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10 Extreme Weather Instances in the US
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Great Snow of 1717
Four successive snowstorms-two of them minor, two of them of major proportions-fell within a ten-day interval, and left a snowfall estimated to be somewhere between three and four feet across much of New England. Many facilities were shut down for up to two weeks. -
The Year Without Summer
1816 has gone down in Almanac fame as the “poverty year,” and “eighteen hundred and froze-to-death.” It was comprised of a backward spring with record late snows (heavy snows fell in New England between June 6th and 11th), and an exceptionally cold summer featuring frosts in July and August. On July 4th, the high temperature at Savannah, Georgia, was only 46°F. Finally, there was a drought during early fall that culminated in a killing frost well before the end of September. -
The Saxby Gale of 1869
A powerful, tropical hurricane, moving northwest over the western Atlantic waters became a deep extra tropical depression–a sort of winter-type gale–as it passed over the colder waters of the North Atlantic. The eye of the storm made landfall on October 4th and 5th, in the area of the Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, border. The combination of this storm’s strong winds and excessive rainfall created one of the worst natural disasters for this part of the world. -
Blizzards of 1888
The first occurred from January 12th through the 14th, and was caused by a sharp cold front (a “blue norther”) that dropped rapidly south through the Dakotas to Wisconsin before finally sweeping across Texas, all within less than 36 hours. Temperatures dropped to -52°F. Over two hundred pioneers perished when caught abroad after a mild, sunny morning. Tens of thousands head of cattle and other livestock were killed. -
Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900
This hurricane is on the weather record books as the most lethal American hurricane. When the hurricane arrived on the fateful day of September 8th, its floodwater was able to rush unimpeded into the city. A hurricane tide inundated this island city with up to 15 feet of water; over 6,000 people lost their lives, a number three times greater than a similar deadly hurricane that had struck Louisiana seven years earlier; 3,600 houses were destroyed; and property damage was estimated at $30 million -
The Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925
This intense tornado adversely affected Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18th, creating what still remains today as the worst U.S. tornado disaster. It traveled along a path nearly 220 miles in length; one of the longest known paths for any tornado. It carved a path of total destruction that was almost a mile wide in some places. This one twister passed directly through nine towns, and killed 695 people, including 234 at Murphysboro, Illinois, and 126 at West Frankfort, Illinois. -
The Great Long Island/New England Hurricane of 1938
On September 21st, a full hurricane of unknown force was churning northward in the waters off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was expected to follow a normal path and gradually curve northeast away from land, and was thought to be moving at a normal speed. “Instead,” wrote David Ludlum, “it followed a congenial atmospheric trough of low pressure and accelerated from a normal 30 to 40 m.p.h. rate to a final dash toward land at a pace in excess of 60 m.p.h.” -
Hurricane Camille
This hurricane made landfall on the Mississippi coast on August 17th, and was later declared, “the severest storm . . . the most concentrated destructive power. . . of any hurricane ever to make a landfall on a built-up portion of the United States mainland.” Its central pressure upon landfall was measured at an astonishingly low 26.84. Hurricane winds reached 200 miles per hour, ranking it at 5 on the 15 Saffir-Simpson Scale. -
Superstorm '93
This storm was described by the National Weather Service as “One of the worst storms of the 20th century.” The onslaught took place during March 13th and 14th, and brought widespread, heavy snows, ranging from 17 inches as far south as Birmingham, Alabama, to 56 inches at Mount LeConte, Tennessee. To the south and east of the storm’s track, widespread severe weather occurred, with powerful thunderstorms and dozens of tornadoes across the Deep South. The total death toll on land was at least 270, -
Hurricane Katrina
It was the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The third-strongest hurricane on record that made landfall in the United States. It caused devastation along much of the north-central Gulf Coast. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system catastrophically failed, hours after the storm had moved inland. The text cap got hit, I can't add more.