Chronography of Selected weather / climate events
Page last
modified 24 October 2023
See also Environment
Colour key:
Floods
Storms
Heat and drought
Cold
Thunderstorms and Hailstones
Dust storms
Climate trends, https://www.climate.gov/maps-data
Climate change tracke, https://climatechangetracker.org/igcc
US heatwave vulnerability and
prevalence, https://www.heat.gov/
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
Record
hottest days observed
UK
Date |
Rank |
Value
C |
2022, July 19 |
1 |
40.3 |
2022, July 18 |
3 |
38.1 |
2020, Aug 7 |
11= |
36.4 |
2020, July 31 |
5 |
37.8 |
2019, July 25 |
2 |
38.7 |
2015, July 1 |
7= |
36.7 |
2016, July 19 |
10 |
36.5 |
2003, Aug 10 |
4 |
38.5 |
2003, Aug 6 |
11= |
36.4 |
1990, Aug 3 |
6 |
37.1 |
1911, Aug 9 |
7= |
36.7 |
1990, Aug 2 |
9 |
36.6 |
10
September 2023,
Heavy rains in Libya caused
two dams to burst and the coastal town of Derna was badly damaged.
3
August 2023, Paraguay saw a new record winter temperature of 39.7 C
at Vallemi Airport.
1
August 2023, Chile saw a new record winter temperature of 38.7 C
at Vicuna.
July 2023, Japan experienced its hottest July on record, with temperatires
reaching 38 C
24
July 2023, Severe heatwave in southern Europe. Sardinia saw a
new temperature record of 46.2 C. Palermo, Sicily, exceeded 47 C,
beating the previous record from 1999 by over 2 C. Death
Valley USA reached 53.3 C. Wildfires affected many areas.
23
July 2023, Tunis reached a record 49 C.
17
July 2023, Death Valley, USA, recorded its hottest midnight
temperature ever, at 48.9 C.
16
July 2023, China recorded its hottest ever temperatire,
reaching 52.2C
in Sanbao, Xinjiang.
30
June 2023, The UK experienced its warmest ever June average
temperature. 15.8
C. However the country escaped the severe July heatwave in
southern Europe, with a rainy wet July.
30
August� 2022, Pakistan had seen, over the previous two months, the
heaviest rainfall on record and now 72 of its 2160 districts were flood
disaster zones.
19
July 2022, Southern and western Europe experienced a severe
heatwave lasting several days with record temperatures seen in Greece, Spain,
France and the UK. The UK saw a new record temperature of 40.3 C at Coningsby, Lincolnshire,
and saw a record minimum overnight high temperatoire of 25.9 C at Elmley Moor,
Yorkshire. There were severe wildfires in SW France, Spain, the UK and other
countries.
January 2022, Paraguay set a new national record for heat of 45.6 C (114 F).
14
August� 2021, Southern Europe experienced a record heatwave, with temperatirers
across Italy and Spain reaching records above 48 C.
15
July 2021, Severe flooding hit Germany and
Belgium after very heavy rainfall; at least 160 were killed, with hundreds more
missing.
30
June 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
February 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
August� 2020, A temperature of 54.4.C
was recorded at Furnace Creek, Death Valley,
USA.
June 2020, A
record high temperature of 38 C was recorded in the Arctic.
February
2020, The UK was hit by a series of storms, causing severe flooding in many
areas including south Wales, Yorkshire and Shropshire.
2 January 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 December 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 November 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.
September
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 July 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 July 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 ever was set at 38.7 C in
Cambridge,
exceeding the
previous �record of 38.5 C set at Faversham, Kent in
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 June 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 March 2019, Cyclone
Idai hit Mozambique, Malawi and eastern Zimbabwe, killing at least 705 people,
with hundreds more missing.
24 January 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
August� 2018, Excess UK deaths
from the heatwave between 25 June 2018 and 9 July 2018 were reported tpo be
663. In Spain
two heat-related deaths were reported as temperatures there reached 45 C.
1
August� 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 July 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 July 2018, A
record high temperature of 51.3 C was recorded in the Sahara Desert, Algeria.
26
August� 2017, Hurricane Harvey
made landfall in Texas, dumping 50 inches of rainfall in the Houston area and
causing major flooding.
5
August� 2017, The �Lucifer� heatwave hit Europe, with
temperatures having reached over 42C in Spain, and predicted to attain 46 C across Italy, the
Balkans and Poland,
as the jet stream brought very warm air northwards.
