This Date in Weather History

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Webinars to staff meetings. Clients calls and virtual coffees. Listen to Remarkably Remote for tips on hosting meetings of all varieties. Head to gotomeeting.com/tips and listen in on how to make remote work...work.May 22, 1933: The Dust Bowl was one of the greatest natural disasters to ever befall the United States, it devastated the Great Plains states in the 1930s. It is considered the worst drought to impact North America in 1,000 years. Unsustainable farming practices worsened the drought’s effect, killing the tall grasses that kept the soil in place. When winds blew, they raised enormous clouds of dust. It deposited mounds of dirt on everything, even covering houses. Dust suffocated livestock and caused pneumonia in children. Huge billowing clouds and dust were raised as dry storms ravaged the region. Some of the dust and dirt travelled thousands of miles blackening skies as far away as New York City and Boston. These so call Black Blizzards were usually caused by powerful storms that blew through the region. Most of any rain or snow associated with the storms fell far to the south along the gulf coast or spent is self over the Rockies. Occasionally though, a strong enough system would spawn a squall line of thunderstorms. Because strong winds usually raised clouds and dust ahead of the weather systems, the sky not visible. On one such occasion on May 22, 1933 a line of severe thunderstorms blew through Liberal, Kansas. Tornados were imbedded in the storm’s clouds but those in its path were not aware and caught by surprise. In today’s time – warnings would have been issued because of current technology like radar, even if there were dust clouds. But no such early warning system existed then and a powerful tornado hidden in the total darkness of the dust storm moved into the town. The tornado was 600 yards wide at times. The business district of Liberal was devastated. 44 buildings and 165 homes were obliterated. 4 people were killed and 150 hurt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Worried about conference crashers and your meeting security? Listen in to Remarkably Remote on ways to stay safe online. Head to gotomeeting.com/tips or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.May 21, 1957: The May 1957 Central Plains tornado outbreak took place across the US Central Plains from May 19 to May 21, 1957. An F5 tornado, the strongest on the tornado intensity scale, on May 21 was the most significant in the outbreak and is known as the the Ruskin Heights Tornado where the area as the worst of the damage occurred, a suburb and housing development south of Kansas City. 57 tornadoes were reported from Colorado to the Mississippi Valley and 59 people were killed during the outbreak. But in the Kansas City area and specifically Ruskin Heights the impact was devastating. The Kansas City Star reported in its story from the next day that “At least 31 persons were reported killed, at least 200 persons were injured and many were made homeless by a tornado which struck the southern part of the metropolitan area shortly after 7pm. Everywhere there were scenes of jumbled debris, death and chaos as rescue workers struggled in the darkness to rescue the injured and maintain some semblance of emergency aid. Observers at the disaster scene in Ruskin Heights said there could be no count of the number killed, missing or injured until daylight. Rescue workers had only flashlights and motor car lights to search through the wreckage. With roads blocked with debris and cars, workers were doing well to get ambulances out of the disaster area. Glenn Rapp, director of the American Red Cross disaster unit in Jackson County, said hospitals in the metropolitan area had reported more than 200 injured, and efforts were being made to compile the names as rapidly as possible. Witnesses told of cowering in what shelter they could find as the winds ripped away houses and buildings. Cars were piled in tangled masses of metal in streets, in parking lots and in used car lots.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Looking for a few pointers on keeping you and your team motivated? Head to gotomeeting.com/tips or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.May 20, 1916, 1917 and 1918: Tornadoes are a weather reality that millions of Americans have learned to live with. Those living in the Midwest and Southeast regions of the United States have come to expect at least a few twisters every year. Depending on the intensity, the path, tornadoes result in varying degrees of damage, and sometimes, most tragically, even in death. According to statistics from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration the odds of being killed in a tornado in a given year are 1 in 5,693,092. Only 2% of tornadoes result in the loss of human life. 1 in 1,000 tornadoes documented in the United States are the strongest level, Category 5 tornadoes. While the combined totals of EF4 and EF5 tornadoes make up less than 1% of all tornadoes, together they contribute nearly 70% of all of the deaths caused by tornadoes. Odds focusing on a particular location getting hit by a tornado more than once are hard to come by. Some would argue that the odds never change, that’s it like flipping a coin and each separate weather situation presents the same odds. But don’t talk to the folks in Cordell, Kansas about tornado odds. For 3 consecutive years on May 20, 1916, May 20 1917 and May 20 1918 incredibly a tornado struck the town. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Wondering if your virtual hosting skills are up to par or if eating lunch on a call is ok? Then check out Remarkably Remote on your favorite podcasting platform or head to gotomeeting.com/tips for more.May 19, 2007: Extreme heat can be rather uncomfortable. But what actually happens to the human body as the mercury rises? On humid days, when the air is already saturated with water, sweat evaporates more slowly. This explains why it feels so much hotter in high humidity. When relative humidity reaches a high enough level, the body's natural cooling system simply can't work. Sweat evaporates very slowly, if at all, and the body heats up. According to the Mayo Clinic, the most serious level of this breakdown is heat stroke, and it occurs when the body’s temperature reaches an excess of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. During heat stroke, body functions grind to a halt, the brain shuts down the body’s natural coolant system, perspiration. Without sweat, the body can no longer keep its temperature in check, heat stroke causes the brain to swell, leading to headaches and even seizures in more extreme cases. Victims also experience an altered level of consciousness. The cardiovascular system is affected as well. Heat stroke causes blood pressure to drop and the heart to beat faster and more irregularly, heightening the risk for high-output cardiac failure. Heat-related deaths are one of the deadliest weather-related health outcomes in the world, in the United State an average of 658 people a year die due to extreme heat. AccuWeather’s patented Realfeel temperature is a measure that combines the effect of temperature, humidity and other factors. On May 19, 2007 in Pakistan Severe heat and humidity created deadly RealFeel temperatures. In Sibi, northwest Pakistan, the temperature reached 115 degrees with a dew point of 90; the RealFeel was 150 degrees, one of the highest ever recorded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Working from home for the very first time and wondering how to cope? We’ve got you covered! Remarkably Remote will help you bring organization to your work — and sanity to your day! Head to gotomeeting.com/tips or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.May 18, 1894: Ever since people have traveled the Great Lakes storms have sunk ships and taken lives. In fact, the very first recorded sailing vessel on the upper lakes, was lost in 1679. Since that time, massive and historical storms have swept the lakes, most numerous in the month of November. With the coming of modern technology and stronger vessels, fewer such losses have occurred. The large surfact of the lakes allows waves to build to giant heights and the open. Strong winds can cause storm surges that lower lake levels several feet on one side while raising it even higher on the other. The shallowest lake, Lake Erie, sometimes sees storm surge rises of 8 or 10 feet. On May 18, 1894 one such storm and wind event struck the Lakes. On lake Michigan off of Chicago 9 vessels were sunk with an uncounted loss of life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Working from home for the very first time and wondering how to cope? We’ve got you covered! Remarkably Remote will help you bring organization to your work — and sanity to your day! Head to gotomeeting.com/tips or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.May 17, 1814: The state of Maine is known for many things, including of the longest running industries in North America, dating back until the early 1600s is logging. The British Royal Navy quickly claimed the best stands of light and strong Eastern White Pine for the masts, spars, and