The USA is the fourth largest country, but we're nowhere near the equator nor poles. Why, then, do we hold so many world weather records? That photo above, incidentally, is a Montana thunderstorm from National Geographic. Atomic Bomb?
No, just another epic American storm.
We have had the most snowfall in a year (Mount Rainier, 102 feet), the largest snowflake (Fort Keogh, Montana, 15 inches in diameter...wow, but that was in 1887, so you wonder, but Guinness accepts this) and largest diameter hail (Vivian, South Dakota, 8 inches--however, it certainly looks like a ball of smaller hailstones to me). Holt, Missouri rained 12 inches in 42 minutes. However, Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean in 1952 rained 73.6 inches in one day! That's more than the annual Hawaii average.
There were 358 confirmed tornadoes in a 72 hour period in 2011 in six states. That Moore, Oklahoma tornado of 1999 reached 318 MPH, and absent any cyclone, Mount Washington, New Hampshire measured a one minute average speed of 253 MPH.
We have recorded the highest temperature (Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California in 1913, 134 F), the fastest temperature drop in 15 minutes (Rapid City, South Dakota , 49 F), and the fastest temperature rise (Spearfish, South Dakota in 1943, 49 F). At one time, 136 F in Libya, measured in 1922, was the highest, but the World Meteorological Organization discredited this high last year.
Then, there are phenomena where we thankfully don't hold the world record:
1. The lowest temperature in the U.S. occurred on 23January1971 in Alaska: minus 79.8 F. Vostok Station in Antarctica recorded minus 128.6 in 1983.
2. Sure we had Hurricane Katrina with 1833 deaths, but the tropical cyclone that struck Bhola (Bangladesh--photo to the left) in 1970 killed 300,000 to 500,000 people. It was only a Category 3. Super Typhoon Nina in 1975 over the West Pacific had 100,000 casualties, but the Haiphong typhoon of 1881 is said to have killed 300,000 in Vietnam. Our worst natural disaster fatalities were the 1900 hurricane of Galveston with 8,000 deaths and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake with 4500 killed. 9/11, terrorism-made, would rank #4 at 3,000 deaths. Thus, the U.S. has generally avoided mega-catastropheis.
3. A 1770 famine in India resulted in 10 million deaths, a 1931 flood in China might have killed 4 million and the 1556 earthquake in China experienced almost a million deaths. That recent 2010 earthquake in Haiti is #8 with 316,000 killed, while the 2004 Indonesia earthquake and tsunami rated #9 with up to 310,000 deaths.
4. Black Death (bubonic plague) during the mid 1300'a in Europe had 25 million deaths, World War 2 might have killed 70 million, and the 1918 flu pandemic could have been responsible for 100 million deaths. However, we're getting far away from extreme weather.
Interested in weather and climate? Click here for the top ten blogs dedicated to these topics. Got to at least show something from Hawaii suggesting that our future weather could get a lot worse:
As global climate change takes hold, look for hotter temperatures, more monstrous hurricanes and greater floods. Have a good day, anyway.
I might add that while the Dow did not do much today (down 13 to 15,295), the Japan Nikkei lost almost a thousand points:
However, today is already tomorrow in Japan, and for 24May13, the Nikkei bounced back more than 353 (14,837) points after the first hour at this posting. But the day is long, and the metastability is worrisome;
I might add that while the Dow did not do much today (down 13 to 15,295), the Japan Nikkei lost almost a thousand points:
However, today is already tomorrow in Japan, and for 24May13, the Nikkei bounced back more than 353 (14,837) points after the first hour at this posting. But the day is long, and the metastability is worrisome;
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