events -weather and climate

Climate trends, https://www.climate.gov/maps-data

Real-time global lightning map, http://en.blitzortung.org/live_lightning_maps.php also http://webflash.ess.washington.edu/

Real time global wind map, https://earth.nullschool.net/

UK rainfall radar map, https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/observation/rainfall-radar#?map=Rainfall&fcTime=1560408300&zoom=9&lon=-1.08&lat=52.85

Click Here for image of global heatwave 2018 and heat / humidity tolerability chart

14/8/2021, Southern Europe experienced� arecord heatwave, with temperatirers across Italy and Spain reaching records above 48 C.

15/7/2021, Severe flooding hit Germany and Belgium after very heavy rainfall; at least 160 were killed, with hundreds more missing.

30/6/2021, A heatwave hit the NW USA and Canada, with Portland Oregon reaching 46.1 C and Lytton, British Columbia hitting 49.6 C. 130 people were reported to have died form the heat around Vancouver.

19/2/2021, Texas was in the 5th day of� a very cold snap that had killed at least 57 people. Water pipes and wind turbines froze solid, causing power cuts.

16/8/2020, A temperature of 54.4.C was recorded at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, USA.

6/2020, A record hightemperature of 38 C was recorded in the Arctic.

2/2020, The UK was hit by a series of storms, causing severe flooding in many areas including south Wales, Yorkshire and Shropshire.

2/1/2020, In Australia, ongoing catastrophic fires have burned over 40,000 square kilometres, destroyed 1,500 homes and killed at least 17 people, in a drought and temperatures reaching high into the 40s C.

19/12/2019, Australia was enduring a extreme heatwave and drought, There were numerous severe forest fires. Average temperatures in Australia soared to a record 41.9C, peak temperatures reaching 47.7 C. Temperatures at Nullarbor weather station later attained 49.9 C.

15/11/2019, Very hot dry and windy weather in Australia exacerbated bush fires that, to date, have killed 3 people, injured 100, and destroyed 150 homes. Australia was experiencing its hottest summer on record, after an abnormally hot and dry winter. (2) The north and Midlands of England experienced severe flooding, with areas around Doncaster and the Severn Valley hard hit.

9/2019, Hurricane Dorian became one of the most powerful ever recorded. It hit the Bahamas with sustained winds of 300 kph (185 mph); it was unusually slow-moving meaning areas suffered the winds for longer. It killed over 20 people and caused sea surges of eight metres above normal.

26/7/2019, The Swedish village of Markusvinsa recorded a temperature of 34.8 C, the highest ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

25/7/2019, The temperature at Paris-Montsouris station surpassed the previous high of 40.4C, set in July 1947, soon after 1pm and continued to climb, reaching 42.6C soon after 4pm. Bordeaux set a new record of 42.1 C. In Britain the highest recorded temperature was 38.7 C in Cambridge, exceeding the previous �record of38.5 C set at Faversham, Kent on 2003. However 38.1 C was a record for the UK for July, the previous record being 36.7 at Heathrow in July 2015. The Netherlands set a new all-time temperature record of 39.4 at Gilzen-Rije airbase. Belgium set a new national record of 40.6 C, the highest since records began in 1833. Germany set a new record of 41.5 C at Lingen, the day after a record temperature of 40.5 C in Geilenkirchen. Portugal and Greece saw major forest fores, and nuclear plants in France had to be shut down because the rivers were too warm for the emissions of cooling water.

28/6/2019, Europe was hit by a severe heatwave. In France, a record temperature of 45.9 C was recorded at Gallargues de Montueux, near Montpellier, breaking the previous record of 44.1 C set in 2003. Countires from Italy to Poland were affected, with major forest forest fires in Spain.

15/3/2019, Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe, killing at least 705 people, with hundreds more missing.

24/1/2019, During a record-breaking heatwave and drought in Australia, the temperature in Adelaide hit 46.6 C, the highest since records began 80 years ago. The mean temperature for the whole of January in Australia exceeded 30 C, the highest since records began.

2018, Three years of drought were now causing severe water shortages in Cape Town, South Africa.

4/8/2018, Excess UK deaths from the heatwave between 25/6/2018 and 9/7/2018 were reported tpo be 663. In Spain two heat-related deaths were reported as temperatures there reached 45 C.

1/8/2018, Arctic summer ice coverage dropped to a low of 4.6 million square kilometres, against a summer minimum of 7.9 million square kilometres in 1980.