planking for their fast and maneuverable ships. England's competitors, the French, the Dutch, and the Spanish, were left to build from the heavier Baltic Fir. It was Revolutionary War debt which boosted the first harvests. To raise money, Massachusetts sold land to the District of Maine Logging operations grew in proportion to the national demand for lumber products, which grew in proportion to the expansion of the nation itself over the 19th and well into the 20th centuries. The industry became extensive and complex entailing surveyors to identify likely stands of trees, lumbermen to cut timber, teamsters and their draft animals to haul logs, scalers to measure the timber's worth, and river drivers to float logs to the mills. Most trees were felled in the late fall and winter and then floated downstream on Maines rivers to ports at the coast. These golden rivers as they were called because of their color appearance because of the logs and the money the wood would represent on delivery were covered from bank to bank with floating timber. Most of the time they were controlled by crews working the river. But as they floated downstream in the spring they would sometimes get loose and out of control. The result could be and often times was disaster as the timber acted like a battering ram destroying anything in its path. On May 17, 1814 after a soggy April and early May the rivers were all swollen and the logs did their work wiping out anything in their path, destroying bridges and docks and any structures near the shore. It would take years to recover. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Having trouble adjusting to your new remote work routine? In just a few minutes we’ll help you make working from home, work for you. Available on all podcasting platforms or head to gotomeeting.com/tips for more.May 16, 1874: In 1865, a group of mill owners from the Northampton area of Massachusetts constructed a dam on the Mill River north of the town of Williamsburg, it was constructed by using a design drawn by one of the owners, a man with no training in engineering. The dam was poorly constructed and leaked as soon as it was filled, still it was in place for 9 years. But on May 16, 1874 after several days of heavy rain, the dam completely failed. Almost all off of the water held behind the earthen dam burst out like a wall of water. 139 people died in the towns downstream to the south. The flood destroyed much of the villages of Williamsburg, Skinnerville and Northampton itself. Even though so many died, the death toll might had been much higher, but the dam keeper George Cheney, rode his horse at a gallop to Williamsburg to raise the alarm as the dam began to fail. Other riders took off from Williamsburg and were able to warn residents in towns to the south. Despite an inquest and the negligence of the mill owners, no one was punished for the disaster. Even today, people still visit the site of the tragedy by hiking on a public trail to the former site of the Williamsburg Reservoir. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Webinars to staff meetings. Clients calls and virtual coffees. Listen to Remarkably Remote for tips on hosting meetings of all varieties. Head to gotomeeting.com/tips and listen in on how to make remote work...work.1968: During the late afternoon and early evening of May 15, 1968, five tornadoes, two F1s, one F2, and two F5s occurred in Iowa. These tornadoes were part of the May 15-16, 1968 outbreak with a total of 39 tornadoes which affected ten states; Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee. The tornadoes in Iowa caused 18 fatalities and 619 injuries of which450 in Charles City alone. The huge tornado, approximately a half mile wide passed directly through Charles City from south to north. The tornado destroyed, 372 homes and 58 businesses, 188 homes and 90 businesses sustained major damage, and 356 homes and 46 businesses sustained minor damage. Eight churches, 3 schools were damaged or destroyed, the police station was heavily damaged, and 1,250 vehicles were destroyed. About 60 percent of the city was damaged by the tornado. The, Iowa Governor requested federal assistance to repair damage to public facilities resulting from the and on May 29, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the state of Iowa as a disaster area. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Worried about conference crashers and your meeting security? Listen in to Remarkably Remote on ways to stay safe online. Head to gotomeeting.com/tips or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.1834: Late season snowstorms, like those in the autumn can cause havoc in a different way than those in the dead of winter. Many trees in both seasons are in full or partial leaf, as are bushes and other shrubby. In the middle of winter snow’s greatest impact is on the inability to travel due to impassible roads or severe drifting that blocks doorways and even makes walking difficult. In the fall and spring, because of more sunlight it is hard for the snow to accumulate on the warmer streets and sidewalks that usually isn’t much of a problem. The bigger issue is falling tree limbs caused by the weight of the snow on those limbs as the snow plasters itself on all those leaves. In modern times those limbs not only are hazardous to those that might be walking underneath them but they also take down powerlines. It is a rare storm in the late spring that combines both. This usually happens when the snow falls so hard and fast it piles up on everything. One such a storm happened on May 14, 1834. A Northeast coastal storm spread snow from Ohio to New England. 6" fell at Erie, 10" at Bradford, 4" at Rochester, 12" at Burlington, VT. Marshfield, in Washington County northeast of Montpelier, picked up more than 2 feet and Haverhill, NH had 36" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Looking for a few pointers on keeping you and your team motivated? Head to gotomeeting.com/tips or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.1930: Hailstorms are notorious for inflicting costly damage upon property and crops every year in the United States. Annually, the destruction from these frozen rain pellets that travel dozens of miles per hour through the atmosphere results in $1 billion in damage, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration – NOAA. Hail also poses a safety threat to both humans and animals. NOAA estimates that 24 people in the U.S. are injured each year, with some injuries significant enough to land them in the hospital. In May , 1995, severe storms brewing over the Dallas-Fort Worth metro-plex in Texas produced damaging winds, heavy rain and extremely large hail. The storms, which remain some of the costliest in history, also impacted an outdoor festival called Mayfest, where over 10,000 people were caught out in the open with little to no shelter from the hail. More than 400 people were hurt after being pelted with hail up to the size of a softball. Although no one was killed, about 60 people were seriously injured. “What injuries we do see are to people who are out in the open, like farmers, golfers, landscapers – anyone that’s doing outside work that doesn’t have any means to find shelter right away in a storm,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski. However, how likely is it that a hailstorm can actually kill you? The odds are low, but it can happen, experts say. The World Meteorological Organization reported that the highest mortality associated with a hailstorm happened in India, on April 30, 1888. The deadly storm killed 246 people with pieces of hail as large as “goose eggs, oranges and cricket balls.” In the U.S., hailstorms resulting in loss of human life are quite rare. “Hail has to be really large to cause serious injury to people, or even death,” Kottlowski said. But on May 13, 1930 one of the few deaths by hail in the US. 36 miles NW of Lubbock, TX a farmer was caught in an open field and he died from his hail caused injuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brought to you by Remarkably Remote, a microcast from GoToMeeting. Wondering if your virtual hosting skills are up to par or if eating lunch on a call is ok? Then check out Remarkably Remote on your favorite podcasting platform or head to gotomeeting.com/tips for more.1934: Newspapers and radio stations East of the Mississippi on the morning of May 12, 1934 carried ominous messages and headlines of a thickening black cloud of chocking dust and dirt moving out of the Great Plains states. The cloud would envelope the Mid-west and then Eastern states on May 12, turning mid-day sunlight into an eerie darkness, that seemed like night in many major cities. What happened? Actually, the causes can be traced back decades. Favorable weather conditions in the from 1900 to the 1920s with significant rainfall and relatively moderate winters, encouraged increased population and farming in the Great Plains. But the region entered an unusually dry period in the summer of 1930. During the next decade, the Northern Plains suffered four of their driest years in almost 100 years. When this severe drought hit the Great Plains region in the 1930s, it resulted in erosion and loss of topsoil because of farming