back at a strong wind event that pushed the term into common language: The "D.C. derecho" on June 29, 2012. That derecho is, without a doubt, one of the worst storms in the district’s history, but the storm didn’t just impact the D.C. area -- it was blamed for dozens of fatalities across multiple states.
A utility worker clears a downed tree in Springfield, Va., Sunday, July 1, 2012. A severe storm late Friday knocked out power to approximately one million residents, traffic signals and businesses in the region. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
The storm’s origins lie in Iowa, and the derecho left significant wind damage along an 800-mile path from the Midwest to the Delmarva Peninsula. All told, the derecho killed dozens -- many from falling trees. The total damage from the long-tracked storms approached $3 billion. More than 4.2 million people across the path of the derecho lost power, setting the stage for a second disaster: a major heat wave while millions had no air conditioning.
High wind and wind damage reports from the "DC Derecho" on June 29, 2012.
On June 19, 1972, Hurricane Agnes made landfall on the Florida Panhandle, causing damage from its storm surge, 85-mph winds, and a tornado outbreak.
However, much of its most significant damage would be saved for parts of the mid-Atlantic. After moving out over the Atlantic and making a second landfall on Long Island, Agnes drifted westward, stalled, and conspired with another low-pressure system to drop 19 inches of rain in eastern Pennsylvania, causing levees to burst and flooding entire towns.
More than a billion dollars in damage was reported in Pennsylvania alone, and the storm killed 128 people. After touring the damage in Harrisburg, President Nixon called the storm "the greatest natural disaster in the history of the United States."
Two AccuWeather meteorologists were living in the worst-flooded communities as children. Read their stories from Hurricane Agnes.
Over the course of a three-month period in the summer of 1993, a slow-moving and historic flooding disaster unfolded across the midwestern United States, killing 50 people, dumping more than a year’s worth of rain and leaving behind major economic ramifications that would be felt for years to come.
A levee in Monroe County, Illinois, near Columbia, Illinois, gives way to rushing waters from the Mississippi River on Aug.1, 1993, flooding farmland. The house at right was caught in the current from the river, removed from its foundation and carried downstream. (AP photo/James R. Finley)
Dozens of rivers across the region remained in a flood stage for months, including the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. More than a year’s worth of rain fell in just a few months, with a few pockets in east-central Iowa measuring nearly 48 inches of rain between April and August.
Read more about The Great Flood of 1993.
Rainfall during the Midwest Flood of 1993.
Photos of New York City shrouded in wildfire smoke this week surprised younger residents of the city, who had never seen the city's skyline dimmed in such a way. Older residents remembered seeing the city disappear during deadly smog events that killed hundreds of people between 1950 and 1970, when the Environmental Protection Agency was born.
Smog obscures the view of the Chrysler Building from the Empire State Building in New York City on Nov. 20, 1953. World-Telegram photo by Walter Albertin.
In November 1953, deadly smog formed over New York City, killing an estimated 240 people. Ten years later, another event killed as many as 400 people after two weeks of the toxic air in early 1963. 1966 another smog event occurred in November, with fatality estimates as high as 400. That event, more widely studied, was caused by an atmospheric inversion that trapped the city's pollutants.
After the Clean Air Act was instituted in 1970, no more deadly smog events occurred in New York City, and pollution decreased, though unhealthy AQI values were still observed for much of the summer up until around 2009, according to EPA data.
A graph shows Very Unhealthy (purple) and Unhealthy (red) AQI values decreasing in New York City between 1980 and 2022.
Residents of the Pennsylvania steel town about 60 miles east of Pittsburgh that fateful May morning in the spring of 1889 heard a low rumble in the distance that they thought might have been the sound of thunder. It was not.
A train headed toward Johnstown, Pennsylvania, emitted a constant whine as if the whistle was stuck. Residents also noted a breeze blowing from the northeast, likely accompanied by an odd, muddy smell. As the roar grew louder, so did the wind, tossing trees around and tearing wood from nearby buildings.
An artist's illustration of the 1889 Johnstown flood, reproduced from a lithograph print published by Kurz & Allison Art Publishers (Library of Congress)
Then residents suddenly realized — to their horror — what the source of the growing rumble was. And for most, it was too late. One observer who survived the catastrophe remarked that the debris-filled wave looked like "a huge hill rolling over and over." Huge explosions from boilers expelled a black "death mist." These were the last sights and sounds that more than 2,200 people experienced as a 75-foot-high tsunami of water and debris crushed the small land-locked town. Get the rest of the story about the Johnstown Flood.
This week 10 years ago, the largest tornado on record touched down west of Oklahoma City, killing three veteran storm chasers -- Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras and Carl Young.