27/7/2018, A heatwave in Japan saw temperatures rise to over 40 C, with 65 deaths, and 22,600 hospitalised. Meanwhile in Greece 81 died in the worst wildfires in Europe since World War Two. Latvia, Norway, Sweden and the UK also suffered heatwaves and drought. Severe wildfires also affected many States across the USA.

5/7/2018, A record high temperature of 51.3 C was recorded in the Sahara Desert, Algeria.

26/8/2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, dumping 50 inches of rainfall in the Houston area and causing major flooding.

5/8/2017, The �Lucifer� heatwave hit Europe, with temperatures having reached over 42C in Spain, and predicted to attain 46 across Italy, the Balkans and Poland, as the jet stream brought very warm air northwards.

28/5/2017, A temperature of 54 C was recorded at Turbat, Pakistan.

21/6/2016, A temperature of 53.9 C was recorded at Mitribah, Kuwait.

3/6/2016, Severe floods hit Paris and northern France. The River Seine reached over 6 metres above normal level. It was the worst flooding in the region since 1910.

27/12/2015, York was hit by flooding, the worst since 1982. By 29/12/2015 some 6,700 properties across northern England had been hit by floods.

26/12/2015, Heavy rainfall began, lasting for three days, in Missouri, Mississippi and Illinois, causing severe flooding.

25/12/2015, Troops were out in Cumbria erecting flood barriers as the area was flooded by heavy rains for the third time in a month.

29/5/2015, In India, over 2,000 had died because of heatwave, with temperatures reaching 50 C. This exceeded the previous toll of 1,677 in a heatwave in 1995.

4/4/2014, The railway line at Dawlish re-opened after storm damage was repaired, see 4/2/2014.

10/2/2014, Severe flooding was now affecting large areas of Surrey and Berkshire west of London, including Staines, Datchet and Windsor.

8/2/2014, As severe storms continued to batter the coast of south and west England, with widespread persistent flooding, a landslip closed the railway at Crewkerne, Somerset. All of Devon and Cornwall were now without rail services.

4/2/2014, A section of the main-line railway between Exeter and Plymouth was washed away by heavy seas at Dawlish, as severe storms and heavy rain continued to batter Britain. The line re-opened on 4/4/2014.

23/12/2013, A succession of intense storms hit the UK, with heavy rainfall and high winds. There was serious flooding, especially in the Surrey area. The heavy rainfall continued into January 2014, with flooding in the Somerset Levels.

5/12/2013, Severe storms battered the UK, and a storm surge caused the worst flooding since 1953.

8/11/2013, Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. With winds of 160 mph, at least 2,300 were killed, 600,000 made homeless, and US$ 15 billion damage done.

30/6/2013, A temperature of 54 C was recorded at Death Valley, USA.

28/4/2011, Heavy storms across the US killed over 300 people.

2010, Average global wind speeds began to increase again after a period of 30 years during which they declined by 2.35 per decade; known as �global terrestrial stilling�. There had been concern that greater roughness of the Earth�s surface, as cities grew and had taller buildings, was causing this decrease. However between 2010 and 2020 average global windpseeds rose by 7%.

7/2/2009, Severe bush fires hit Australia, killing 173, injuring 500, rendering 7,500 homeless. Temperatures had reached a record 46.4 C.

5/9/2008, For the first time in recorded history, both the North West Passage and the North East Passage were clear of Arctic sea ice.

8/2008, Heavy rain caused flooding across northern England and the Midlands, including Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire.

2/5/2008, Hurricane Nargis hit southern Burma, killing over 84,000 people, and leaving 56,000 missing.

5/2/2008, Tornadoes killed 57 people in the southern USA.

24/7/2007, In the Balkans, temperatures reached 43 C in Serbia, 44 C in Bulgaria and 45 C in Bosnia and Macedonia, the hottest for 120 years; 500 heat-related deaths were reported in Hungary.

28/6/2007, Greece had its worst heatwave for more than a century, 11 people died of heatstroke.

28/11/2005, The United Nations Climate Change Conference opened in Montreal, Canada.

24/9/2005, Hurricane Rita hit the US Gulf coast.� The western section of New Orleans was flooded again.

1/9/2005, World oil prices rose sharply following damage to US oil refining capacity following Hurricane Katrina.

