As a follow up to my last blog I thought I would write up a short summary of the most intense short-term rainfalls in U.S. records.
weatherhistorian, • 9:42 PM GMT on May 31, 2013
Exceptionally intense rainfalls have occurred in such diverse locations as Vermont, North Dakota, Iowa, and Texas over the course of the past week or so. Iowa has recorded its wettest spring on record, since 1872. Herein is a brief recap.
weatherhistorian, • 8:33 PM GMT on May 29, 2013
Heavy snow has fallen over the higher elevations (and valleys as well) this Memorial Day weekend in Upstate New York and New England. UPDATE: Whiteface Mountain in New York’s Adirondack Mountains (elev 4,867’) has reported an incredible 24-34” of snow since Friday and Greensboro, Vermont, located at just 904’ of elevation 4.5”. How unusual is this?
weatherhistorian, • 8:20 PM GMT on May 26, 2013
The recent catastrophic EF-5 tornado in Oklahoma has prompted me to revisit a blog I posted in April 2011 (ironically that blog was posted just two weeks prior to the deadly tornado outbreak on April 27-28 of that year). This blog updates the lists of all known F-5 and EF-5 tornadoes and other statistics concerning the deadliest tornadoes on record in U.S. and world history.
weatherhistorian, • 8:49 PM GMT on May 22, 2013
In spite of days that now feature as much as 19 hours of daylight in Fairbanks at this time, winter in Alaska has stubbornly dragged on into the 3rd week of May. April was the coldest such on record for Fairbanks and the city has yet to see a single day with above normal temperatures since April 2nd. Temperatures fell to -12°F (-24.4°C) in Deadhorse just yesterday (May 19th).
weatherhistorian, • 8:06 PM GMT on May 20, 2013
April was the coolest such since 1997 in the U.S. and since 1989 in the U.K. Flooding rains occurred in the north-central U.S. and in Argentina where 54 people died during a flash flood on April 2-3. Very heavy snowfalls occurred in South Dakota and Minnesota.
weatherhistorian, • 9:34 PM GMT on May 15, 2013
A strong surge of warm air is flowing into the central U.S. early this week dramatically rising temperatures from near record cold to near record heat at some locations. Meanwhile Alaska continues to be much colder than normal while Washington State much warmer than normal. Here is a brief review of the extremes.
weatherhistorian, • 10:30 PM GMT on May 13, 2013
A Mr. Cesar Ruelase of Chicago made a bit of a stir last week when he accused WGN TV’s weather man Tom Sullivan of being a “weather guesser” rather than a “meteorologist”, see his web site on the subject. Of course, Tom Sullivan, like most TV weather people, get much of the fundamental data used for their weather forecasts from the NWS (National Weather Service) local offices. Obviously, this was just an attention-grabbing stunt or joke on Mr. Ruelase’s part. But it made me think just which NWS offices in the U.S have the toughest job predicting the weather for their forecast areas? My top candidates for such are herein. I’m really sticking my neck out on this one!
weatherhistorian, • 9:00 PM GMT on May 08, 2013
One of the hottest places in the country yesterday (May 5th) was Quillayute (La Push), Washington located near the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington where a record 88° was reported. This smashed their previous daily record by 15° (73° in 1994) and made it warmer than even Death Valley, California where it was 87° on Sunday.
weatherhistorian, • 9:13 PM GMT on May 06, 2013
Big May snowstorms are not unusual for the Rocky Mountains and northwestern Plains, but they are unusual for the Midwest and unprecedented in the case of the event that has occurred over the past 3 days (May 1-3) from Arkansas to Minnesota. Here is a summary of the snow and cold that this region has just endured.
weatherhistorian, • 8:46 AM GMT on May 04, 2013
Most weather-minded people know that Death Valley, California and Vostok, Antarctica have measured the highest and lowest extreme temperatures on earth but what about the warmest and coldest inhabited places so far as average annual temperatures are concerned? Ace temperature detective Maximiliano Herrera has just finished researching this. Here are his findings.
weatherhistorian, • 10:07 PM GMT on May 01, 2013