28 May 2017, A
temperature of 54 C was recorded at Turbat, Pakistan.
1/2017, Sydney, Australia, briefly exceeded 47 C.
21 June 2016, A
temperature of 53.9 C was recorded at Mitribah, Kuwait.
3 June 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 December 2015, York was hit by flooding, the worst since 1982. By 29 December 2015 some
6,700 properties across northern England had been hit by floods.
26 December 2015, Heavy rainfall began, lasting for three days, in Missouri, Mississippi
and Illinois, causing severe flooding.
25 December 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 May 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 April 2014, The railway line at Dawlish re-opened after storm damage was repaired,
see 4 February 2014.
10 February 2014, Severe flooding was now affecting large areas of Surrey and Berkshire
west of London, including Staines, Datchet and Windsor.
8 February 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 February 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 April 2014.
23 December 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 December 2013, Severe
storms battered the UK, and a storm surge caused the worst flooding since 1953.
8 November 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 June 2013, A
temperature of 54
C was recorded at Death Valley,
USA.
29
October 2012,
Hurricane
Sandy, a Category 3 storm, hit the
east coast of the USA after devastating thye Caribbean. Overall it killed 133
people.
28 April 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 February 2009, Severe
bush fires hit Australia, killing 173, injuring 500, rendering 7,500 homeless.
Temperatures had reached a record 46.4 C.
5 September 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 May 2008, Hurricane
Nargis hit southern Burma, killing
over 84,000 people, and leaving 56,000 missing.
5 February 2008, Tornadoes killed 57 people in the southern USA.
3 August� 2007, Heavy rain in the India region
caused flooding that displaced 20 million people.
24 July 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.
20 July 2007, Heavy rain in the UK
caused floods in the Midlands and southwest.
8 February 2007, England was covered by the heaviest snowfall
for 11 years.
28 June 2007, Greece had its worst heatwave for more than a
century, 11 people died of heatstroke.
28 November 2005, The United Nations Climate Change Conference opened in Montreal, Canada.
24 September
2005, Hurricane
Rita hit the US Gulf coast.� The western section of New Orleans
was flooded again.
1 September 2005, World oil prices rose sharply following
damage to US oil refining capacity following Hurricane Katrina.
29
August� 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.
23
September 2004,
Over 3,000 Haitians died when Hurricane Jeanne
struck, and 300,000 were left homeless.
16
August� 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.
25
September 2003, France reported that 14,800 people died in the
recent heatwave which was temperatures reaching over 104 F (40 C).
10
August� 2003, Europe experienced its hottest summer to date with temperatures at
Heathrow reaching 101 F, 38 C, and Pope John Paul II called on his flock to
pray for rain.
2
July 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 January 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.
15 December 1999, Two weeks of heavy rain in Venezuela
led to catastrophic floods and mudslides, killing 30,000 and leaving 100,000
homeless.
29 October 1999, A cyclone hot Orissa, NE India, killing over 9,600 people and making
thousands more homeless.
3 May 1999. A tornado in Oklahoma
City registered the fastest winds so far recorded on Earth, at 318 mph.
24 February 1999, 38 died
when two avalanches hit the Alpine town of Galtuer in western Austria.
7 August� 1998.
The Yangtse River in China
flooded, killing 12,000 people. 240,000 square kilometres iof farmland was
inundated.
11 April 1998, The worst floods for 50 years hit central
and southern England, killing 5 people and causing �500 million damage.
24 December 1997, A violent storm began in Britain, with 80 mph winds
in southern England, killing 13 people. The storm ended on 26 December 1997,
but another storm on 3-4 January 1998 hit the UK, with winds up to 100 mph,
killing 2 people.
9 October 1997. Hurricane Pauline hit Acapulco, Mexico,
killing 250 people.
3 January 1997. The death toll in Europe�s big freeze hit 220 as
temperatures plunged to �10 C from Britain to central Russia.
6 November 1996, A cyclone hit
Andhra Pradesh, India, killing 2,000.
31 August� 1995,
The London Meteorological Office announced
that August 1995 had been the hottest month since 1659.
1 February 1995. Major
floods hit northern Europe during January and February. The Netherlands and
Germany were worst hit.
30 January 1995, Severe flooding hit NW Europe, as the Rhine reached a
level not seen since the 18th century. Torrential rain and melting Alpine
glaciers caused major floods in Belgium, France, Germany and The Netherlands.
1 August� 1993. Major flooding hit the Midwest Mississippi area of the
USA
16 July 1993. St
Louis, Missouri, flooded as the Mississippi broke its banks.