29/8/2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern and south �east states of the USA, with winds of up to 175 mph, severely damaging an area as big as Great Britain. New Orleans was particularly badly hit. The city of 500,000 people sits around 1 metre below sea level, due to subsidence associated with the growth of the Mississippi delta, and was flooded, in some areas several metres deep, when the levees protecting the city from Lake Pontchartrain to the north gave way. Several thousand people died. There were allegations that the maintenance of the levees had been cut back to help fund the fighting in Iraq, and that National Guardsmen who could have helped evacuate the victims and restore law and order were away in Iraq. A week after the floods, there was almost no food or potable water, and disease and looting, along with rapes and murder, were rampant. People likened the situation to a Third World disaster, right in America itself.

16/8/2004, 8 inches of rain, four times the monthly average, fell on Boscastle in north Devon, causing the worst floods in the area for 50 years. 60 cars were washed into the sea and 200 people had to be airlifted to safety, but remarkably no-one was killed or seriously injured.

7/2004, Floods made 30 million Bangladeshis homeless.

2/7/2003, The World Meteorological Organisation warned that global warming would cause an increase in extreme weather events. In June 2003 the south of France saw record temperatures of 40 C and in India the per-Monsoon heatwave hit 45-49 C. The heatwave across Europe caused 30,000 premature deaths.

2002, Flooding across Europe direct costs amounted to 16 billion euros.

31/1/2002, A large section of the Larsen ice shelf in Antarctica began disintegrating.� Eventually some 3,250 sq km (1,254 sq miles) was lost.

3/5/1999. A tornado in Oklahoma City registered the fastest winds so far recorded on Earth, at 318 mph.

24/2/1999, 38 died when two avalanches hit the Alpine town of Galtuer in western Austria.

7/8/1998. The Yangtse River in China flooded, killing 12,000 people. 240,000 square kilometres iof farmland was inundated.

11/4/1998, The worst floods for 50 years hit central and southern England, killing 5 people and causing �500 million damage.

24/12/1997, A violent storm began in Britain, with 80 mph winds in southern England, killing 13 people. The storm ended on 26/12/1997, but another storm on 3-4 January 1998 hit the UK, with winds up to 100 mph, killing 2 people.

9/10/1997. Hurricane Pauline hit Acapulco, Mexico, killing 250 people.

3/1/1997. The death toll in Europe�s big freeze hit 220 as temperatures plunged to �10 C from Britain to central Russia.

6/11/1996, A cyclone hit Andhra Pradesh, India, killing 2,000.

31/8/1995, The London Meteorological Office announced that August 1995 had been the hottest month since 1659.

1/2/1995. Major floods hit northern Europe during January and February. The Netherlands and Germany were worst hit.

1/8/1993. Major flooding hit the Midwest Mississippi area of the USA

16/7/1993. St Louis, Missouri, flooded as the Mississippi broke its banks.

14/3/1993, Severe storms along the east coast of the USA killed 66 people.

14/12/1991, The industry lobby in Europe blocked a carbon dioxide tax.

21/9/1991, International climate change conference in Nairobi; the US resisted cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, Japan remained uncommitted, but Europe wanted agreement on reductions.

11/5/1991, 250,000 people died in a cyclone which hit Bangladesh.

29/4/1991. A 145mph cyclone devastated the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, killing 138,000 people and making millions homeless.

6/2/1991. The UK suffered a severe cold snap as temperatures fall to �10 C (14 F), the coldest for four years. Greece declared a state of emergency because of the worst winter weather for ten years.

24/12/1990, A cyclone hit Queensland, Australia, with� wind speeds up to 150 mph.

3//8/1990. Britain experienced its hottest day since records began. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, recorded 37.1 C (98.8 F); London hit 35 C. Ozone levels soared and as a runway melted at Heathrow and rails buckled, high speed trains were limited to 80mph.

17/4/1990. International conference on Global Warming.

25/1/1990, A storm with winds up to 110 mph hit southern England and Wales, killing 46 people.

21/9/1989, Hurricane Hugo with 140 mph winds battered South Carolina and Georgia. The Caribbean was also badly affected.

17/9/1989, The north�east Caribbean was hit by Hurricane Hugo.

26/4/1989, Bangladesh was hit by a huge tornado, 1.6km wide. All houses in an area of 6 square kilometres were obliterated. 1,300 died, 12,000 were injured and over 80,000 left homeless.

7/2/1989, Violent storms and updraughts caused a rain of sardines over the town of Ipswich, Australia.

2/12/1988, A 110 mph cyclone in Bangladesh left thousands dead and 5 million homeless.

20/9/1988. 20 million were made homeless in floods in Bangladesh.

16/9/1988, 1,330 were reported to have died in floods in Bangladesh.