practices at the time. The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became reduced to a powdery consistency. Native high grasses that held the soil in place had been plowed under to make room for expanding crop lands, so when high winds that occur on the plains picked up the topsoil massive dust clouds and dust storms occurred, giving rise to the term Dust Bowl. The continuous dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion. The fine soil of the Great Plains was easily picked up and carried east by strong winds. In November 1933, a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of severe dust storms that year. But beginning on May 9, 1934, a strong, several days dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plans soil in one perhaps the worst storm of the Dust Bowl. The dust clouds first blew all the way to Chicago, where they deposited 12 million pounds of dust. By May 12, 1934, the same storm reached cities to the east, such as Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, New York City and Washington, D. C. turning day to night and chocking millions of people as dirt all the way from the plains states was deposited more than 1000 miles away on the streets and in the homes of major cities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2003: The first week of May in 2003 had one of the worst tornado outbreaks on record in the United States reports indicate that 384 tornadoes occurred in 25 states, causing 42 deaths with at least 23 tornadoes on each day. Hardest hit were Missouri, where tornadoes occurred on 6 of the 7 days and 19 died; and Tennessee, where tornadoes occurred on 5 days and 11 died during the week-long outbreak that ended on May 11, 2003. The outbreak was so important that an entire paper was published on it in the American Meteorological Society magazine. There were also an incredible 723 wind reports and 1,782 hail reports that week! Oklahoma City suffered multiple twisters... from the National Weather Service report: "One day after and F4 tornado struct the southern Oklahoma City metropolitan area on May 8, 2003, a single supercell thunderstorm produced ten tornadoes in central Oklahoma, including one F3 and three F1 tornadoes in the northern Oklahoma City metropolitan area." A total of six F4 tornadoes struck during the week, including one around Kansas City and another near Memphis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1889: May of 1889 was particularly warm and humid across the eastern United States. The jet-stream that steers weather system had lifted far north into Canada and air from the steam Gulf of Mexico has surged northward into the void. By May 9th chilly weather has re-established itself across the mid-west and was heading eastward as the jet stream dipped southward to push the chilly weather along. As the cold front marking the leading edge of the change moved into the east on the afternoon of May 10, 1889 a rash of violent thunderstorms erupted and brought extensive damage to a corridor in Pennsylvania through Williamsport, Shamokin, Pottsville, Reading, Pottstown, Philadelphia and to Atlantic City, New Jersey. A tornado cut a large swath through Berks County, including the city of Reading, which was the second twister to cut through the city that year. The damage was very extensive and at least of par with that of major midwestern tornadoes. Dozens narrowly escaped death. Visibility lowered to less than 10 feet at times in blinding, wind-driven rain. Temperatures reached the mid to upper 90's before the storm hit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1977: One of the most powerful May snowstorms to strike the Northeast hit on May 9, 1977. 13" fell at Gardiner, MA; 12.7" at Worchester, MA; 1/2 million people lost power. Officially 1/2" in Boston, but thunderstorms with snow in the suburbs dumped 10" in the Wellesley area. A foot of snow fell at Foster, RI. Bare grass did not reappear in Wellesley, MA until the afternoon of the 11th and it was the heaviest snow of the entire winter there...all the plows were activated although in many cases the plows had already been removed for the season from the trucks...schools were closed in the western suburbs it was the latest school "snow day" ever...because of the convective nature of the storm, like hit and miss thunderstorms in the summer, some weird local variations occurred...with one town getting almost a foot of snow while just 5 miles away only a couple of inches fell. Vivid lightning accompanied the snowfall in many communities. Slide Mountain, NY had 27". Heavy snow also covered parts of New York. Cooperstown picked up 12.7" and in Connecticut 20" fell at Norfolk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1360: The Hundred Years War between England and France began in 1337; by 1359, King Edward III of England led a huge army across the English Channel to France. The French did not engage in any pitched battles and mainly stayed behind protective walls of towns and cities. Meanwhile Edward conquered the countryside. In April 1360, Edward’s forces reached the Paris suburbs and began to move toward Chartres and its famous cathedral. While they were camped outside the town, now a suburb of Paris, in early May, a sudden storm hit. Lightning struck, killing a number of people, then large hailstones began falling hitting the soldiers. Two of the English generals were killed and panic set in among the troops, who had no shelter from the storm. Heavy losses were suffered by the English with more than 1000 estimated dead in the stampede caused by the storm. Some said it was a sign from God. King Edward of England was convinced to negotiate peace with the French. On May 8, 1360, a treaty was signed, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Edward agreed to renounce all claims to the throne of France. The hail storm and thunderstorms that caused it were a direct line the signing of the treaty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1840: Natchez, Mississippi was a bustling and booming river town along the Mississippi River in 1840, 20 years after Mississippi joined the union and 20 years before the Civil War. But on May 7, 1840 the second deadliest tornado in U S history struck the city. A large and powerful tornado went right through the center of town, flattening most of the buildings. But even worse was the damage on the Mississippi River, which was filled with boats, including 120 flatboats and steam boats. Many bodies were never found. The powerful tornado wrecked many boats at the Natchez Landing in Mississippi as well and then plowed through the city. The tornado killed 317 people and injured 109 others. The only storm on record this destructive to kill more than it injured. The storm is still as of May 7, 2020, the second deadliest tornado on record. The actual death toll could be higher as enslaved persons were not counted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1937: The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers on May 6, 1937. After opening its 1937 season by completing a single round-trip passage to, Brazil, in late March, the Hindenburg departed from, Germany, on the evening of May 3, on the first of 10 planned round trips between Europe and the United States that were scheduled for its second year of commercial service. Except for strong headwinds that slowed its progress, the Atlantic crossing of the Hindenburg was otherwise uneventful. Although carrying only half its full capacity of passengers and crew for the flight, the Hindenburg was fully booked for its return flight. The airship was hours behind schedule when it passed over Boston on the morning of May 6, and its landing at Lakehurst was expected to be further delayed because of afternoon thunderstorms. Advised of the poor weather conditions at Lakehurst, the Captain charted a course over New York City, causing a public spectacle as people rushed out into the street to catch sight of the airship. After finally being notified at 6:22 p.m. that the storms had passed, the airship headed back to Lakehurst to make its landing almost half a day late. At the time of the disaster, sabotage was commonly put forward as the cause of the fire, but in order to make up for the delay of more than 12 hours in its transatlantic flight, the Hindenburg passed through thunderstorms with high humidity and high electrical charge. Although the mooring lines were not wet when they first hit the ground and ignition took place four minutes after, it was theorized that the lines may have become wet in these four minutes. When the ropes, which were connected to the frame, became wet, they would have grounded the frame but not the skin. This would have caused a sudden potential difference between skin and frame and would have set off an electrical discharge – a spark. Seeking the quickest way to ground, the spark would have jumped from the skin onto the metal framework, igniting the leaking hydrogen, causing the explosion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode brought to you by "Remarkably Remote" a new daily microcast from the experts at GoToMeeting. All about making work from home work for you. Add to your Flash Briefing on Alexa or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. Listen