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 |
May 2
1935 On the 1st and 2nd southeastern
Minnesota is affected by snow, including a fall of 7.5cm snow in Minneapolis.
7
May 3
1999 A gust of 508.8km/h gets
recorded in a tornado at Oklahoma City in the USA. This is the world's
highest ever recorded wind speed. It was also the largest tornado outbreak
ever in Oklahoma, and the USA most estructive tornado on record was recorded.
38 people were killed, and among the places affected was Oklahoma City
itself. Damage estimated at $1,200,000,000 was caused. 21
May 4
Watch this space!
May 5
1995 North America's most
destructive hailstorm on record. 510 people were injured and damage estimated
at $2 billion occurred around Dallas, Texas. 7
2002 In the 24 hours up to
1200GMT the rainfall equivalent of 12mm rain and snow fell at Ulan Bator,
Mongolia. In the whole month of May the average precipitation is just 12mm.
May 6
1933 The wettest day on record
in Charleston, South Carolina as 268.5mm rain falls in 24 hours.
May 7
1840 317 are killed by a tornado
at Natchez, Mississippi. This is the greatest tornado disaster in early
America and the Deep South's greatest natural human tradgedy. It's also
the USA's second most deadly tornado disaster. 19,
21
May 8
1360 Thousands of people are
reportedly killed by a severe hailstorm in Chartres, France. 7
May 9
1927 The USA's joint 16th
deadliest tornado on record strikes Poplar Bluff, Missouri killing 98 people.
22
1978 Britain records its largest
ever 24 hour temperature range as temperatures in Tummel Bridge, eastern
Scotland rise from an overnight low of -7C to a high of 22C. 7
May 10
1899 Mexico's deadliest known
tornado. At least 22 people were killed and cars were thrown more than
100m at the Hondo coal mine. 21
1905 A tornado cuts a 40 mile
path of desctruction across southwestern Oklahoma killing 97 people, 87
of which were killed at Snyder. This tornado is the 18th deadliest on record
in the USA. 7, 22
May 11
1953 114 people are killed
by a tornado at Waco, Texas. This is the joint 10th deadliest tornado on
record in the USA. 19, 22
May 12
1916 The world's wettest quarter
of an hour on record; plumbing at Plumb Point in Jamaica gets put to the
test when 198mm rain falls in just 15 minutes. 6
1929 Virginia's worst tornado
on record. 6 tornadoes touched down, including two west of the Blue Ridge
Mountains, killing 22 people and destroying 4 schools. 13 of the victims
were killed at Rye Cove in Scott County.
May 13
1922 During a 30 minute period
in the mid afternoon a hailstorm affected an area half a kilometre wide
and 5-6 kilometres long in Montpelier, France. Hail 10-15mm in diameter
fell and immediatly after the storm hail lay 10cm deep, locally 50-60cm
deep. 7
1930 A severe hailstorm kills
a man caught in an open field close to Lubbock, texas. It's the first authenticated
death by hail in US weather history. 7
1996 Several towns near Tangail,
Bangladesh are destroyed by a large tornado that lasts about 20 minutes,
kills more than 1,000, injures 34,000 and leaves another 100,000 homeless.
7
May 14
1965 Temperatures reach 28.9C
in London. Nothing special you might think, but this turns out to be the
hottest day of the year, the earliest in the year this has occured since
at least 1875.
May 15
1968 Alaska's only tornado
on record touches down near Anchorage. 7
May 16
Watch this space!
May 17
1935 Snow falls in the central
Netherlands, the latest in the spring that snow has been observed here.
1979 Hawaii's coldest night
on record; lows drop to -11.1C at Mauna Kea. 9
May 18
1902 The USA's joint 10th
deadliest tornado on record strikes Goliad, Texas killing 114 people. 22
2002 Snow affects an area
extending from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts and in Albany, NY snowfall
here is the latest in the season that it's snowed. The weather system responsible
for this unseasonable snow also dumped up to 50mm rain on New York, Philapdelphia
and Washington DC and heralded a record breaking cold wave.
May 19
1955 New Mexico registers
its record maximum 24 hour precipitation as 286.5mm rain falls at Lake
Maloya. 11
2002 Key West in the Florida
Keys recorded 102mm rain in 24 hours as a slow moving band of thundery
rain lingered over the area. The average May precipitation here is 84mm.
Meanwhile on the same day Fairbanks, Alaska reached 25C against the May
average of 17C.
May 20
1918 What are the odds on
this? On this day in 1918 a F4 tornado tocuhed down in Codell, Kansas.
The year before on exactly the same date a F3 tornado touched down here,
whilst the year before that in 1916 a F2 tornado touched down here. 7
1999 A cyclone with winds
up to 170mph hits the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan killing more
than 400 and leaving 600 villages devastated. 7
2002 A cold wave across the
eastern and central USA led to 80 cities recording record low temperatures
for this day. Among them was Hartford, Conn where the low of -1C was the
latest in the season below freezing temperatures have been recorded. This
cold wave began two days earlier with 54 record daily lows set, followed
by another 96 on 19th May.
May 21
1860 Louisville, Kentucky
and Cincinnati, Ohio are struck by tornadoes. 7
1950 The UK's longest lived
tornado on record started in Wendover, Bucks. at 4pm-ish and tracked around
100 miles before dying out on the Norfolk coast at 8pm-ish. Tornadoes usually
last a few minutes at most. This tornado devasted parts of Wendover, Aston
Clinton, Puttenham, Linslade, Lidlington, Bedford and Blakeney. 14
May 22
1922 The UK records its joint
hottest May day on record when highs reach 32.8C at Camden Square, London.
May 23
Watch this space!
May 24
1964 480 homes in the southwestern
suburbs of Tokyo are damaged by a tornado. Estimates suggest that between
5 and 35 tornadoes affect Japan per year. 21
May 25
1920 Fussen in Bavaria, southern
Germany records 126mm rain in just 8 minutes during what must have been
a particularly torrential cloudburst. 6
1922 The Netherlands records
its hottest May day on record when highs reach 35.6C in Sittard and Gemert.
1955 80 are killed by a tornado
in Udall, Kansas. This tornado is the 23rd deadliest on record in the USA.
19,
22
May 26
1917 The USA's 13th deadliest
tornado on record strikes Mattoon, Illinois killing 101 people. 22
May 27
1896 USA's 3rd deadliest tornado
on record; 255 are killed and 1000 are injured as a tornado tears through
St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. 21
May 28
1887 San Francisco records
its hottest May day on record as highs reach 36C. 19
May 29
1944 The UK records its joint
hottest May day on record when highs reach 32.8C in and around London.
May 30
Watch this space!
May 31
1935 D'Hanis in the USA records
559mm rain in just two and three quarter hours. 6
1985 A tornado in Barrie,
Ontario killed 8 people, injured another 155 and caused $100 million damage.
This tornado also had a 200km long track, the longest on record in Canada.
Tornadoes were also reported in Grand Valley, Orangeville and Tottenham
in central Ontario killing a further 3 people. 13 tornadoes were reported
over Ontario on this day.
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Dan Suri, last updated 28 July 2003