History
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This month marks the anniversary of the worst flood in recorded history on the Mississippi River in spring of 1927. It is estimated that more than 630,000 people were displaced by the flood water, which covered 27,000 square miles to a depth of up to 30 feet. The Earth Science Picture of the Day post…
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Today marks the beginning of the Civil War (I grew up in the North, y’all) 155 years ago with the attack on Fort Sumter. The Southeastern Regional Climate Center noted the occasion with an image from the fort’s weather log. It lists “Rain most of the day & Bombardment of Ft. Sumter” in their daily entry.
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If you are looking for information on recent severe weather in Georgia, here are a couple of articles that describe some of the conditions we have felt this month so far along with a tool for showing severe weather reports on an interactive map. I’ve also included a link to a NOAA retrospective on the…
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Jim Angel, the Illinois State Climatologist, noted that today marks the 60th anniversary of the first date that a tornado was seen on radar. Now we have much more sophisticated radars that not only see the storms in multiple dimensions and colors but can also point out flying debris as well as flying birds and…
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Satellite data is the single most important source of weather data used to input into weather forecast models, providing millions of points of information that help to make forecasts accurate. And yet there was a time when there was no man-made satellite looking down on the earth. April 1, 1960 was the first date that…
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Slate magazine published some historical frost maps from 1916 which show the spring and fall frost dates for the US based on the historical climate record from early in the century. You can see the article and copies of the maps at https://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2016/03/28/history_of_climate_change_as_seen_in_frost_maps_from_1916.html. I’ve put a zoomed in version of the spring frost map below. Next…
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Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak which brought 12 strong tornadoes to the Southeastern United States on April 5-6, 1936. Approximately 454 people were killed in the storms, most by two tornadoes, which makes this the second deadliest outbreak in US history. Wikipedia also notes that severe flash floods in the…