31/8/1988. Widespread flooding in Bangladesh left 25 million homeless.

11/8/1988. Devastating floods brought chaos to Sudan. After 13 hours of rain, 1.5 million people had been made homeless and an unknown number drowned.

24/5/1988, Snow fell in the Syrian Desert and Damascus had ten hours of snowfall for the first time in 50 years.

25/11/1987, The Category 5 typhoon, Nina, hit the Philippines, with 165 mph winds and a major storm surge, killing 1,036 people.

16/10/1987. A severe hurricane hit Britain. 19 people died when storms battered the south of England, as winds of up to 100 mph tore up trees by the roots. Kew Garden recorded a gust of 94 mph and lost trees overnight that had taken 200 years to grow. Property damage was between �100 and �600 million. This was stated to be the worst storm in Britain since 1707.

26/7/1987. A heatwave in Greece killed over 1,000 people.

6/8/1986 A storm dumped a record 328 mm or rain in one day on Sydney, Australia.

14/4/1986, 2.2 lb (1 kg) hailstones fell in Golalganj district, Bangladesh, killing 92 people.

25/5/1985. A cyclone and tidal wave killed over 20,000 people in Bangladesh.

1/3/1985. The Pentagon officially accepted the theory that nuclear war would lead to a prolonged �nuclear winter�.

5/3/1984. Scientists warned of a �Greenhouse Effect� amid growing concern that carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels was damaging the environment.

18/8/1983, Hurricane Alicia hit the Texas coast, killing 22 and causing over US$ 3.8 billion (in 2005 terms) damage.

21/7/1983, The world's lowest temperature was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at -89.2 C (-128.6 F).

6/4/1982, A blizzard dumped 1-2 feet of snow in the northeastern US, unprecedented for April.

10/1/1982. Shawbury, Shropshire experienced the lowest temperature ever recorded in England, -26 C. The lowest ever temperature recorded in the UK was this day, -27.2 C, at Braemar, Aberdeenshire. This equalled the record set in 1895, and was equalled again in 1995.

15/7/1980, An unusually severe thunderstorm hit 4 counties in the US in western Wisconsin, around the city of Eau Claire, killing one person and causing US$ 250 million in damages.

23/6/1980, A heatwave in the UK began; it lasted until 6/9/1980.

18/2/1979, The Sahara had a 30-minute snowfall.

30/1/1978, Blizzards in the US killed 30 people.

7/1977, A temperature record for Europe of 48 C was set in Athens.

19/1/1977, Snow fell for the first recorded time in Florida.

1/9/1976, The worsening drought meant 750,000 homes in Yorkshire went on standpipes.

22/8/1976, Britain was suffering the worst drought for 500 years, and it was also the hottest summer since at least 1727.

14/7/1976. Parliament passed the �Drought Bill� as Britain faced its worst drought in 250 years.

26/6/1976. London recorded a record high temperature of 35 degrees C, or 95 F.

7/7/1975, Jacob Aall Bonnevie Bjerknes, Norwegian-US meteorologist, died in Los Angeles, California.

1/6/1975, Snow fell on London in June, for the first time since records began.

25/12/1974, Darwin, capital of Australia�s Northern Territory, was devastated by Cyclone Tracy.

19/9/1974, Hurricane Fifi killed 8,000 in Honduras.

19/10/1973, Severe floods in Spain killed 500.

23/6/1972, In the USA, hurricane Agnes killed a34 and caused US$ 1.5 billion.

9/6/1972, After heavy rain in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA, river flooding killed at least 226 people.

29/10/1971, A cyclone hit the east coast of India, killing at least 10,000 people.

13/11/1970. In Bangladesh (East Pakistan) a cyclone and tidal waves killed over 500,000 people.

13/5/1970, Northern Romania received a third of its average annual rainfall in just two days (13/14th May) destroying 11,000 houses and damaging another 72,000. These floods were worse than those of 1840 in the same area.

25/9/1969, Heavy rains began in Tunisia. Flooding killed 700 and left 200,000 homleless.

18/8/1969, Hurricane Camille hit areas of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, with 190 mph winds. 200 were killed, and a further 74 in Virginia died through flooding.

3/11/1968. Severe storms and floods in northern Italy killed over 100 people.

15/9/1968, Severe flooding in south east England, the worst since 1953.

14/8/1968, Heavy rain in India caused severe flooding, killing over 1,000.

25/11/1967, Heavy rain in Lisbon, Portugal flooded 350 square miles and killed 475.

