From sudden bouts of darkness to tornadoes filled with flames and creatures falling from
the sky, today we look at the Strangest Weather Events in US History.
Number 10.
Coldest Day Throughout 2019, the Midwest United States
has experienced some extremely chilly temperatures, with places like Detroit experience minus
14 degree weather, Milwaukee dropping to 21 below zero and Chicago somehow surviving negative
23 degrees fahrenheit.
In comparison to the history of the U.S., though, these temperatures are far from the
worst experienced by Americans.
The coldest day ever recorded on U.S. soil was January 23, 1971, when the people of Prospect
Creek, Alaska endured a terrifying temperature of minus 80 degrees.
When it comes to the lower 48 states, the coldest day came on January 20 of 1954 when
Rogers Pass, Montana dropped to 70 degrees below zero!
Number 9.
Locust Plague Being a Midwest farmer in the late 19th century
had its fair share of obstacles.
No modern machinery to work with, fickle soil and weather conditions, and most likely way
more physical labor than most people could handle on a daily basis.
So imagine how much worse it got for American farmers in 1874 when a swarm of locusts blanketed
the sky before diving down on their crops!
These insects rained down on the Midwest in droves, with historians estimating their number
to be anywhere between 124 billion and 12.5 trillion.
As they cut a path nearly 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide, these pesky bugs devoured
everything from sugar-concentrated crops to wooden tools, leather accessories, and even
clothes right off the backs of bystanders.
Their impromptu invasion ended up causing many families to suffer and even perish as
starvation became a hazard to those in the area that would become the Dust Bowl.
While farm animals like chickens did their part in eliminating the pest by simply eating
them, the danger of locust invasion didn't pass until the Rocky Mountain grasshopper
went extinct at the turn of the century.
Number 8.
Black Sunday Speaking of the Dust Bowl, the dust-swept
and drought-ridden region of the Midwest first underwent its desolate transformation from
one fateful date now referred to as Black Sunday.
On April 14th, 1935, a storm fell on the prairies of the Midwest beginning in Oklahoma and Texas.
Starting at 4 p.m., winds clocking in at 60 miles per hour swept along the plains, forming
a black, cloudy wall as they hurtled on.
This effect came from loose dirt in the arid region, twisting and obstructing the vision
of those who witnessed the storm.
Reports at the time believed the anomaly to signal the end of days, as the blinding dust
storm kept those outside from being able to even see their hand in front of their face.
The weather event blinded one man, and had fatal consequences for small animals like
birds and rodents as it rose thousands of feet in the air and stretched for hundreds
of miles.
This frightening phenomenon went on to inspire Congress to pass the Soil Conservation Act
by the end of the year in hopes of avoiding such an occurrence from happening again.
Number 7.
Satan's Storm On June 15 of 1960, the residents of Kopperl
[KOP-er-ul], Texas began their morning as normal with a normal early temperature of
just around 70 degrees fahrenheit.
But in mere minutes, the warm desert air rose to an unbearable 100 degrees fahrenheit out
of nowhere.
The sudden skyrocket in heat caused thermometers to burst, according to anecdotal accounts.
People experienced power failures and false alarms as they awoke thinking something must
be on fire.
The National Weather Service unofficially reports that the temperature continued rising
until it topped out at 140 degrees fahrenheit...and remained there for 3 hours straight!
Eventually, the heat subsided, leaving farmers to investigate the level of damage wrought
by the sudden heat wave.
In its wake, people found that some cattle perished under the infernal sun while corn
and cotton cooked off the crop, ruining entire fields of vegetation.
This event earned the name of Satan's Storm during its time, but today we know the extreme
switch in temperature to be a heatburst.
These are caused from a thunderstorm rising and being pushed back down to the surface,
leading the air below to become compressed and extremely hot!
Number 6.
Tornado Tantrums Tornadoes plague the midwest almost annually,
and at times, more than one can touch down in a given place.
But on April 3 and April 4 in 1974, a flood of tornadoes spread across 13 states in the
Ohio valley, causing over a billion dollars (adjusted for inflation) in damage and claiming
the lives of 335 people in the process.
An astounding 148 twisters tore into the U.S., with some reaching a circumference of 5 miles
wide!
Then again in 2011, from April 25 to April 28, another flurry of tornadoes ravaged America,
hitting as far north as Pennsylvania and New York and reaching down to the Deep South.
As warm air at ground level collided with the colder airs above, and atmospheric wind
shears moved in, these catastrophic disasters left their mark on populated areas repeatedly
throughout the 3-day span.
This time, 349 twisters took the lives of over 300 people, and caused 10.8 billion dollars
in damage!
Number 5.
Dark Day In the 18th Century, meteorology wasn't anywhere
near as exact or capable of explaining weather-related phenomena the way is today.
