I've assembled as many interesting weather facts as I can to make this world weather trivia page. Obviously I didn't know all these facts off the top of my head. Some I discovered myself, but the I had to hunt around for the vast majority. The internet was, needless to say, a particulary handy source, especially regarding American weather. Another good source proved to be old weather periodicals, such as The Meteorological Magazine which seemed much more intent on facts and figures than research. If you scroll to the bottom of this page you'll find a list of sources. Incidentally, if any of these facts turn out to be wrong, or records quoted get broken please and let me know. Thanks.
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| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
April 2
1977 Tornadoes kill 900 and
injure 6,000 in the Madaripur district of Bangladesh, the heaviest known
number of casualties from a tornado outbreak.
April 3
1964 7 people are killed,
111 are injured and 225 homes are destroyed as a tornado tracks 8-9km through
Wichita Falls, Texas.
1974 A tornado in Windsor,
Ontario killed 9 people, injured 30 others and caused $1 billion damage.
This tornado was just one of many which struck 11 US states and Ontario
during an 8 hour period.
2002 9 people are killed,
50 are injured and 500 homes are destroyed by a tornado touching down just
north of Calcutta. The tornado was on the ground for around 20 minutes
and occured at 0300 local time.
April 4
2002 Between 0600GMT on the
3rd and 0600GMT on the 4th 109mm rain fell in Perpignan, southern France.
The average April rainfall here is 48.3mm. During the same time period
66mm rain fell in Barcelona whilst locally as much as 330mm rain fell in
12 hours on the Costa Brava in Spain. Meanwhile, in Solenzera, Corisca
53mm rain fell in 6 hours between 0600GMT and 1200GMT on the 4th; the average
April rainfall here is 65mm.
April 5
1936 216 are killed when a
tornado strikes Tupelo, Mississippi. It's the USA's 4th deadliest tornado
on record. 22
1945 The USA's coldest April
night on record; lows drop to -43C at Eagles Nest, New Mexico. 7
April 6
1936 The USA's 5th deadliest
tornado on record strikes Gainesville, Georgia killing 213 people. 22
April 7
Watch this space!
April 8
1984 Tropical Cyclone Kamisy
hits Madagascar with winds topping 180kmh and 711mm rain. 82 are killed
and 100,000 are left homeless. 7
April 9
1910 Perth, Western Australia
records its hottest April day on record as temperatures reach 37.6C. Records
here date back to 1897. 24
1947 The USA's 6th deadliest
tornado on record strikes Woodward, Oklahoma killing 181 people. 22
1983 Malaysia's joint hottest
day on record; temperatures reach 38.4C in Chuping.
1958 A very wet 3 day period
over La Reunion came to an end. in Aurere 2,467mm rain fell between the
7th and 9th and between the 6th and 9th 3,130mm fell. 6
2003 Thunderstorms dumped
51mm rain in 24 hours on Marrakech, Morocco in the 24 hours up to 1200
GMT on the 9th. The average April rainfall here is 31mm and this was Marrakech's
wettest day since early April 2000.
April 10
2002 In Al Baha in the western
hills of Saudi Arabia thunderstorms dumped 113mm rain between 0000 GMT
and 1200 GMT. The average April precipitation here is just 34mm. It wasn't
particularly warm either; temperatures reached just 15C, the first time
the daytime high had been under 20C since late January 2002, and the coldest
day here since at least February 2001.
2002 In Santiago, Chile 26mm
rain fell in the 24 hours between 1200 GMT on the 9th and 1200 GMT on the
10th. The average April rainfall here is just 13mm.
April 11
1965 The Great Lakes Palm
Sunday tornado outbreak. 51 tornadoes strike Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan,
Ohio, Indiana and Iowa killing 256 and injuring over 1500 people. 7
April 12
1934 A gust of 371km/h is
recorded on the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. This is the world's
strongest non-tornadic gust.
2002 17mm rain fell from a
thunderstorm in Kuwait in less than 24 hours. The average April rainfall
here is 13mm. Meanwhile, the Iranian town of Omidiyeh recorded 60 mm in
the 12 hours between 0000GMT and 1200GMTmidnight and 12 UTC today, three
times more than the April average of 20 mm.
April 13
Watch this space!