The tornado, which dissipated just 4 miles west of metro Oklahoma City, was determined to be the widest in recorded history, at 2.6 miles in width. Doppler-radar-measured winds over 300 mph. Initially rated as an EF5-strength tornado by the National Weather Service, the El Reno tornado was later downgraded to an EF3 tornado due to a lack of visual damage.
Three storm chasers were killed when this vehicle, a Chevy Cobalt, was hit by one of sub-vortices within the larger circulation of the "El Reno" tornado.
A research paper in 2014 estimated that the crew was hit by often-invisible sub-vortices inside the tornado, spun up overhead with winds maximum winds over 250 mph winds, with each vortex moving at a maximum of over 175 mph.
A memorial was created where the storm chasers lost their lives. AccuWeather Storm Chaser and Meteorologist Tony Laubach knew the three well and chased with them often.
"We study tornadoes for years and years and years," Laubach said. "And just when you think you know how it works, nature spits out something like El Reno, and you go back to the drawing board."
Read more about the El Reno tornado.
Five years ago this week, the unthinkable happened on May 27, 2018. Ellicott City, Maryland, which had undergone massive flooding less than two years prior, was once again ravaged by catastrophic flooding.
Almost a foot of rain -- more than two months' worth, fell in under two hours, turning downtown streets into swift-moving rivers. Eyewitness video showed the first floors of homes and businesses being swept downstream, along with dozens of cars. A National Guardsman was killed while assisting with the rescue.
Feet of water flowing through Ellicott City, Maryland May 27, 2018.
On July 30, 2016, a similar flood destroyed six buildings and killed two people in Ellicott City. As a result of the back-to-back floods, an outdoor tone alert system was installed in 2019. In February 2023, Howard County officials announced a new 5-year flood mitigation plan which will use money from $167 million in government funds secured in the last several years.
Read more about the Ellicott City 2018 flood.
This week 12 years ago, the deadliest tornado since 1950 hit the town of Joplin, Missouri. The twister that struck on Sunday, May 22, 2011, caused 161 fatalities and over 1,000 injuries.
Over 8,000 buildings were damaged in the city, including two local hospitals, with cars and a life flight helicopter left tattered in front of the Joplin Regional Medical Center. Damage in Joplin was over $3 billion 2023 USD.
A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. on May 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
After the storm, the National Weather Service changed how it issues tornado warnings —confirming when they have been sighted on the ground instead of estimating with radar data.
Joplin was also the first large disaster response to take place on social media, with eyewitness news gathering by news outlets and citizen-led Facebook groups offering help to victims.
Mason Lillard, who 10 years old at the time, was trapped inside a truck in the parking lot of a Home Depot when the massive tornado tore through Joplin. Read Mason's story here.
Also this week in weather history:
ð§ï¸ The "Great James River Flood" on May 26-27, 1771, killed 150 people in the Richmond, Virginia, area. George Washington called this the "Late, Great Calamity" while Thomas Jefferson described it as the "greatest flood ever known."
âï¸ On May 27, 1994, a late-season snowstorm occurred across part of northern Vermont, northern New York, and Maine. Route 108 was closed between Stowe and South Cambridge in Vermont.
ðªï¸ A large and extremely damaging tornado tore through northern Michigan on May 20th, 2022. It was rated EF3, the strongest tornado to hit the state since 2012.
A damaged sign lies outside the wreckage of Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were killed when a tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma, in May 2013. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
On May 20, 2013, a massive tornado rated at EF5 strength rocked Moore, Oklahoma, and surrounding towns with 210 mph winds, killing 24 people and leaving hundreds injured. Ten years later, no tornado has matched its strength, according to National Weather Service records.
The destructive path of the twister, which was roughly 20 miles, caused around $2 billion in damage in 2013 USD. Seven children died at a school when a wall collapsed. The twister ripped apart two sections of a steel highway bridge from their concrete pillars.
Homes were swept off their foundations, even though many houses were constructed after a F5 tornado rocked the area in 1999. More than 1,600 homeowners added tornado shelters to their homes in the years following the twister.
Read more about the Moore, Oklahoma, tornado of May 20, 2013
Also this week in weather history:
ðª Launched from aptly-named Mount Weather, Virginia, weather instruments were carried to an altitude of 23,835 feet by a tandem of 10 kites and 8.5 miles of kite wire on May 10, 1910.
ð©ï¸ On May 21, 1983, a freak lightning bolt passed through a tree into a man’s neck, down his spine and out through his pocket, which contained metal keys. The lightning bolt also struck two men standing under the same tree on a Memphis, TN golf course. All survived.