9/11/1966. Severe flooding hit Florence, ruining many art treasures. The River Arno burst its banks after heavy rain upstream from the city which was situated in a narrow valley, and 100 people died.

2/6/1965, The second of two cyclones (first one on 11/5/1965) hit eastern Pakistan, killing 45,000 people.

5-6/3/1963, Britain had its first frost-free night since December, after a very cold winter.

19/1/1963 Snow and ice meant only 9 out of 63 League Cup Football matches were played, and two of those were abandoned.

26/12/1962. The worst winter in Britain since 1740 began with a �big freeze� that lasted well into January 1963.

15/1/1962, British weather reports started using Centigrade as well as Fahrenheit.

1960, Lake Chad had recovered from the drought and shrinkage it was undergoing in 1914. It had been rising since 1953 and now stood at its highest level of the 20^th century.

31/10/1960, The second of two cyclones (first one on 10/10/1960) hit eastern Pakistan, killing 10,000.

9/10/1960. The worst storms since 1953 caused severe flooding in southern England.

1/4/1960. The US launched the world�s first meteorological satellite, Tiros I. Launched from Cape Canaveral, it only orbited earth for 78 days, but proved that satellites could be useful for surveying global weather conditions. The satellite was 42 inches in diameter, 19 inches high, weighed 270 pounds, and had 9,200 solar cells to power it. It had two television cameras and could store pictures taken whilst out of range of the ground radar station. In total, Tiros I took 22,500 pictures of weather conditions.

26/9/1959, Typhoon Vera hot Japan, killing 4,464 on Honshu.

14/2/1959, The US Weather Bureau released a report that concluded "that the world is in the midst of a long-term warming trend", based on data gathered in Antarctica. Dr. H.E. Landsberg, director of the bureau's office of climatology, said that the cause of the global warming was unknown, but added "One theory is that the change is man-made, that a blanket of carbon dioxide given off by the burning of coal and oil retards the radiation of heat by the earth.".

21/1/1958, Driffield experienced the lowest temperature ever recorded in Yorkshire, -18.9 C.

5/3/1956, The telephone weather forecast service began in the UK.

19/8/1955, Hurricane Audrey hit Texas and Louisiana, killing 535.

31/1/1953. More than 300 people died as severe flooding hit Kent, Essex, and East Anglia. 1,783 people died in floods in The Netherlands, and Zeeland was very hard hit. 59 died on Canvey Island.

1952, Severe drought in Australia.

16/8/1952. Severe thunderstorms in Somerset and north Devon caused rivers to flood and devastated the towns of Lynmouth and Lynton. 36 died.

3/2/1952, In England, 283 people died 8in gale force winds and high tides causing major floods in the east coast. Thousands were made homeless.

2/7/1951, Severe floods in Kansas and Missouri killed 41 and left 200,000 homeless.

17/12/1947. A blizzard dumped 27 inches of snow on New York.

15/3/1947 Almost 600,000 acres of farmland were flooded in The Fens as the River Ouse overflowed, following a thaw of deep snow, drowning 2 million sheep.

6/3/1947, Deep snow cut off 13 towns in Britain.

26/2/1947, The UK Government considered rationing coal as a cold snap entered its fifth week. The winter was the coldest since 1880/81. Coal was piling up at the pit heads, unable to move as railways were blocked by snow. Buxton and Bridlington were cut off by snowdrifts as high as 20 feet. Blizzards at sea kept fishing fleets in port, worsening food shortages.

20/2/1947, In Britain, very cold weather along with fuel shortages threatened to damage the economy.

29/1/1947, In the UK, record low temperatures caused power cuts.

23/1/1947, Snow began falling in south east England. It was the start of a protracted period of extremely cold weather.

9/1942, The German meteorologist Findeisen successfully �seeded� a cloud for the first time over Prague, using siliceous dust to make it snow.

17/1/1940. The River Thames froze over for the first time since 1880 as bitterly cold weather engulfed Europe.

1940s, Britain began to experience a run of colder winters, but warm summers.

21/9/1938, A hurricane hit New England, killing 682 and injuring over 1,500.

2/9/1935, A small but intense storm hit the Florida Keys, killing 408 out of 760 people living there.

11/4/1935. Severe dust storms hit Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas, and New Mexico, destroying crops and making many homeless. Dust storms covering up to five states at a time developed because US farmers had ploughed up areas unsuitable for this. A run of wet summers had made large areas of prairie seem suitable for the plough, but when normal drier conditions returned, the ploughing had broken up the roots of the prairie grasses that held the soil in place. Topsoil blew away, farmers were ruined, and diseases such as dust-pneumonia struck many, especially children and livestock.