14 March 1993, Severe
storms along the east coast of the USA killed 66 people.
11 September 1992, Hurricane
Iniki devastated Hawaii, with winds up to 145 mph (235 kph). It killed 6 people
and caused US$ 2 billion damage.
14 December 1991, The industry lobby in Europe blocked a
carbon dioxide tax.
21 September 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 May 1991, 250,000 people
died in a cyclone which hit Bangladesh.
29 April 1991. A 145mph
cyclone devastated the port of Chittagong
in Bangladesh, killing 138,000
people and making millions homeless.
6 February 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 December 1990, A cyclone
hit Queensland, Australia, with� wind speeds
up to 150 mph.
3/ August� 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 April 1990. International conference on Global Warming.
25 January 1990, A storm
with winds up to 110 mph hit southern
England and Wales, killing 46 people.
21 September 1989, Hurricane Hugo
with 140 mph winds battered South
Carolina and Georgia. The Caribbean was also badly affected.
17 September 1989, The north�east
Caribbean was hit by Hurricane Hugo.
26 April 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 February 1989, Violent
storms and updraughts caused a rain of sardines over the town of Ipswich,
Australia.
2 December 1988, A 110 mph cyclone
in Bangladesh left thousands dead
and 5 million homeless.
20 September 1988. 20 million were made homeless in
floods in Bangladesh.
16 September 1988, 1,330 were reported to have died in
floods in Bangladesh.
31 August� 1988.
Widespread flooding in Bangladesh left 25 million homeless.
11 August� 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 May 1988, Snow fell in the Syrian Desert and Damascus had ten hours of snowfall for the
first time in 50 years.
25 November 1987, The
Category 5 typhoon, Nina, hit the Philippines,
with 165 mph winds and a major storm surge, killing 1,036 people.
16 October 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 July 1987. A heatwave in Greece killed over 1,000 people.
6 August� 1986 A storm dumped a record 328 mm or rain in one day on
Sydney, Australia.
14 April 1986, 2.2 lb (1 kg)
hailstones fell in Golalganj district, Bangladesh, killing 92 people.
25 May 1985. A
cyclone and tidal wave killed over 20,000 people in Bangladesh.
1 March 1985. The Pentagon officially accepted the theory that
nuclear war would lead to a prolonged �nuclear
winter�.
5 March 1984. Scientists warned of a �Greenhouse Effect� amid growing concern that
carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels was damaging the environment.
18 August� 1983, Hurricane Alicia hit the Texas
coast, killing 22 and causing over US$ 3.8 billion (in 2005 terms) damage.
21 July 1983, The world's
lowest temperature was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at -89.2 C
(-128.6 F).
6 April 1982, A blizzard dumped
1-2 feet of snow in the northeastern US,
unprecedented for April.
10 January 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 July 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 June 1980, A heatwave in the
UK began; it lasted until 6 September 1980.
18 February 1979, The Sahara
had a 30-minute snowfall.
12 May 1978, The US Commerce Department announced that
hurricanes would no longer be named only after women.
30 January 1978, Blizzards
in the US killed 30 people.
7/1977, A temperature record for Europe of 48 C was set in Athens.
19 January 1977, Snow fell
for the first recorded time in Florida.
1 September 1976, The
worsening drought meant 750,000 homes in Yorkshire
went on standpipes.
22 August� 1976, Britain was suffering the worst drought for 500 years, and it was also the
hottest summer since at least 1727, with temperatures reaching around 36 C in
Somerset.
14 July 1976. Parliament passed the �Drought
Bill� as Britain faced its worst drought
in 250 years.
26 June 1976. London
recorded a record high temperature of 35 degrees C, or 95 F.
7 July 1975, Jacob Aall Bonnevie Bjerknes, Norwegian-US
meteorologist, died in Los Angeles, California.
1 June 1975, Snow fell on London in June, for the first time since
records began.
25 December 1974, Darwin,
capital of Australia�s Northern Territory, was devastated by Cyclone Tracy.
19 September 1974, Hurricane
Fifi killed 8,000 in Honduras.
18 August� 1974, Severe flooding devastated central Luzon, Philippines.
6/1974, Bangladesh devastated by the worst floods for 20
years. 1,300 people were drowned and 27 million driven from their homes. 0.9
million tonnes of rice was destroyed, also much jute, a major export earner,
was lost.
4 April 1974, The USA and
Canada suffered their worst tornadoes since 1925, killing over 300 people.