ð Mostly clear weather allowed a spectacular view of a total solar eclipse in Toronto and Kingston on May 26, 1854, but clouds ruined the show in Montreal. The temperature dropped 13 degrees during the eclipse's totality in Toronto.
The deadliest tornado in Texas history struck Waco, Texas, 70 years ago this week in a town whose residents believed it was impossible for tornadoes to reach. At the heart of this disaster was the building where the Dr Pepper soda was first formulated.
"Numerous cases of Dr Pepper were sucked out of the [building]," Bill Little, a plant worker, recalled. The tornado laid waste to 600 downtown buildings, damaged another 1,000 structures, and killed 114 people, the most fatalities from one tornado in Texas history.
The Dr Pepper bottling plant sustained damage from the F5 tornado that hit Waco, Texas on May 3, 1953. However, it remains standing to this day.
The twister that hit downtown Waco was part of a larger severe weather outbreak including 32 other tornadoes in 10 states. All told, 144 people were killed by the twisters.
Read more eye-witness descriptions of the Waco, Texas, tornado
Also this week in weather history:
May 9, 1865: A thunderstorm left hail accumulations on the ground for several days between Bordeaux, France, and Belgium.
May 10, 1906: A trace of snow fell in Washington, D.C., the latest on record.
May 12, 1934: One of the most severe dust storms of the Great Dust Bowl darkened skies from Oklahoma east to the Atlantic Coast.
On May 8, 2017, an enormously powerful hailstorm led to the costliest disaster in Colorado history. The Mile-High City was coming off record-breaking heat as a potent storm moved into the area just before the evening rush hour commute. The large hailstones damaged roofs, shredded home siding until it looked like Swiss cheese, and shattered windows on vehicles and buildings.
This Colorado State Patrol car had its window smashed by large hail on May 8, 2017. (Photo/Sergeant Mullins)
One of the most costly aspects of the storm occurred when the hail began to fall over Colorado Mills Mall in Lakewood -- a nearly 1.5 million square foot building. The skylight of the mall was penetrated by baseball-sized hail, which destroyed the glass ceiling and exposed the inside of the mall to severe weather. After the storm, auto body shops reported several months-long waits, with one body shop saying they were booking two years in advance.
Semi-trailer trucks were tossed around like toys and trees were snapped like toothpicks after an EF 2 tornado impacted the town of Wray, Colorado, on May 7, 2016. Extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer captured the storm on video that day, and the breathtaking footage is in a league of its own.Video captured by Timmer shows the sheer power of the 130 mph twister up-close, which was one of the largest and most photogenic tornadoes in recent memory. Large swaths of dirt wrapped around the spinning column of air as debris sucked into the bottom of the vortices.
The movement of the cell allowed for Timmer to execute a hook slice maneuver into the storm, -- which is when as the cell moves north, they "punched through the hook echo, wrapping around the south side of that tornado and approached it from the backside." This allowed Timmer to capture one of his closest and most intense encounters to date.
Four different tornadoes were confirmed in Wray that day, injuring five people. Multiple buildings were damaged in the northern part of the town -- four of which sustained significant damage. After impacting Wray, the storms continued moving southeastward and produced tornadoes through the Heartland. Overall, 11 tornadoes were reported on May 7, 2016, all of which were in Colorado. Reports of severe hail that day spanned into Kansas as the storms trekked eastward.
On May 3, 1999, an F5 tornado struck Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, where winds of over 300 mph were recorded by Doppler radar -- the highest wind speed ever recorded on Earth. Over 600 people were injured and 41 were killed as a result of the twister, which tracked into the Oklahoma City metro area. The damage was extreme with nearly 10,000 structures destroyed. At one point, asphalt was scoured from the ground by the tornado, and cars were twisted around debarked trees. This tornado was included in Reed Timmer's top 5 most memorable tornado chases.
A truck is wrapped around a debarked tree in the aftermath of the 1999 Bridge Creek Tornado.
The twister in Bridge Creek, Oklahoma was one of 70 tornadoes that day from northern Texas to Nebraska. Two F4 tornadoes hit north of Oklahoma City near Dover and Cimarron City. Farther north, another F4 twister moved through Haysville, Kansas into the city of Wichita, where six people lost their lives.
Severe weather continued for the next three days, spawning a total of 136 tornadoes in 19 states.
May 3-6, 1999 Tornado Outbreak
It's hard to believe in the modern era that a tropical cyclone could kill more than 138,000 people, but that's what happened 15 years ago this week when Cyclone Nargis roared ashore in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on May 2, 2008. Unofficial death tolls were as high as 146,000. In the 20th and 21st centuries, only two storms on the planet had higher fatalities.