21/9/1934, The most powerful storm for 40 years hit Japan. 3,066 people were killed, and 45,600 houses destroyed.

9/11/1932, At Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuba, 2,500 out of a population of 4,000 were drowned by a storm surge.

1931, Floods on the Yangtse River, China, wasflooded from Shanghai to Hankow. 200,000 were killed, a further 250,000 left homeless and US$ 500 million damage done.

7/7/1931, A temperature of 55 C was recorded at kebili, Tunisia. However the veracity of this figure has been doubted.

3/9/1930, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was destroyed by a hurricane. 8,000 died, 12,000 were injured, and US$20,000,000 damage.

5/12/1929, 94 mph winds swept across Britain, killing 26 people.

1/12/1929. Major Thames floods.

17/9/1928, A hurricane hit Lake Okeechobee, Florida, USA drowning some 2,000 people.

7/1/1928. Fourteen people drowned when the River Thames flooded parts of London, including the Palace of Westminster. A sudden thaw swelled the river as high tides and strong winds also drove up water levels.

4/1/1928, Severe flooding hit large areas of England.

25/12/1927, A White Christmas in London.

22/4/1927, Start of the Great Mississippi Flood, until 5/5/1927. 246 people were killed.

28/2/1927, In Britain severe gales with wind speeds up to 160 kph / 102 mph.

18/3/1925, A series of tornadoes killed 792 and injured 13,000 in the US Midwest.

26/3/1923. Regular daily weather forecasts began to be broadcast on BBC radio.

13/9/1922, A record temperature of 58 C, or 136.4 F, was recorded at El Azizia, Libya. However the veracity of this figure has been doubted.

8/3/1922, 100 mph winds battered England�s south coast.

4/6/1921, In the US, floods killed 500 in eastern Colorado.

29/5/1920. Lincolnshire hit by major flooding.

28/7/1918, End of the drought in New South Wales. 2,000,000 sheep and lambs had been lost to the drought.

12/1/1918, Chicago isolated by a severe blizzard.

7/1/1915, Heavy rain caused floods in the Thames Valley, turning Windsor Castle into an island.

1914, Sudan was suffering a major drought, with the flow of the Nile at its lowest since 1733.

7/9/1914, James Alfred van Allen was born in Mount Pleasant, Indiana. In 1952 he developed the idea of a balloon launched from a rocket, to study the Earth�s upper atmosphere.

14/6/1914, Severe thunderstorms in London brought ten cm of rain in three hours.

10/7/1913,� A record high temperature of 56.7 C was recorded at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California. However the veracity of this figure has been doubted.

25/3/1913, Flooding on the Miami River in Ohio killed 730 and caused US$ 181 million damage.

26/8/1912. Britain�s heaviest August rainfall on record occurred at Norwich, where six inches fell in twelve

hours. Floods in East Anglia made 10,000 homeless.

4/9/1911. Flooding along China�s Yangtze River killed 100,000 people.

28/8/1911, A heatwave sent the mortality rate in London soaring to 19 per 1,000.

26/8/1911, A heatwave killed 2,500 children in London.

16/6/1910, A cloudburst in Hungary added to existing flood waters, killing 800 people in villages in the Kronstadt district, another 180 in Temesvar and 100 in Moldava.

12/6/1910, Torrential rains caused floods throughout central Europe. The Ahr River overflowed in Germany, killing 200 people around Oberammergau.

26/1/1910. Thousands fled their homes in Paris as the Seine flooded. The river rose 8 metres above normal, causing 400 million Francs damage (over Euro 1 billion in 2015 prices).

30/8/1909, Floods in Mexico killed 1,400.

13/4/1908, Floods in China killed 2,000.

1905, Lake Chad, having maintained its level throughout the 1800s, was now shrinking rapidly, with a new ridge of dry land emerging eastwards into the Lake, and the northern portion drying out.

15/3/1905, Fierce storms in Cornwall killed 23 as winds reached 100 mph.

28/12/1904, The first weather reports by wireless telegraphy were published in London.

21/11/1904, A typhoon off Mindanao, The Philippines, rendered 30,000 people homeless.

4/8/1904. The first Atlantic weather forecast was received by radio telegraph.

22/3/1903, Niagara Falls dried up due to a drought.