1973, The Sahel region of Africa was in the 5th year of a severe
drought.
19 October 1973, Severe floods in Spain killed
500.
1972, India�s monsoon failed, leading to food and water shortages.
1972, Water inflow into Lake Chad was down by two thirds, giving Nigeroa a
land border with Chad for the first time in its history.
23 June 1972, In
the USA, hurricane Agnes killed a34 and caused US$ 1.5 billion.
9 June 1972, After
heavy rain in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA, river flooding killed at least 226
people.
29 October 1971, A cyclone
hit the east coast of India, killing at least 10,000 people.
13 November 1970. In Bangladesh (East Pakistan) a cyclone and tidal waves killed over
500,000 people.
30 October 1970, Heavy monsoon flooding hit Vietnam., killing 293 and
leaving 200,000 homeless.
13 May 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 September 1969, Heavy
rains began in Tunisia. Flooding
killed 700 and left 200,000 homleless.
18 August� 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 November 1968. Severe storms and floods in northern
Italy killed over 100 people.
15 September 1968, Severe flooding in south east
England, the worst since 1953.
14 August� 1968, Heavy rain in India
caused severe flooding, killing over 1,000.
25 November 1967, Heavy rain in Lisbon, Portugal
flooded 350 square miles and killed 475.
9 November 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.
1965, New York State was now in its 5th year of
below-average rainfall.
7/1965, The monsoon rains failed in India. Rainfall was
around 35% below normal.
2 June 1965, The second of two
cyclones (first one on 11 May 1965) hit eastern Pakistan, killing 45,000 people.
23 June 1964, The first snowfall in Johannesburg, South Africa, since records began.
7 October 1963, Hurricane Flora killed 7,190 people in Haiti and the Dominican
Republic.
5-6 March 1963, Britain had
its first frost-free night since December, after a very cold winter.
19 January 1963 Snow and ice
meant only 9 out of 63 League Cup Football matches were played, and two of
those were abandoned.
26 December 1962. The worst winter in Britain since 1740
began with a �big freeze� that lasted well into January 1963.
15 January 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 20th century.
31 October 1960, The second
of two cyclones (first one on 10 October 1960) hit eastern Pakistan, killing
10,000.
9 October 1960. The worst storms since 1953 caused severe flooding in southern England.
24 August� 1960, Vostok, Antarctica, saw a new world record low temperature of -127�F
(-88�C).
1 April 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 September 1959, Typhoon Vera hot
Japan, killing 4,464 on Honshu.
5 July 1959, In the UK, temp[eratures reached 34 C (94 F), then considered
exceptionally hot.
14 February 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.".
26 September 1958, The worst typhoon for 24 years hit Japan. 680 were
left dead and 500 injured, with a further 500 reported missing, in the Tokyo
area.
21 January 1958, Driffield experienced the lowest temperature ever
recorded in Yorkshire, -18.9 C.
22 July� 1958, The Yellow River, China, burst its
banks, causing the worst flooding for a decade.
20 July 1958, 26 cm of rain fell in
Delhi in 24 hours, the heaviest rainfall recorded to date.
5 March 1956, The telephone weather forecast service began in
the UK.
19 August� 1955, Hurricane Audrey hit Texas and Louisiana, killing 535.
31 January 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 August� 1952. Severe thunderstorms in Somerset and north Devon caused rivers to flood
and devastated the towns of Lynmouth
and Lynton. 36 died.
3/1952, Temperatures in Moscow fell to -28C, the coldest there for a century.
3 February 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 July 1951, Severe
floods in Kansas and Missouri killed 41 and left 200,000 homeless.
17 December 1947. A blizzard dumped
27 inches of snow on New York.
15 March 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 March 1947, Deep snow cut off
13 towns in Britain.
26 February 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 February 1947, In Britain,
very cold weather along with fuel shortages threatened to damage the economy.
29 January 1947, In the UK,
record low temperatures caused power cuts.
23 January 1947, Snow
began falling in south east England. It was the start of a protracted period of
extremely cold weather.
27 April 1944, Michael Fish,
meteorologist, was born.
September 1942, The German meteorologist Findeisen
successfully �seeded� a cloud for the first time over Prague, using siliceous
dust to make it snow.
31 January
1940, Britian suffered a very cold winter with -35 F (-37
C) recorded at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The Thames froze for 13 km between
Teddington and Sunbury, and the sea froze along the shoreline at Bognor Regis.
Kent saw snowdrifts 3,5 metres deep and there was skiing on the South Downs.
