Category: Weather History

The North Sea Floods of 1953

30 January, 2010 (22:46) | Weather History | No comments

Over half of the Netherlands lies below sea level. Dikes have been built to protect large areas of land from the sea.
On this date in 1953, the Netherlands experienced its worst flood disaster in five centuries as a furious storm attacked the North Dutch Coast, with the greatest surge on record for the [...]

Birmingham’s Second Biggest Snow

29 January, 2010 (23:38) | Weather History | 3 comments

A swarm of tornadoes ripped across parts of Alabama on January 18, 1936. Four people died as an F2 tornado passed from near Fyffe to near Rainsville in DeKalb County, killing four people. Another twister touched down near Columbiana. One person died from a tornado in Dale County.
The activity was [...]

Oh No, Say it Isn’t So!

26 January, 2010 (20:22) | Records, Weather History | 1 comment

CONCORD, N.H. – First the Old Man, now the Big Wind. New Hampshire’s Mount Washington has lost its distinction as the site of the fastest wind gust ever recorded on Earth, officials at the Mount Washington Observatory said Tuesday.
The concession came three days after the World Meteorological Organization posted a snippet on its Web site [...]

The January Thaw

24 January, 2010 (23:17) | Weather History | 4 comments

The January thaw is a weather singularity.
A singularity is an event that occurs more often than one would expect with chance. The January thaw is a period of above normal warmth that frequently occurs in mid-Winter in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada. It is similar to Indian summer, another singularity [...]

The January 24, 1997 Tuscaloosa Tornado

24 January, 2010 (12:20) | Weather History | 2 comments

On the morning of Friday, January 24, 1997, a warm, relatively moist airmass covered Central Alabama. Temperatures were in the lower 60s early that winter morning. Dewpoints were right around 60F.
A warm front was over Louisiana, from near New Orleans to Shreveport. An 850 millibar low level jet was [...]

The Eldfell Volcano

22 January, 2010 (22:44) | Weather History | 2 comments

On January 23, 1973, the Eldfell Volcano on the erupted along a 1.5 mile fissure along the length of the island of Heimaey, Iceland, creating a spectacular curtain of fire.
As the volcano erupted, the island’s five thousand residents gathered to be rescued at the harbor of the town of Vestmannaeyjar. A [...]

Needed: Past Issues of Weatherwise Magazine

12 January, 2010 (14:04) | Weather History | 7 comments

For several years, I have been collecting Weatherwise magazine, the wonderful periodical started by my hero David Ludlum in 1948. I am down to needing just over 50 issues.
Perhaps you have some dusty copies in your attic, know a weather fan who might have some of these copies, or know of [...]

The Caledonia School Tornado of 2008

10 January, 2010 (07:00) | Weather History | 1 comment

A dynamic storm system produced an outbreak of 27 tornadoes from Kentucky to Louisiana on this date in 2008. Alabama and Mississippi experienced the highest number and most dramatic twisters.
A long lived supercell storm persisted for hours across Central Mississippi into Alabama. It produced several tornadoes. An EF3 tornado touched [...]

1995’s January Pacific Storms

3 January, 2010 (23:00) | Weather History | No comments

A series of strong Pacific storms began tracking into California shortly after the New Year began in 1995.
The storms brought at least several inches of precipitation to most of the state, and dumping one to twelve feet of snow on the highest elevations of the southern California coastal ranges, the Sierra Nevada, and the [...]

Alabama’s Top Weather Events of 2009

1 January, 2010 (23:23) | Weather History | 2 comments

Here is a list of Alabama weather events from 2009 that deserve consideration for the top ten list for the year. Vote for your top events by commenting below. You can even nominate an event that you feel deserves consideration.
…Brewton and South Alabama flooding on December 14th. Six to ten [...]