21/2/1903, Red rain fell in southern England, coloured by dust from the Sahara.

7/2/1903, James Glaisher, English meteorologist, died (born 7/4/1809).

13/1/1903, The Society Islands in the Pacific were hit by a hurricane; 5,000 were killed.

7/9/1902, The whole of Australia was asked to pray for rain after seven years of drought. Rain did fall 3 days later.

1/5/1902, A tornado killed 416 in Dacca, India.

12/11/1901. More than 200 died as gales swept Britain.

2/7/1901. 400 died in New York heatwave.

30/12/1900, 50 died as gales swept Britain.

4/12/1896. Heavy gales destroyed the chain pier at Brighton.

6/8/1895, Francis W Reichelderfer, US meteorologist, was born.

1893, An exceptionally dry Spring in SE England, with no rainfall at all here for 60 days mid-March to mid-May. Mile End, east London, experie nced no rain for a record 73 days.

9/3/1891, A very heavy blizzard hit the West Country, England, It lasted for four days, and roofs collapsed under the weight of snow, which entirely filled a 90 metre deep valley on Dartmoor. 200 people and huge numbers of livestock froze to death. At sea gales caused the loss of 65 ships and some 220 people drowned. An express train left London at 3pm for Plymouth but hit the snow near Dartmoor and was stuck for days. A farmer noticed the steam engine funnel poking out of the snow and dug through to rescue the passengers who had been without food, water of heat. The train was dug out and eventually reached Plymouth 8 days later. Cold continued, with snow into May, along with frosts , heavy rain and hail. There was a flu epidemic, and snow persisted in Dartmoor even into June.

1890, Icelandic glaciers reached their maximum extent, overrunning farmland.

11/3/1888, A great blizzard began in the USA. This came after one of the mildest wintersin 17 years, and snow now continued until 14/3/1888, totalling over 50 cm, but drifts up to 5 metres deep accumulated.

1887, Major flooding on the Yangtse River, China, killed 7 million and made a further 2 million homelessas an area of 50,000 square milesd was flooded.

1886-7, Severe drought on the Great Plains, USA, causing thousands of cattle farmers to go bankrupt.

25/9/1885. The earliest recorded winter snowfall occurred in London.

12/2/1878. The first weekly weather report was published by the Met Office.

1/1877, Severe winter in the northern Great Plains region of the USA, with a blizzard lasting 72 hours,killing millions of cattle. Entire families froze to death in their cabins.

1872-80, In Britain, a run of wet weather, with 1879 prticularly wet.

1/4/1875, The Times became the first newspaper to publish a daily weather chart.

15/1/1867, 40 people died when ice gave way in a lake in Regents Park, London.

30/4/1865, Meteorologist Robert Fitzroy died in London.

1/10/1864, A cyclone destroyed most of Calcutta, killing 70,000.

1863, Francis Galton coined the term anticyclone, and initiated the modern method of mapping the weather.

4/9/1860. The first weather forecast appeared in The Times. Vice Admiral Robert Fitzroy, after witnessing the shipwreck in a storm of the Royal Charter in a storm off the Anglesey coast in 1859, believed that if storm warnings had been in place the ship coupld have been saved. He persuaded the British government to fund a network of weather stations across the UK, from which dtat was telegraphed to The Times. However his forecasts were rarther inaccurate and Fitzroy was subject to much public ridicule. On 28/4/1865 he committed suicide. However his weather records for the early 1860s have proved invaluable for climate historians.

1854, The Meteorological Office, UK,� was founded as a branch of the Board of Trade. Its fub ction wad to provide weather forecasts for shipping.

30/3/1848, Niagara Falls ceased to flow for 30 hours, as an ice dam built up in lake Erie.

1836-45, Britain experienced a run of cool wet summers, with poor harvests.

11/4/1829, Alexander Buchan, Scottish meteorologist, was born.

1816, A very cold summer in the USA followed the eruption of Tambora in 1815. June and July saw widespread frosts and snow, killing crops.

14/1/1814, The last frost fair was held on the Thames at London.

9/11/1812. One of the worst winters on record in northern Europe began, severely affecting Napoleon�s troops as they retreated from Moscow

7/4/1809, James Glaisher, English meteorologist, was born (died 7/2/1903).

1805, Sir Francis Beaufort devised the wind strength classification system now named after him.

1794/5, A very cold winter in NW Europe; the Thames and Severn rivers froze, as did the Zuyder Zee. This led to the only recorded battle between a navy and cavalry, as French horsemen rode across the sea ice to capture a Dutch fleet.