Cyclone Nargis was a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, bringing 135-mph winds close to landfall. Its unusual track caused an unprecedented storm surge to rush inland on the low-lying Irrawaddy delta. The surge, reaching 12 feet as far as 25 miles from shore and extreme winds, obliterated 95 percent of homes on the delta. Myanmar's government was partly blamed for the large death toll, as few warnings or evacuations, and the government was slow to accept international aid. The storm traveled 100 miles into the low-lying delta before losing strength. Over 2 feet of rain fell near landfall, according to NASA.
Cyclone Nargis on May 1, 2008
One of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history unfolded from the Gulf Coast states through the Northeast from April 25 through April 28, 2011, an event later dubbed the 2011 Super Outbreak. In those four days, 360 tornadoes were confirmed from Texas to New York, resulting in 321 deaths, 252 of which occurred in Alabama.
This is an April 30, 2011 file photo of tornado damage in Tuscaloosa, Ala., following an April 27, 2011 tornado. Monday, July 18 is the final day to apply for federal aid from the tornadoes that ravaged Alabama this past spring. Officials say about 86,000 tornado survivors already have registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the time to apply by phone or over the Internet runs out at the end of the day. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
April 27 was the worst day of the outbreak, with four EF5 tornadoes touching down in the southern U.S.; however, one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes was an EF4. The Tuscaloosa-Birmingham tornado on April 27 was on the ground for 91 minutes, caused 60 fatalities and had peak winds of 190 mph. To be classified as an EF5 twister, winds must be at least 200 mph.
“For that kind of situation, you don’t recover in a year, you don’t recover in five years, and in some places people are still struggling today,” Alabama Broadcast Meteorologist James Spann told AccuWeather in 2019. Spann was live on air for severe weather coverage for 10 consecutive hours during the height of the outbreak. The 2011 Super Outbreak has been described as a “generational” event, meaning that a tornado outbreak of this magnitude only happens about once every 40 years. Similar outbreaks occurred in 1974 and 1932.
Spring is the season for weather whiplash. After high temperatures in the 80s just days before, snow fell over parts of the Northeast one year ago today, April 18-19, 2022. It piled up as high as 18 inches in Virgil, 15 miles northeast of Ithaca, and Bleecker, located in the Catskill Mountains. The combination of heavy snow and windy conditions led to more than 310,000 power outages across the Northeast.
Snow in State College, PA, on April 18, 2022
Many took to social media to express shock and dismay at having to witness so much snow at this point in April, more than halfway through the month after summerlike weather earlier in the week,
One person simply said, "Yuck."
At Penn State University’s campus, 3.3 inches of snow was measured, making it the latest in this season that 1 inch of snow has fallen since 1993. On early Tuesday morning, Binghamton, New York, reported 3 inches of snow in just one hour, an impressive hourly snowfall rate for a snowstorm regardless of the month. By Tuesday afternoon, Binghamton broke their daily and two-day April snow records.
After departing Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, for its maiden voyage to New York, the "unsinkable" RMS Titanic struck an iceberg just before midnight 111 years ago on April 14, 1912.
The RMS Titanic sank during its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912. The portentous disaster has since captured the imaginations of historians and underwater explorers worldwide. (File Photo courtesy of National Archives)
Although the weather didn't directly sink the ship, the cold weather may have produced more icebergs than expected that day, and a glassy ocean under a strong high pressure system could have hidden them from view at night. These possibilities are explored in an article I wrote last year.
Recently, three different photographs have been vying for the title of the iceberg that caused the greatest nautical disaster in history. Given that 15,000 icebergs threaten shipping each year, the odds are against any of them being the one that sank the "unsinkable" ship.
Less than a week apart in April 1998, violent tornadoes devastated two southern United States cities, killing dozens and debunking the myth that tornadoes can't occur in major cities. The disasters occurred years before the smartphone and social media era; tornado warnings could only be received via television, radio, and tornado sirens.
APRIL 10, 1998: Mike Johnson looks over what is left of Rock Creek, AL. home 10 April that was destroyed after a tornado ripped through the southeast US. At least 26 people were killed and some 150 homes were destroyed. (STEVEN R. SCHAEFER/AFP via Getty Images)
On April 8, 1998, three significant tornadoes struck central Alabama, including one F5 twister that damaged buildings on the outskirts of Birmingham. The F5 tornado tracked over 30 miles from Tuscaloosa County into Jefferson County, lifting from the ground just short of downtown high rises -- and the Birmingham airport.