at GoToMeeting.com/tips1761: The office of the Town Clerk is the repository for the maintenance and safekeeping of records for the Town of Ashford, Conn. The Town reports that housed in the fire-proof vault or in the office of the Town Clerk are all land records, Town Meeting minutes, Town Ordinances, birth/marriage/civil union/death records, land surveys, election records, trade names, liquor permits, contracts, town reports, veterans discharge filings, Town board/commission/agency agendas and minutes, listings of Notaries Public, Justices of the Peace, election records, and other historical documents. In addition to maintaining records, the Town Clerk’s Office is the place to go for absentee ballots, copies of vital records, dog licenses, marriage licenses, voter registration forms. The Town of Ashford is not unique to New England, for centuries the Town Clerks at these hamlets great and small have dutifully recorded, not just those official papers I reported on, but other significant events. They have told the story of America, it so happens that on May 5, 1761, Ebeneser Byles, Town Clerk of Ashford reported that 5" of snow fell and that it was. And I quote from his official record "A very stormy day of snow, an awful sight, the trees green and the ground white. The 6th day the trees in a blow and the fields covered with snow" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode brought to you by "Remarkably Remote" a new daily microcast from the experts at GoToMeeting. All about making work from home work for you. Add to your Flash Briefing on Alexa or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. Listen at GoToMeeting.com/tips1774: The neighborhood of Germantown in Philadelphia sits at a higher elevation than most of the rest of the city. From 250-300 feet above sea level the temperature can average a degree or two colder than the rest of the city. During weather situations that are borderline between rain and snow, often times much of the City of Philadelphia will have a slushy mixture of rain and snow, while only wet snow falls in Germantown and its adjacent elevated neighborhood of Chestnut Hill; sometimes depositing a couple inches of snow. On May 4, 1774 Germantown was a not part of the City of Philadelphia yet, it was a prosperous town of hundreds living in long established stone houses. Germantown was founded in 1683 and awaited its fate as the location of one of the most important battles of the Revolutionary War in 1777. On May 4, 1774 as a strong storm surged up the Atlantic seaboard temperatures held just near freezing, and while rain fell in the City of Philadelphia below 4” of heavy wet snow blanketed Germantown in one of the latest snowfalls on record in the region, before or since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode brought to you by "Remarkably Remote" a new daily microcast from the experts at GoToMeeting. All about making work from home work for you. Add to your Flash Briefing on Alexa or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. Listen at GoToMeeting.com/tips1978: Most of New Orleans, Louisiana is below the flowing water level of the Mississippi River, that also means that the city is below sea level and so both the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain surfaces are also above the ground level of the city. Because of that, the city does not have a natural drainage for rainwater, so pumps are required to remove rainwater from the region. On May 3, 1978 the pumping drainage system had been in operation since 1900. That system was designed to handle one inch of rain per hour for the first three hours, and one-half inch per hour thereafter. Any rainfall in excess of this limit resulted in drainage slowdown and flooding, often times during extensive thunderstorm cloudbursts or tropical systems and Hurricanes the capacity to pump out the water simply was not effective. May 3, 1978 was proclaimed 'Sun Day.' All across the United States, celebrations were planned to pay tribute to the power and potential of solar energy. No celebration occurred in New Orleans, the sun was not visible all day, in fact heavy rains fell most of the day. Almost 11” of rain fell, more and 8” of that from 8am until noon. It was more than the drainage system could handle, actually more than twice its capacity. There was severe property damage, as much of the city sat in more than 5 feet of water as a result of the heavy rains and the failure of the pumping system. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode brought to you by "Remarkably Remote" a new daily microcast from the experts at GoToMeeting. All about making work from home work for you. Add to your Flash Briefing on Alexa or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. Listen at GoToMeeting.com/tips2009: Twelve people were hospitalized Saturday May 2, 2009 after the roof of the Dallas Cowboys' indoor practice facility in Frisco, Texas collapsed during a thunderstorm. The giant blue star atop the building lay crumpled on the ground. The storm knocked out power at team headquarters and splintered trees across the property. The roof was a large air- and tension-supported canopy with aluminum frames covering a regulation 100-yard football field. Approximately 70 players, coaches, staff and media were reported inside. Some of the injuries were serious, authorities said, but none were considered life-threatening. Based on the national standards for determining loads and for designing structural steel buildings, the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology researchers studying the Cowboys facility found that the May 2 wind load demands on the building's framework—a series of identical, rib-like steel frames supporting a tensioned fabric covering—were greater than the capacity of the frame to resist those loads. The researchers determined that, at the time of collapse, the wind was blowing predominantly from west to east, perpendicular to the long side of the building. Maximum wind speed gusts at the time of collapse were estimated to be in the range of 55 to 65 miles per hour—well below the design wind speed of 90 miles per hour in the national standard for wind loads. The NIST report recommended building owners, operators and designers inspect all fabric-covered, steel-frame structures, evaluating them to ensure they are designed to handle appropriate wind loads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1854: The winter of 1853-1854 had been a particularly snowy one across the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. Not record breaking, but it was a cold winter and the snows that fell during the winter months didn’t melt much. The cold lingered into April and so did the snow on the ground. The weather pattern broke as the month ended, winds in the high atmosphere turned from the northwest to out of the south and ushered in warm air that had been building across the Gulf states in the early spring. At the same time copious volumes of moisture were carried along in the current of air from the Gulf of Mexico and the result was an unceasing rain that developed all across New England. Along with a soaking rain and soaring temperatures cloudbursts imbedded in thunderstorms brought hour after hour of rain. By the time the rain ended on May 1, 1854 it had been raining for 90 consecutive hours. Rainfall totaled more than 5” in Worcester, Mass and more than 7 ½ inches in Southwick, Mass, a general 3-5” rainfall fell from Philadelphia all the way to Maine. The rain coupled with the warm snow melting temperatures produced record flooding all across New England. The greatest crest on the Connecticut River was at Hartford where the river reached almost 29’ above flood stage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1887: The Huang He or Yellow River is one of the longest rivers in China, at 3,398 mi, it loops northward from the mountains in western China, then flows east, each year bringing 1.6 billion tons of fine-grained silt from the mountains to the huge flat basin of the north China plains. That rich laden dirt and silt makes the region one of the most fertile in the world, it is China’s breadbasket. The silt nourishes and replenishes the land. The Yellow River gets its name from its rich, fine-ground, golden mud. Unfortunately for the farmers, the only way the river can spread its fertilization is by flooding the fields; and the Yellow River has flooded a recorded 1,593 times in four thousand years, with catastrophic effects. The worst flooding occurred in 1887. For decades leading up to 1887 dikes and embankments had been built along the river to control its flooding and provide irrigation for crops. In some places, because of those levees, the river was flowing more than 20 feet higher than the surrounding countryside – a breech in the system was all that was needed for disaster. An usually snowy winter and a wet mild spring led to massive snowmelt in the mountains and heavy rains contributed more water. On April 30, 1887 the first of several massive floods erupted as the river could no longer be contained. Flooding continued off and on all summer. The flooding led to the greatest weather disaster in human history. More than 900,000 perished in the initial rounds of flooding