1783, Extremely cold weather persisted across England from June to September. In December snow was so heavy it felled trees, and thousands froze to death. The cause was smoke and sulphur haze from the Laki volcano, Iceland.

8/2/1740. The great frost of London ended. It had begun on 24/12/1739.

17/10/1737, A cyclone caused a 12-metre tidal surge at Kolkata, killing 300,000.

1/1710, France experienced a very cold winter, with food shortages as severe cold killed crops, trees and livestock. Rivers froze so that laden carts could be driven on them.

1/1709, Severe cold across Europe. The Little Ice Age (lasting until the mid-1800s). The Baltic Sea froze, with people reportedly walking across it.

26/11/1703. The first Eddystone Lighthouse was swept away in the Great Storm, which killed over 8,000 across Britain.

4/2/1684, The River Thames suddenly thawed, drowning many of the people shopping at the Frost Fair set up on the river.

9/1/1684. During a deep freeze, the River Thames at London froze over and puppet shows and shopping stalls were set up on the ice. Even the sea froze for a distance of up to two miles offshore.

15/12/1654. A meteorological office in Tuscany began daily temperature readings.

1648, Air pressure was shown to decrease as altitude increases.

25/10/1647, Evangelista Torricelli, Italian mathematician and scientist who devised the barometer or �Torricellian Tube�, died in Florence.

1646, Floods in The Netherlands killed 110,000.

1645-1715, A period of exceptional cold across Eurasia, even by the standards of the Little ice Age.

15/10/1608, Evangelista Torricelli, Italian mathematician and scientist who invented the barometer in 1643, was born in Faenza.

2/1608, A very cold winter in Britain. The Thames froze in London and a frost fair was held. The North Sea froze out for several miles so that people could walk out to trapped ships. Sheep and cattle died, causing mass starvation; rivers froze so that mills stopped working and bread became scarce. Frost even split trees open.

1500 -1525, Some amelioration of the cool period in Britain.

1377, Floods devastated much agricultural land along the River thames in the London area.

13/4/1360, An exceptionally cold day in Britain, recorded as �Black Monday�. Dark mist, hail, and cold so bitter that people died of cold whilst riding their horses.

1350, The Little Ice Age was underway, ending the Mediaeval Warm Period. The Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland regularly froze, allowing polar bears to roam Iceland, The Norse settlements in Greenland were abandoned. The Baltic froze in 1303 and again in 1306/7, also the Thames froze.

In Britain, all seasons became cooler and wetter. Winters were severe, and summers cool and wet, with poor harvests.

1346, An extremely wet summer in England. Rainfall fell almost without let-up from midsummer to Christmas, causing widespread flooding along the River Trent.

1337, William Merlee of Oxford attempted the first scientifically-based weather foreasts.

1315-1318, Heavy and persistent rainfall in England caused harvest failures and animal diseases, causing food shortages. Crops rotted in the ground before they could be harvested.

23/10/1091, A severe storm in London destroyed London Bridge along with St Mary le Bow church. 600 houses were damaged, also the Tower of London.

900 � 1300, The Medieval Warm Period. Typically, high pressure over Eurasia weakened the westerly winds from the Atlantic, causing a warmer drier climate. The monsoons blowing off the Indian Ocean into southern Asia also weakened. Europe experienced population growth, but in the already-dry Islamic lands, population fell.

821, In Europe, a cold summer was followed by a very bitter winter. The Danube, Seine and Rhine, rivers that normally never froze, had ice so thick a horse and cart could cross on it. The cold spell lingered for several years, bringing plague and famine, The cause was probably a huge eruption of the Katla volcano in Iceland.

800 BCE, The climate over Eurasia became windier.� For the Mediterranean� this meant higher rainfall from the atlantic Westerlies, increasing crop yields. However north of the Alps the growing season shortened and respiratory diseases increased due to the cold and damp. In China the winds blew off the Siberian Plateau; drier weather meant fewer Yellow River floods but the arid country to the north of the Yellow River grew even drier.

2200 BCE, Egypt was becoming drier, with the peak hieghts of the annual Nile floods falling. In ca. 2000 BCE the population of northern China began falling, with some cities abandoned; however climate records for China at this time are scant.

3500 BCE, Lake Chad began to dry out; the Sahara became a desert.

3800 BCE, Global climate began cooling. Rainfall decreased, and Mesopotamia became drier, as did northern Africa.

Little Ice Age, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age