Fatalities climbed in the days after the outbreak to 41, with 32 killed by the F5 tornado. It was the worst twister in Alabama since 1977 and would be the worst until the 2011 super tornado outbreak. Matthew Seals, who lost his 8-year-old son to the F5 in Oak Grove, Alabama, is now an advocate for wearing helmets when sheltering from a tornado.
FILE - In this April 19, 1998 file photo, Meg Evans, right, hugs Mary Lloyd Pearson after seeing the damage done to St. Ann's Episcopal Church by a tornado in Nashville, Tenn., Since its founding 150 years ago, the church has survived fires, tornadoes and urban decline. To mark the milestone, the church's yearlong celebration of its anniversary will be highlighted June 27 by the visit of presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori of The Episcopal Church.
Just one week later, tragedy struck the South again when more than a dozen tornadoes touched down in central Tennessee. An F3 twister tore through downtown Nashville. While that tornado grabbed the media spotlight, an F5 tornado also touched down in rural Wayne County, sweeping homes from their foundations and throwing a pickup truck the length of a football field.
In downtown Nashville, windows were blown out of buildings, construction cranes were toppled, and 35 buildings were declared structurally unsound after heavy damage. The tornado was the first F2 or higher strength to hit a city's downtown area in over 20 years, and, along with the Birmingham tornado just a week prior, helped debunk the myth that strong tornadoes cannot hit cities.
Easter is a bit of a holiday weather oddity due to its date shifting around so much (it can occur between March 22 and April 25). Snow and winter weather often dominate the Easter headlines because, more often than not, Easter Sunday is a warm reminder that spring is on the way. One example is Binghamton, New York, where 6.1 inches of snow was measured on April 7, 1996. Explore more Easter weather history in this article.
Apr 7,1996; Binghamton, NY: 6.1 inches of Easter snow
Spring is also severe weather season and one major event stands out in Easter weather history. A widespread and deadly tornado outbreak affected the southeastern United States on Easter Sunday and Monday, April 12–13, 2020. The outbreak spawned more than 141 tornadoes and killed more than 30 people.
Hurricane Ian was the storm that defined the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season with communities across Florida still grappling with the aftermath of one of the most catastrophic weather events in the United States last year.
Hurricane Ian just before landfall on Sept. 28, 2022.
On Monday, April 3, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) released its final analysis of Hurricane Ian. When reanalyzing data from the monstrous hurricane, meteorologists found that it was stronger than previously thought, propelling Ian into the upper echelon of hurricane intensity. Take a deeper look at the history in this AccuWeather article.
TIROS 1, the first weather satellite, became operational on April 1, 1960 and transmitted the first live satellite photo of the planet from space.
Weather History: Apr 1,1960: TIROS 1, the first weather satellite, became operational. (Artist's conception)
Although TIROS 1 was only active for 78 days, it began a decades-long stretch of satellite data collection that continually improved into the real-time satellite images we use today.
The first television satellite picture from space on Apr 1,1960.
The EF1 tornado in Los Angeles on March 23, 2023, was a rare event, but according to TornadoArchive.com, Los Angeles has a surprisingly rich tornado history, with a number of F2 twisters touching down in the region over the years. Recently, however, only one EF0 twister has been recorded near the downtown area since 2005. The last F2 was March 1, 1983, while the last EF1 was on Jan. 19, 2010.
Los Angeles Tornado History 1680-2021
Editor's Note: The Storm Prediction Center adopted the "EF" scale on Feb. 1, 2007. Tornadoes before that date were rated with the "F" scale.
Hundreds of tornadoes have been recorded throughout February, including 195 major tornadoes of F3-F5 strength across the United States since 1680. The most recent significant tornado outbreak was Feb. 5 to Feb. 7, 2020, when 37 tornadoes, including seven EF2s, moved through the South.
A plot of tornado tracks between Feb. 1 and 28 between 1680 and 2021
In 2008, the "Super Tuesday Outbreak" killed more than 60 people after dropping 86 tornadoes, including five devastating EF4s in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama. The most powerful twister in February occurred on Feb. 21, 1971, and is the only F5 tornado recorded in the U.S. in February. That twister ripped from northeastern Louisiana into Mississippi on a 109.2-mile track, killing 47 people and injuring more than 500.
The "Leap Day Tornado Outbreak" on Feb. 29, 2012, spawned 42 tornadoes across seven states, including an EF4 that struck Harrisburg, Illinois. That twister killed eight and injured over 100 people.
Editor's note: The Storm Prediction Center adopted the "EF" scale on Feb. 1, 2007. Tornadoes before that date were rated with the "F" scale.