April 14
1999 A five hour long thunderstorm
over Sydney, Australia. Hail up to 9cm in diameter hits eastern parts of
the city and damage is estimated at $9 billion Australian Dollars. 7
April 15
2002 A day after registering
a high of 38.4C, Cairo Egypt reached 39.8C, the warmest day here since
May and June 2001. However, this high wasn't a record breaker; temperatures
have been known to reach 42C in Cairo in April, as they in fact did on
April 15 1998. On average Cairo registers a reading around 40C once per
year in April.
April 16
1949 The UK's warmest April
day on record; temperatures reach 29.4C in Camden Square, London.
April 17
1948 34mm rain falls in just
10 minutes at Tauranga, New Zealand, the wettest 10 minutes ever recorded
on New Zealand. 12
2002 Perth, Western Australia
records its wettest April day on record as 69.6mm rain falls in 24 hours.
Records here date back to 1879. The average April rainfall here is 46mm.
24
2003 51mm thundery rain fell
at Seeb Airport, Muscat in Oman in just 12 hours. The average April rainfall
here is 18mm.
April 18
1880 The USA's 15th deadliest
tornado on record strikes Marshfield, Missouri killing 99 people. 22
1970 Mt. John on South Island,
New Zealand records both South Island and New Zealand's windiest weather
on record when winds touch 250km/h. 12
1983 Malaysia's joint hottest
day on record; temperatures reach 38.4C in Chuping.
April 19
1963 A tornado in northwestern
Assam, India kills 139 people and leaves 3,760 families in 33 villages
homeless along its 35km long path of destruction. 3
1995 Weighing in at 15,000g
the world's heaviest hailstone on record falls on Guangdong Province in
China.
April 20
1880 The wettest day on record
in Sacramento, California; 183.9mm rain fell in less than 24 hours.
1920 The USA's 21st deadliest
tornado on record strikes Starkville, Mississippi and Waco, Alabama killing
88 people. 22
April 21
1968 The Netherlands records
its hottest April day on record when highs reach 32.2C in Venlo.
1989 Colorado records its
hottest April day on record as highs reach 37.8C at Las Animas. Twenty-two
cities in the central and southwestern U.S. reported
record high temperatures for
the date whilst 8 cities equalled or exceeded previous April records.
April 22
1970 The UK's wettest April
day on record; 182.1mm rain falls at Seathwaite, Cumbria.
April 23
1885 58cm snow fall in 24
hours at Denver, Colorado whilst at Idaho Springs 81cm snow fall. 7
April 24
1908 The USA's 7th deadliest
tornado on record strikes Amite, Louisiana and Purvis, Mississippi killing
143 people. On the same day another tornado strikes Natchez, Mississippi
killing 91 people. This is the 19th deadliest tornado on record in the
USA. 22
April 25
1924 A tornado destroyed 3
villages and killed "many people" at Pihani in the Oudh district of India.
The tornado was about 300m wide at times. 23
April 26
1989 At least 1,300 are killed,
12,000 are injured and 80,000 are left homeless as a tornado touched down
about 50 miles north to northwest of Dhaka. The towns of Salturia and Manikgankj
are destroyed and this may be the world's deadliest tornado ever. 21
1991 200,000 are killed in
the Bay of Bengal region of Bangladesh and India as a cyclone and its inevitable
flooding strike. 7
April 27
1931 Hawaii's hottest day
on record; temperatures reach 38.0C at Pahala. Interestingly in spite of
the huge difference in latitude this is the same record high as in Alaska!
1960 Thailand's hottest day
on record; temperatures reach 44.5C in Uttaradit.
2003 A severe thunderstorm
brought golf ball size hail, 80km/h gusts and funnel clouds to Key West,
Florida. This was only the 11th time since 1871 that hail has been reported
here.
April 28
Watch this space!
April 29
1912 Temperatures reach 42.2C
in Tuguegarao, Philippines, the hottest day on record in the Philippines.
7
April 30
1054 Europe's earliest reported
tornado strikes Rosdalla, near Kilbeggan in County Westmeath, Ireland.
7
1888 India's deadliest hailstorm
on record. 246 are killed, as are 1600 domesticated animals at Moradabad.
7
1988 Along the east Australian
coast between Wollongong and Sydney 250mm rain falls in 24 hours causing
landslides and washing out road and rail tracks. 7
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Dan Suri, last updated 28 July 2003