close to the river with another estimated 1.3 million drowned from flooding away from the river as the floodwaters spread out all across northern China. A further estimated three to four million died from flood-related, waterborne diseases, with a thick deposit of muddy silt 8 ft deep, the most fertile fields in China were a desert which had to be cleared by bare hands and wheelbarrows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1991: On April 22, 1991 an area of tropical thunderstorms began to organize in the Bay of Bengal it would grow to become one of the deadliest tropical cyclones ever recorded. The storm hit, one of the most populated areas in Bangladesh. An estimated 200,000 people were killed by the storm, as many as 10 million people lost their homes, and overall property damage was in the billions of dollars. One the weather system organized it began moving north. By April 24 the storm was designated Tropical Storm 02B, and by April 28 it was a tropical cyclone, or as they are known in the western hemisphere, a hurricane. One day later on April 29 the storm hit, with winds of up to 150 miles per hour. The damage was immediate, as a storm surge as high as 15 feet)engulfed the flat, coastal plans of southeastern Bangladesh. The surge washed away entire villages and swamped farms, destroying crops and spreading fears of widespread hunger as well as economic woes. As a result of a 1970 storm, a few storm shelters had been built. Though in 1991 some were saved by the shelters, many people had doubted warnings of the storm. Since the 1991 storm, the Bangladesh government has built thousands of elevated shelters in coastal areas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1992: A hailstone begins as a water droplet that is swept up by an updraft inside of a thundercloud. Inside the cloud, there are a large number of other supercooled water droplets already present. These supercooled particles will adhere to the water droplet’s surface, forming layers of ice around it. The size the hailstone reaches depends on the amount of time it spends surrounded by supercooled water droplets, but eventually gravity causes the stone to fall to the Earth. As gravity takes over, they will fall to Earth at approximately 106 miles per hour. The exact velocity each stone falls at will vary depending on several conditions, such as weight, air friction and collisions with other suspended objects. The evening of April 28, 1992, brought with it one of the most devastating hailstorms of all time, pummeling two areas approximately 100 miles apart. For nearly five hours, residents between Waco to Fort Worth braced as hailstones the size of grapefruits 4.5 in. diameter smashed windows and decimated roofs. The worst damage was reported across Ellis, Dallas, and Tarrant counties. More than 600 pets and wild animals were killed. Damage was estimated at $750Million or almost $1.5Billion in 2020 dollars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2004: Santa Ana Winds occur when air from an area of high pressure over the dry, desert region of the southwestern U.S. flows westward in its clockwise circulation towards the California coast. This creates dry winds that flow east to west through the mountain passages in Southern California. These winds are most common during the cooler months of the year, occurring from September through May. Santa Ana winds typically feel warm or even hot because as the cool desert air moves down the side of the mountain, it is compressed, which causes the temperature of the air to rise at the rate of more than 5 degrees for every thousand feet in descends. These strong winds can cause major property damage. They also increase wildfire risk because of the dryness of the winds and the speed at which they can spread a flame across the landscape. The winds can produce uncommon heat. On April 27, 2004 a strong Santa Ana developed causing temperatures to soar all across Southern Calif smashing record by more than 10 degrees in some places. Ontario, near Los Angles reach 100 degrees breaking the old record of 90, Riverside reached 101, the mercury at the beaches reached closed to 90. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1986: The Chernobyl, Russia nuclear disaster was the worst nuclear disaster in history and occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Plant. A catastrophic eruption ripped through the power plant on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive particles into the sky. The deadly blast was caused by the explosion of the RBMK reactor 4, a result of human error and equipment faults. More than 50,000 people from the nearby town of Pripyat were evacuated following the blast. But plumes of deadly radioactive matter were sent high into the atmosphere as the uranium core lay exposed in the days that followed. The particles were swept across Europe by winds. Officials in Sweden 683 miles away were alerted of radiation levels within their atmosphere within 48 hours of the explosion. Soviet authorities initially denied the claims anything happened but were forced to reveal the mistake as the scale of the accident unfolded. The initial impacted areas were Ukraine, Belarus and West Russia, with some areas contaminated indefinitely and are still wastelands. The World Nuclear Association said: “Most of the released material was deposited close by as dust and debris, but the lighter material was carried by wind over Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and to some extent over Scandinavia and Europe. ”The weather was a big factor as rains and snow were responsible for bringing radiation down to the ground, where it would penetrate into the Earth. The World Health Organization says an estimated 7,722 square miles of land in Europe was affected by radiation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1993: Most lightning strikes occur from cloud to cloud – but about 20% go from clouds to the ground. Lightning striking the ground has caused problems with pipes and water supplies.. Some people have also experienced cloudy or discolored water after a lightning storm. Due to the strike, the vibration into the earth can shake the well causing any built-up minerals to fall into the water supply. When lightning strikes near a home or other structure, sending electricity shooting through the ground, the electricity, which prefers to flow through metal rather than dirt, seeks out any buried copper pipes or the home's ground rod. Building codes require the metal grounding rod to be connected to a home's wiring and pipes. Electricity moves through the pipes until it hits a dead end, such as when the copper pipe meets a plastic service line or some other nonmetallic fitting. Lightning has also coursed through the ground and impacted tree roots and pipes close to those roots. On April 25, 1982 in Lexington, AL, Lightning struck a tree, then reached through its roots to a PVC pipe holding drinking water. Almost 50% of the town’s water supply was lost before the pipe could be repaired. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1993: A large tornado slammed into a section of I-44 east of Tulsa during the early evening hours of April 24 1993. The Washington Post reported that the storm blew cars and trucks off the interstate highway and damaged dozens of homes this evening, killing at least 10 people, injuring at least 50 and leaving hundreds homeless. "This was not a storm that stayed down and then went back up. It stayed down for several minutes and totaled the area," said Jerry Griffin, an inspector for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Department. That area was about a mile wide and two miles long, he said. At least 80 mobile homes were demolished at a trailer park in a Tulsa suburb. Two major truck stops on Interstate 44 were scattered piles of rubble. Sheets of metal were wrapped around whatever poles were left standing. Families who escaped from their vehicles at one truck stop walked around dazed, clinging to pillows, blankets and other possessions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2013: April 23, 2013 was more than a month deep into the Spring, but Old Man winter wasn’t quite done with depositing a new round of cold weather into the Great Plains. The weather during the middle of April of the mid-section of America had been mild, field work had already gotten underway. But far to the north across the arctic lands of Canada cold weather had been building for more than week. At the start of the third week of April it was unleashed southward, bringing a cold wave more typical of mid-winter. All across Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota the mercury plunged into the single digits. Reaching down to 1 above at Big Sky Montana, 8 at Huron SD and 9 in Lander Wyoming. In Wichita, Kansas 0.2” of snow fell. This marked the latest measurable snowfall on record. The old record for the latest measurable snow was set almost 100 years earlier on April 20, 1918. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1980: 1980 brought the United States one of the worst heat waves in its history. The intense heat and drought that wreaked havoc on much of the Midwestern states and Southern plains throughout the summer of 1980. It is among the most devastating natural disasters in terms of deaths and destruction in U.S. history, claiming at least 1,700 lives and because of the massive drought, agricultural damage reached $20 billion or almost $65 billion in 2020 dollars. It is among the billion-dollar weather disasters listed by the US government. The heat wave began in June when a strong high-pressure area began to build in the central and southern United States allowing temperatures to soar to 90 degrees almost every day from June to September. The high-pressure system also acted as a cap on the atmosphere, stopping the development of thunderstorms, leading to exceptionally severe drought conditions. The heat wave broke only when the decaying Hurricane Allen disrupted the weather pattern. In some areas the spring got a jump start on what was to come. On April 22, 1980. The mercury reached 100 degrees in Waterloo, Iowa the highest temperature ever recorded in the state of Iowa in the month of April. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1963: Dust devils, are small, brief whirlwinds occurring most frequently in the early afternoon when a land surface is heating rapidly. Dust devils are occasionally made visible by the lofting of dust, leaves, or other loose matter from the ground. Dust devils form when a pocket of hot air near the ground rises quickly through cooler air above it, forming an updraft. If conditions are just right, the updraft may begin to rotate. As the air rapidly rises, the column of hot air is stretched vertically, which causes intensification of the spinning effect. Most dust devils are usually small and weak, often less than 3 feet in diameter with strongest winds averaging about 45 miles per hour, and they often dissipate less than a minute after forming. On rare occasions, a dust devil can grow very large and intense, sometimes reaching a diameter of up to 300 feet with winds in excess of 60 mph and can last for upwards of 20 minutes before dissipating. Dust devils typically do not cause injuries, but rare, severe dust devils have caused damage they typically occur in dry, arid areas with the most common being Arizona, New Mexico, Eastern California. But on April 21 1963, the combination of prolonged dry weather along the eastern seaboard and strong southerly wind transport hot weather from the southern United states resulted in a dust devil in Reading, Pennsylvania. The giant dust devil up to half a mile high, tore bricks from the side of a school, uprooted trees and downed power lines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1982: Strong temperature contrasts and violent weather outcomes in the springtime in the United States are generally unique in the world. Vast flatlands that start as in the great coastal areas of Texas and Louisiana gently roll northwest from there into the Great Plains on the central United States and extend up into Canada. Weather systems can traverse the region unencumbered by mountains or large bodies of water. In the spring cold air is still left over from the departing winter, lurking in northwest Canada in the Yukon. Meanwhile heat from the coming summer is building across Mexico and even Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. When strong winds in the high atmosphere pick up speed and start to bend in great wave patterns and the heat is drawn northward and cold southward in a great dance and battle between the competing seasons. The result of this clash often manifests itself in wild and extreme weather. On April 20, 1982 such a setup became established. In the warm sector violent thunderstorms erupted. At Richland in central Mississippi, strong thunderstorm winds blew over trailers. In Central Texas, baseball sized hail fell at Burnett and hail the size of grapefruits pounded Cedar Park. As much as 4" of rain fell over northern Louisiana and northeast Texas, and flooding occurred around Nacogdoches, TX. A tornado touched down at Lake Travis to the west of Austin, TX. Tornadoes were sighted around Lake Charles, LA near and near Moss Bluff. Meanwhile in the cold sector Northwestern Wisconsin was covered by more than a foot of snow. Weyerhaeuser, WI received 16”, with 15” at Barron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1775: In the early morning hours of April 19, 1775, Paul Revere was making a mad dash through Middlesex County just west of Boston. He was trying to avoid British patrols but was stopped by one briefly before making his getaway, the roads were soft and muddy from the heavy rains of the previous day and he was able to elude his captors. It was not last time the weather would play a part in that fateful day. Revere galloped from town to town, from farm to farm to warn that the British regulars were coming to seize the stores of powder and shot local militias had been hiding to defend themselves from British tyranny. Rouse them he did. As the author Rick Atkinson states in his book “The British Are Coming”. Across the colony, in an image that would endure for centuries, solemn men grabbed their firelocks and stalked off in search of danger” The British left Boston and rowed across the Harbor to Charlestown and started the march to Lexington. There in Lexington, they encountered a band of local militia and when the patriots assembled refused orders to disperse the British fired. The colonials were routed. The British then marched on to Concord, where thousands had gathered, warned by Revere and other riders. The British found themselves out gunned and outflanked. The first pitched battle of the revolution turned into the colonial victory. The British had planned to bring about their small cannon with them to teach the rebels a lesson. That ordnance would have come in handy that day. But the roads were still soft and muddy on April 19, 1775. Even though the sun was out it was cold and the sun was little help to dry the roads, it was a chilly Spring day because a cold front had brought that rain the day before. The canons got stuck in the mud on the road from Boston and had to be left behind. The battle perhaps turned on the muddy road and the rainy weather from the day before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. 5He said to his friend, ‘If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry archOf the North Church tower as a signal light,—One, if by land, and two, if by sea; 10And I on the opposite shore will be,Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough every Middlesex village and farm,For the country folk to be up and to arm.’ Then he said, ‘Good-night!’ and with muffled oar 15Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,Those are the opening lines of immortal poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRevere’s task was to ride through the countryside and call out the country-folk to arms to resist British tyranny. As the poem said, Revere was across Boston Harbor in Charlestown to watch the steeple of the old north church in Boston to see if the British were going to march out of Boston on land or take boats across the harbor and through Charlestown. It would warn the local militia’s which route the British would take. If one lantern was hung then over land, but two would signal the water and across the harbor. Most of April 18, 1775 was cloudy and rainy in Boston, the visibility was not good. Revere wouldn’t be able to see “Old North” as it was known. But late in the evening a cold front moved across the region, and by the time of the signal, skies were clear. Revere saw the two lanterns clearly across on the opposite shore and rode into history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1821: Boston, Massachusetts averages just under 2” of snow for the month of April. Given is proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the warming effects of the water, big snowstorms in April are uncommon – but not rare. On April 17, 1821 such an uncommon event occurred as a strong storm system slowly lumbered up the eastern seaboard. Cold air held sway over New England, the storm swung northward but was far enough out to sea to prevent the warming effects of a flow of air off the ocean. The big counter-clockwise swirl of winds around the system blew from the north northeast and off the land enforcing cold air from eastern Canada rather than an east flow off the warmer ocean. The result was a foot of snow and the snowstorm prevent the Legislature from opening for several days. The storm also brought 3” of snow in New York City and 16” to Worcester, Massachusetts. Interestingly the 12” of snow in Boston is not the most snow there from a single storm in April, that record belongs to April 1, 1997 when more than 25” blanketed Beantown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1851: On April 16th, 1851, a strong nor'easter smashed into Cape Cod, and brought the highest waters ever seen in that area up to that the time, easily besting the high tides of 1723. The system went into the history books as "The Lighthouse Storm. Heavy gales and high seas pounded the coasts of New Hampshire and eastern Massachusetts. The storm arrived at the time of a full moon, and the high tide was already well above what would be termed normal for the coast. That evening, the newly-constructed Minot's Ledge Lighthouse was destroyed