So it's no wonder that accounts of the day when the sky went dark on May 19, 1780 are
so superstitious and foreboding.
Following right on the tail end of the American Revolution, the newly founded nation was already
tense.
So when the Sun turned red, black rain fell from the sky carrying the scent of coal fire,
and the population had to rely on candlelight in the middle of the day to see, you can understand
how frightened Americans might've felt.
Rather than any sort of Armageddon or Judgment Day, though, this scary ordeal can be attributed
to a forest fire out of the Ontario forests.
The origin of the legendary Dark Day in New England wasn't discovered until 2007, when
forestry experts out of the University of Missouri discovered fire scars in the woods
of Ontario corresponding to that date!
Number 4.
Raining Fish We've all heard the saying "It's raining cats
and dogs", but in 1947, the age-old phrase became reality...with a bit of an aquatic
twist.
As the population of Marksville, Louisiana left their homes on October 23 that year,
no forecast could have prepared them for the downpour that was to come.
According to the Library of Congress, inhabitants of the southern town experienced a torrential
shower that brought not only raindrops, but several fish as well!
These accounts weren't the hoax they might seem, though, as the meteorological phenomena
known as "raining animals" has occurred many times across the planet and throughout history.
Flightless creatures like fish, spiders, frogs, octopuses and even jellyfish have been reported
from China to Honduras over the last two centuries.
While the cause of such an event has never been witnessed, the prevailing theories as
to what causes such groups of animals to be displaced attribute the phenomena to waterspouts
and updrafts.
Waterspouts are the weaker of the two hypothesized sources, as the water-based tornadoes capable
of flinging objects along with water at high speeds but fail to suck up anything in their
path.
Updrafts, on the other hand, are strong winds that could more feasibly sweep up entire communities
of animals before sending them plummeting to the Earth below.
The last accounts of raining animals in the U.S. took place in 2007 as worms rained into
Jennings, Louisiana, and in September 2016, then again in May of 2017, when fish drizzled
down into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Oroville, California respectively.
Number 3.
Soil Cyclone Tropical cyclones form on the coasts of the
United States with semi-regularity, fueled by the heat energy they gather from the warmth
of the ocean.
As they move inward towards land, and leave the ocean energy behind, they typically dissipate
and the thunderstorm that trails them overhead will disperse and fizzle away.
But recent studies have shown that not all cyclones fall apart so quickly, a point proven
in 2007 with Tropical Storm Erin.
As the cyclone entered Texas that August, it infiltrated the Lone Star state with wind
speeds measuring a measly 40 miles per hour.
However, within three days, the tropical storm continued to flourish, growing surprisingly
strong by the time it reached Oklahoma.
In fact, it more than doubled in wind speed from the time it touched land and even eclipsed
the strength of the cyclone at its peak while over the Gulf of Mexico.
But how could such an anomaly be possible if no water warmth was present to keep the
cyclone swirling?
Moist soil, as new discoveries has shown, can substitute for ocean water if breached
at the right temperature and hydration levels.
Referred to as the "brown ocean effect", this abnormality gave Tropical Storm Erin a longer
life than meteorologists could have predicted at the time.
Number 2.
Fire Tornado During the Carr Fire Event of 2018, one of
the most terrifying weather anomalies of U.S. history occurred when the largest fire tornado
ever recorded took shape.
Wildfires are all too common in the Golden State, but this specific fire was so massive,
the resulting gases formed a pyrocumulus cloud above the raging inferno.
This fire-crafted thunderstorm helped turn a commonly-known fire whirl, which were thought
to hit a maximum speed of 90 miles per hour, into a monstrous cyclone of cinder and ash.
As the flames blazed on, winds within the tornado reached a speed of 143 miles per hour,
rewriting the capabilities and hazards of such natural disasters.
This incident was one of only two F-3 tornadoes ever recorded in California, with the other
spawning from a fiery event in 1926.
Due to the size and severity of this one, though, and the fact that it claimed one casualty,
this fire tornado is one of the most monumental weather events of all time.
Number 1.
Summerless Year Also known as the "poverty year", 1816 was
"The Year Without A Summer", when temperatures all across the Northern Hemisphere remained
frigid year round, even through July and August.
New England reported record late snow falls,experiencing heavy weather as late as June 11th.
In the south, cities like Savannah, Georgia only reached 46 degrees fahrenheit on the
Fourth of July.
Much of the U.S. experienced a drought that same year in early fall and Winter weather
started right back up by September.
This freezing year was the result of an eruption in 1815 from Indonesia's Tambora Volcano halfway
around the world!
The ash and dust of the eruption filled the stratosphere for the next year, blocking sunlight
across the Northern Hemisphere which ended up cooling that portion of the planet!