17 January 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 September 1938, A hurricane hit
New England, killing 682 and injuring over 1,500.
2 September 1935, A
small but intense storm hit the Florida Keys, killing 408 out of 760 people
living there.
11 April 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 September 1934, The
most powerful storm for 40 years hit Japan. 3,066 people were killed, and
45,600 houses destroyed.
9 February 1933, Record low temperatures were set in
the states of Montana (-66 �F at Yellowstone National Park's Riverside Ranger
Station), Oregon (-54 �F at Ukiah) and Wyoming (-63 �F at Moran).
9 November 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, was flooded from Shanghai to Hankow. 200,000 were
killed, a further 250,000 left homeless and US$ 500 million damage done.
23 December 1931, Wilson Bentley,
US meteorologist, died of pneumonia caught in a blizzard. Known as �Snowflake
Bentley�, he micro-photographed over 5,000 snowflakes, proving that each one
was unique.
7 July 1931, A temperature
of 55 C
was recorded at Kebili, Tunisia. However the
veracity of this figure has been doubted.
3 September 1930, Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic, was destroyed by a hurricane. 8,000 died, 12,000
were injured, and US$20,000,000 damage.
9 August� 1930, A temperature of 113�F (45�C)
was recorded at Perryville, Tennessee, a state record.
5 December 1929, 94 mph
winds swept across Britain, killing 26 people.
1 December 1929. Major Thames floods.
17 September 1928, A
hurricane hit Lake Okeechobee, Florida, USA drowning some 2,000 people.
7 January 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 January 1928, Severe
flooding hit large areas of England.
25 December 1927, A White Christmas
in London.
22 April 1927, Start
of the Great Mississippi Flood, until 5 May 1927. 246 people were killed.
28 February 1927, In Britain severe
gales with wind speeds up to 160 kph / 102 mph.
18 March 1925, A series of
tornadoes killed 792 and injured 13,000 in the US Midwest.
31 October 1923, A severe heatwave began at Marble Bar, Western Australia. It lasted
for 160 days, with temperatures rising to 37.8 C (100F).
26 March 1923. Regular daily weather forecasts began to be
broadcast on BBC radio.
13 September 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 March 1922, 100 mph winds
battered England�s
south coast.
4 June 1921, In
the US,
floods killed 500 in eastern Colorado.
29 May 1920. Lincolnshire
hit by major flooding.
28 July 1918, End of the
drought in New
South Wales. 2,000,000 sheep and lambs had been lost to the drought.
12 January 1918, Chicago
isolated by a severe blizzard.
7 January 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 September 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 June 1914, Severe
thunderstorms in London
brought ten cm of rain in three hours.
10 July 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 March 1913, Flooding
on the Miami River in Ohio killed 730 and caused US$ 181 million damage.
26 August� 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 September 1911. Flooding along China�s Yangtze River killed 100,000 people.
28 August� 1911, A heatwave sent the mortality rate in London soaring to 19 per 1,000.
26 August� 1911, A heatwave killed 2,500 children in London.
16 June 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 June 1910, Torrential
rains caused floods throughout central Europe. The Ahr River overflowed in
Germany, killing 200 people around Oberammergau.
26 January 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 August� 1909, Floods in Mexico killed 1,400.
13 April 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 March 1905, Fierce storms in
Cornwall killed 23 as winds reached 100 mph.
28 December 1904, The first weather reports by wireless telegraphy
were published in London.
21 November 1904, A typhoon off Mindanao, The Philippines, rendered 30,000 people
homeless.
4 August� 1904. The first
Atlantic weather forecast was received by radio telegraph.
22 March 1903, Niagara Falls dried up due to a drought.
February 1903, Hurricane Ulysses, named after the description of this storm in James
Joyce�s novel, hit Ireland and western Scotland. Winds of over 100 mph
destroyed piers and blew trains off tracks.
21 February 1903, Red rain fell in southern England, coloured
by dust from the Sahara.
7 February 1903, James Glaisher, English meteorologist, died
(born 7 April 1809).
13 January 1903, The
Society Islands in the Pacific were hit by a hurricane; 5,000 were killed.
7 September 1902, The whole
of Australia
was asked to pray for rain after seven years of drought. Rain did fall 3 days
later.
1 May 1902, A tornado killed
416 in Dacca, India.
12 November 1901. More than
200 died as gales swept Britain.
2 July 1901. 400 died in New York
heatwave.