by this massive storm. The storm weakened the tower's iron support piles, causing them to collapse and topple into the ocean off the coast. The lighthouse keeper, had been away in Boston when the storm struck. Onlookers on April 17 could only see the bent iron pilings where the lighthouse once stood. The two assistant lighthouse keepers, kept the lighthouse lamp burning as late as 10:00 PM on the night of April 16th to warn ships of the nearby rocks just before they were swept away in the storm’s massive waves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1912: 1912 was a year of promise. The start of World War I was still two years away and science and technology were ascendant with the outlook that humans had conquered nature and their inventions could overcome anything. Albert Einstein had already been working on his theories around relativity that would revolutionize Physics. In practical terms, the first decade to the 20th century saw the invention of the vacuum cleaner , the air conditioner and the electric washing machine. It seemed like science was triumphant. It was with attitude that British White Star Line commissioned the building of the largest ship ever constructed. The Titanic. The ship would have every technological advantage and be unsinkable. It left the British Isles at Queenstown, Ireland, on Thursday, April 11, 1912 on its maiden voyage. The weather awaiting the Titanic in North America was cold. In Boston, a few thousand fans shivered in the cold and snow flurries as the Red Sox beat Harvard University 2-0 in the first game ever played at Fenway Park. On April 12, the winds were west-southwest at about 20 mph and the noon temperature was about 60 degrees where the ship was on the Atlantic Ocean. As the ship continued west, the skies got cloudier as a weak cold front approached. The noontime temperature on Saturday, April 12, was still at 60 degrees, but another cold front (associated with the previous Fenway flurries) was to the west and north of the ship. As the Titanic passed through the second cold front on Sunday, April 14, the winds switched to northwest at 25 mph. The noon temperature was 50 degrees, but by 7:30 p.m., the temperature had dropped to 39. On Sunday, nighttime temperatures dropped below freezing, and the skies cleared and the winds calmed. A large Arctic air mass was now over the area on the clear, star-lit night with subfreezing temperatures and calm winds that resulted in a sea “like glass.” Icebergs were known to be in the region, but the calm winds made spotting them difficult. To spot icebergs during the night, lookouts searched for wind-driven waves breaking around their bases, but because of the calm weather this effect did not occur. The ship struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. Sunday, April 14. While the seas were relatively calm, that NW flow of air behind the front end actually steered a giant ice field towards the ship that night. The ship hit the iceberg that has been estimated as possibly weighing up to 300,000 tons, and the ship’s hull was torn open. It then took less than three hours from that point on for the Titanic to sink. The temperature of the water was estimated to be as low as 28 degrees – even lower than the conventional 32-degree freezing point as salt helped to lower its freezing point. Even though many people went into the water and survived the initial crash and sinking, the extremely cold-water temperature caused almost all in the water to suffer hypothermia and die quickly. Just hours before the wind has been west and the coldest water had not been pushed around the great ship. The water temperature may have been as high as 50 which would have allowed people to survive much longer in the water. At 2:20am on April 15, 1912 the Titanic slipped below the water. The unimaginable had happened, the unsinkable ship went to the deep. Faith in the promise of technology and science was shaken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1986: The National Weather Service reports that Hail is a form of precipitation consisting of solid ice that forms inside thunderstorm updrafts. Hail can damage aircraft, homes and cars, and can be deadly to livestock and people. Hailstones are formed when raindrops are carried upward by thunderstorm updrafts into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere and freeze. Hailstones then grow by colliding with liquid water drops that freeze onto the hailstone’s surface. Hail falls when it becomes heavy enough to overcome the strength of the thunderstorm updraft and is pulled toward the earth by gravity. Although Florida has the most thunderstorms, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming usually have the most hailstorms. The area where these three states meet – “hail alley” – averages seven to nine hail days per year. Other parts of the world that have damaging hailstorms include China, Russia, India, Bangladesh and northern Italy. The largest hailstone recovered in the United States fell in Vivian, South Dakota, with a weight of 1 lb. 15 oz. But the world’s heaviest hailstorm fell on April 14, 1986 in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh. It likely fell to the ground at 90 mph and it weighed 2.25 lbs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1981: The New York Times reports that chatting on the telephone connected to a land-line during a thunderstorm can electrocute you, it is no urban legend. A bolt of lightning that strikes a telephone line can cause an electrical surge to shoot through the wires and enter a handset. The odds of this are relatively small, and most phone companies have protective measures in place. Still, the risk exists, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recommends that people avoid using telephones and other appliances during electrical storms. Cases of customers' being jolted while on the phone in a storm are well documented. In fact, on April 13, 1981 a person was killed while talking on the phone in Kincaid, IL when lightning struck an outside telephone line and traveled to the house via a phone line; the phone exploded. What about cell phones? Because the danger comes from lightning traveling through outdoor wiring, cordless and cellular phones are generally safe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1841: The average annual snowfall in Philadelphia is slightly more than 22”. In April, Philly averages a half an inch of snow and there is measurable snow in April there only once every other year. 1841 was not so kind to Philadelphia. Unusual late season cold lingered for much of the month and a series of storms swept out of the Gulf of Mexico and up the East Coast of the United States bringing one snow event after the other. 6” of snow fell in the city on April 10th and 3” fell on Aril 13 and 14th, but the heaviest snowfall occurred in between those two systems when a foot of the white stuff piled up on April 12, 1841. Almost 20” of snow fell on Philadelphia in April 1841 – the average for an entire winter season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1999: On April 11, 1999 more than 3” of rain fell in Hong Kong during a cloudburst as heavy thunderstorms racked across the region. Streets were flooded and stores were forced to shut. The 3” of rain was more than Hong Kong had received in the first 3 months of 1999. As it turns out that is only half as much rain as is normal in Hong Kong from January to March when more than 6” is normal – still not a huge amount of rain. But rainfall is abundant, in Hong Kong when looked at through the lens of a full year. In fact, it is around 94.5 inches per year. The rainiest period is from May to September, when the rainfall exceeds 12" per month in the city, while the least rainy period is from November to January, when it drops below 2 in per month. To put that in perspective, Hong Kong’s 94.5” per year towers over places in the United States that are considered rainy like. Seattle, Washington with 38” average rainfall a year or 62” in Miami or 64” a year in New Orleans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1996: The winter of 1995-1996 in the Northern part of the United State just didn’t seem to want to end. Cold air lingered on well past the start of Spring. April was cold in that region of the country, especially New England and the first half of the month seemed more like winter than Spring. At the start of the second week of April temperatures were below freezing most night and even during the daytime readings had a tough time reaching 40. Meanwhile a strong storm was organizing off the coast of South Carolina and started to make its way off the coast, but close enough to fist push snow only the southern New Jersey coast dumping almost 5” of the white stuff on Atlantic City, an April record. The storm took a turn a bit to the northwest and pushed snow into New York City, JFK Airport had 4” on snow. But the heaviest snowfall was reserved for New England. By the time the snow stopped flying on the evening of April 10, 1996 Boston had 6”, Worcester, Ma 16” and Storrs, Conn 17”. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1993: Tornadoes have been recorded on all continents except Antarctica. The United States has the most tornadoes of any country, as well as the strongest and most violent tornadoes. A large portion of these tornadoes form in an area of the central United States. Canada experiences the second most tornadoes. Other areas of the world that have frequent tornadoes include significant portions of Europe, South Africa, Philippines, Bangladesh, parts of Argentina, Uruguay, and southern and southeast Brazil, northern Mexico, New Zealand, and far eastern Asia. Bangladesh and the eastern parts of India are very exposed to destructive tornadoes causing higher deaths and injuries. On April 9, 1993 several tornadoes ripped through the India in the State of West Bengal killing 100 people and injuring 400. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1938: In the early days of April 1938 arctic cold that had been building and bottled up in Alaska and the Yukon came crashing southward along the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The wintry chill reached cities like Cheyenne and Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo and then smashed eastward enveloping Omaha, Wichita and finally Amarillo. The cold modified as it headed eastward but held firm for several days from Montana to New Mexico and eastward into Nebraska, Kansas and the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Meanwhile off the coast of southern California a storm was brewing. That system headed eastward and spread a blanket of snow from Arizona and New Mexico into west Texas. The storm slowed and eventually stalled for several days in Texas. Moisture came streaming into the system from off the Gulf of Mexico and lifted up and over the cold air in places. The result was an all-out blizzard. It raged for 84 hours and when the storm finally moved eastward on the afternoon of April 8, 1938. Snow drifts reached 20 feet high. Winds at the height of the storm were clocked at 77 mph in Pampa, Texas and 8 deaths were blamed on the storm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1977: April 7, 1977 marked the first home game in the history of the Toronto Blue Jays. For a while, in February 1976 , it looked as if the National League’s San Francisco Giants would move to Toronto, where there were buyers eager for the club. When the Giants were sold in March 1976 to new owners determined to keep them in San Francisco, the American League jumped in to establish Toronto as an American League city, setting up an expansion club, and announced the Blue Jays, who began play the next year. Despite being one of the northernmost cities with a baseball team. The first games of the season for the franchise were not played at the home of some southern American League team – but rather in Toronto. It was not a wise choice. With a sellout crowd on hand at Exhibition Stadium More than 44,000 fans packed the old stadium, filling not only a new section built for baseball but also the football grandstand beyond the outfield fence. It was a snowy day and the lines on the field had to be brushed off constantly during the – but nothing short of a blizzard was going to see the first Major League Baseball game in Toronto cancelled. Temperatures were in the 20s. The wintry weather did not deter the team ether, and the Blue Jays won their first ever major league game beating the Chicago White sox 9-5. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1936: April 6, 1936 , brought one of the worst weather-related disasters in Georgia history. A series of strong tornado struck the southern United State but none was deadlier than the one that struck Gainesville April 6 1936. It was part of a devastating outbreak of 17 tornadoes across the South. And it wasn’t the first for Gainesville- another tornado killed more than 100 people in January 1903. In 1936, not one , but two tornadoes tore through the heart of town, destroying much of the business district and the county courthouse, trapping hundreds in debris. The funnel fueled fires all over the area, including the Cooper Pants manufacturing company, where 60 employees were killed. The storm left more than 200 dead, 1,600 injured, 2,000 homeless and millions of dollars in damage in Gainesville and 454 people were killed by the tornado outbreak the second deadliest ever recorded in US history. President Franklin Roosevelt toured the city three days later, and returned in 1938 to rededicate the courthouse and city hall after a massive citywide rebuilding effort. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1815: The summer of 1816 was not like any summer people could remember. The National Center for Atmospheric Research reported that, snow fell in New England and gloomy, cold rains fell throughout Europe. It was cold and stormy and dark. 1816 became known in Europe and North America as “The Year Without a Summer.” On April 5, 1815, Mount Tambora, a volcano, started to rumble with activity. Over the following four months the volcano exploded - the largest volcanic explosion in recorded history. Many people close to the volcano lost their lives in the event. Tambora ejected so much ash and dust into the atmosphere that the sky darkened and the Sun was blocked from view. The large particles spewed by the volcano fell to the ground nearby, covering towns with enough ash to collapse homes. Smaller particles spewed by the volcano were light enough to spread through the atmosphere over the following months and had a worldwide effect on climate. They made their way into the stratosphere, where they could distribute around the world more easily. Earth’s average global temperature dropped more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The Year Without a Summer had many impacts in Europe and North America. Crops were killed - either by frost or a lack of sunshine. This caused food to be scarce. The lack of successful crops that summer made the food which was grown more valuable, and the price of food climbed. Because the price of oats increased, it was more expensive for people to feed their horses. Horses were the main method of transportation, so with expensive oats, the cost of travel increased. The gloomy summer weather also inspired writers. During that summer-less summer, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a horror novel set in an often stormy environment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1933: In the 1930s, lighter than air ships or dirigibles where the rage for long distance flight. Trans-ocean flight by airplanes was virtually impossible, especially as a passenger service. Planes having to hop and skip from one re-fueling station to another. Long distance non-stop flight was still a way off not coming into practical availability until well after world War II. So, the big balloons where the rage. Many of them would ultimately meet with disaster including the US Shenandoah and the famous explosion and crash of the German Hindenburg in Lakehurst New Jersey in 1937. The Shenandoah had crashed 12 years earlier in 1925 when it flew through a thunderstorm. But the big ships kept flying. The Akron made many flights across the US as a promotion for the US Navy. The Akron was on such a flight on the early morning of April 4, 1933 off the coast of New jersey. It soon encountered severe weather, which did not improve when the airship passed over Barnegat Light, New Jersey. The Akron broke up rapidly and sank in the stormy Atlantic. The crew of the nearby German merchant ship saw lights descending toward the ocean at about 12:23 a.m. and altered course to investigate. The Akron slowly sunk in the ocean, the accident left 73 dead, and only three survivors. The day of the lighter than air ships would continue for several more years only to meet with one disaster after another almost all fueled by encounters with violent weather. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The last few days of March 1974 and the first couple of days of April 1974 brought unseasonable warmth to much of the nation east of the Mississippi River. Across Ohio and northern Kentucky, the daffodils were blooming and grass had turned a bright green and, in some places, there was a hint of blue that marks many types of grasses in Kentucky. Birds had already started to build their nests as the unseasonable warmth lasted for several days. But it was a false sign of spring and trouble was brewing in the vast frozen hinterlands of artic Canada. Bitter cold from the departed winter still held sway and when the jet stream that had pulled way north to transport the out of season warmth to the Ohio valley buckled, the cold was unleashed. Once the cold spilled over that region record low temperatures would wreak havoc with the blossoming buds and leave a skiff of snow on the ground. But before that happened, a violent cold front marking the leading edge of the bitter blast would rake across the region. It spanned killer twisters that went into the record books as the "Super Tornado Outbreak " - In 18 hours mostly on April 3, 1974, 148 tornadoes struck 13 states from Georgia to the Canadian border. 315 were killed and 6100 injured. Damage reached 1/2 billion dollars or almost 3 billion in 2020 dollars. Brandenburg, KY was completely destroyed with 28 killed and half of Xenia, OH was leveled with 33 dead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.