As Hurricane Katrina intensified rapidly and reached Category Five status that fateful Sunday five years ago today, forecaster Robert Ricks at the National Weather Service in Slidell decided it was time to issue the dreaded catastrophic damage statement. Some thought it was a joke. Some thought it was overhyped. Many didn’t listen. It turned out [...]

The largest forest fire in American history burned three million acres in two days on August 20-21, 1910 across northern Idaho and western Montana. The Big Blowup, as it was called, was fanned by hurricane force winds that caused smoldering fires to turn into raging firestorms. It is the largest forest fire in the history [...]

NOUS44 KHUN 161545 RRB PNSHUN ALZ001>010-016-TNZ076-096-097-170000- PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HUNTSVILLE AL 1044 AM CDT THU AUG 16 2010 …TODAY IS THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE “DANNY” TORNADO OUTBREAK… ON AUGUST 16TH 1985…A RARE TORNADO OUTBREAK OCCURRED ACROSS THE CENTRAL TENNESSEE VALLEY ASSOCIATED WITH HURRICANE DANNY WHICH MADE LANDFALL NEAR LAKE CHARLES LOUISIANA [...]

Wendy Hancock from Moody was not around when these pictures were taken by her mom from their home in Gulfport, Mississippi after Hurricane Camille. But she shared them last night and I though they were priceless. She says: I Thought you might enjoy these! They are pictures that my mom took when they lived in [...]

On this date in 2007, Alabama was broiling in the midst of one of the state’s worst heat waves ever.  The mercury reached 105F at Birmingham, a record for the month of August.  It also marked the ninth consective day that the mercury had reached the century mark, which was also a new record.  The [...]

THIS INFORMATION IS HISTORICAL – NOT CURRENT. THERE ARE NO TROPICAL STORMS IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN AT THIS TIME. Early on the morning of Friday, August 15, 1969, Camille was located about 100 miles south of the western tip of Cuba. An ESSA (the predecessor to NOAA) reconnaissance flight found 90 knot surface winds in [...]

USGS Photo. Big Thompson Canyon Flood, Colorado. House precariously undercut by lateral scour on the Big Thompson River a quarter of a mile below Glen Comfort. The landslide on the right in the background was caused by undercutting. A house was carried away at that point. The river flows toward the observer. Photo by R.R. [...]

From NOAA…. South Dakota Storm Produces Record Hailstone NOAA’s National Climate Extremes Committee, responsible for validating national weather records, has declared a hailstone found last week in Vivian, S.D., to be the largest in diameter and heaviest ever recovered in the United States. Found after a July 23, 2010, severe thunderstorm by Vivian resident Les [...]

On Thursday, July 17, 1980, the Birmingham News carried the sad headlline that much beloved Auburn formed head football coach Shug Jordan had died. GOP Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan announced that George Bush would be his running mate in the 1980 Election. But an even bigger news story in Alabama was the heat. Over 100 [...]

When you think about Kansas and natural disasters, you naturally think about tornadoes, or droughts, or maybe blizzards. But did you know that the state’s worst natural disaster came from an epic 1951 flood? On the morning of Wednesday, July 11th, normally placid Kansas rivers were raging out of control after a night of all [...]