8 May 1901, A severe drought
in India had caused widespread famine, and British-appointed High Commission
stated that some 1,250,000 had died; the Commission blamed rising population
for placing excessive demands on the food supply.
30 December 1900, 50 died as gales
swept Britain.
8/1898, Very hot weather in SE England.
4 December 1896. Heavy
gales destroyed the chain pier at Brighton.
6 August� 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 March 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 March 1888, The Great White
Hurricane hit the northern USA. Blizzards lasted until 14 March 1888. Wind speeds
reached 100 kph and snowdrifts reached 6 metres deep. Across the US, 400 people
froze to death.
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 September 1885. The earliest
recorded winter snowfall occurred in London.
12 February 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 April 1875, The Times became the first newspaper to publish a
daily weather chart.
15 January 1867, 40 people
died when ice gave way in a lake in Regents Park, London.
30 April 1865, Meteorologist Robert Fitzroy died in London.
1 October 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 September 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 April 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 March 1848, Niagara
Falls ceased to flow for 30 hours, as an ice dam built up in lake Erie.
6 August 1838, George James
Symons, meteorologist, was born in Pimlico, London (died 10 March
1900 in London)
1836-45, Britain experienced a run of cool wet summers, with
poor harvests.
11 April 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 January 1814, The last frost fair was held on the Thames
at London.
9 November 1812. One of the worst winters on record in northern Europe began, severely
affecting Napoleon�s troops as they
retreated from Moscow
7 April 1809, James Glaisher, English
meteorologist, was born (died 7 February 1903).
1805, Sir Francis Beaufort devised the
wind strength classification system
now named after him.
1803, English meteorologist Luke Howard
gave names to the various cloud types
(cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus), and recognised that their shapes� reflected the causes of these clouds.
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. Ice floes were
seen on the Mississippi, and Japan suffered a bad famine. In France 5% of the
population died, adding to the unrest trhat led to the 1789 Revolution.
1755, Very cold winters in Europe. The Golden Horn, Istanbul, froze over.
17 February 1740, Birth of meteorologist Horace Benedict de Saussure,
inventor of the cyanometer, a device
for measuring the blueness of the sky.
8 February 1740. The great frost of London ended. It had
begun on 24 December 1739. In Wales the great frost� began on 23 December 1739, and lasted until
10 February 1740; nights throughout April 1740 were still below freezing and
there was snow on the Welsh mountains until May.
17 October 1737, A
cyclone caused a 12-metre tidal surge at Kolkata, killing 300,000.
January 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.
January 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 November 1703. The first Eddystone Lighthouse was swept away in the Great Storm, which
killed over 8,000 across Britain.
4 February 1684, The River
Thames suddenly thawed, drowning many of the people shopping at the Frost Fair
set up on the river.
9 January 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 December 1654. A meteorological office in Tuscany began
daily temperature readings.
1648, Air pressure was shown to decrease as altitude increases.
25 October 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 October 1608, Evangelista Torricelli, Italian mathematician and scientist who
invented the barometer in 1643, was
born in Faenza.
February 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.
20 January 1564, Very cold
weather in Scotland, with many thousand dying ogf hunger and cold in the
Highlands. Sheep, cattle and fowl were also dying, ensuring the famine that
began after a series of poor hatrvests and high food prices would continue.
1550, King Edward VI of England banned food exports, due to a series of
poor harvests.
1500 -1525, Some amelioration of the cool period in Britain.
Across
Europe and Asia, very cold weather during the 1300s
1377, Floods devastated much agricultural land along the
River thames in the London area.
13 April 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.
1332, China experienced very heavy rains and severe flooding.
Up to seven million may have died. There wasd also a run of 35 consecutive severe winters at
this time.
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. In August 1316, when King Edward II
of England arrived inh St Albans, he could not buy food there because there was
none available.
5 May 1110, Monks at Peterborough saw a full moon that
gradually grew dimmer until it vanished.�
It was a lunar eclipse but without the red light that normally
illuminated the Moon from the Earth during an eclipse. Large volcanic eruptions
had thrown dust into the atmosphere, darkening it so even the red light did not
shine through. That year there
was a very cold summer and widespread crop failure. This was the time when the
Mediaeval Warm Period was shifting into the Little Ice Age.
23 October 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 � 1200, 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.
11 November 892. Unusually
severe windstorms in Ireland did much damage to houses, churches and forests.
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.
17 March 803, A
severe storm in County Clare, Ireland, killed over 1,000 people.
763/4, Britain suffered an exceptionally harsh winter.
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