This Date in Weather History

The autumn of 1779 had been relatively mild across the 13 colonies as they struggled against the British for independence, but on December 14, 1779 and cold wave hit as artic air spilled out of Canada and into the Colonies. It was a portend of what was to come. The winter of 1779–1780 has been called among the harshest in the eighteenth century. The so-called Hard Winter. A total of twenty-eight snowstorms hit the soon to be United States, some dropping snow for several days in succession. The temperature rarely rose above freezing as the Delaware and Hudson Rivers froze over. Sledges moved regularly across ten miles of ice between Annapolis and the opposite shore of the Chesapeake. Wild animals were almost exterminated as people where desperately hunting for food and other animals died of the cold and exposure. General Alexander (Lord Stirling) marched over a saltwater channel to make his unsuccessful Staten Island raid—even his artillery passed over the six miles of open water safely. Washington's main army suffered much more, because of this weather, in their Morristown winter quarters, than they had at Valley Forge two years earlier, with snow lying six feet deep. The British in New York suffered almost as much as the economy in North America ground to a halt and food became scarce everywhere. As inflation took off, Washington found it ever more difficult to obtain much needed supplies for his shrinking Continental army.

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California's citrus heritage has deep roots in what is now downtown Los Angeles. In the 1840s, it was the site of the state's first commercial citrus farm. "When the Gold Rush of 1849 hit, there was a huge demand for oranges in the gold country because it was well established that fresh citrus was useful in combating scurvy," a vitamin-C deficiency, said Vince Moses, a historian on California citrus and former director of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. But long before citrus became a viable commercial crop, Spanish missionaries who settled in Southern California during the 1700s were already cultivating a variety of citrus fruit. Cold temperatures are not good for the sensitive fruit trees and devastating freezes had previously ravaged the Florida citrus industry. Causing groves to the planted and re-planted farther and farther south in Florida. Those in southern California thought they were immune to the cold, but on December 13, 1878 a bitter cold wave was able to push over the mountains from the east and the temperature dropped to 30 degrees in LA, in outlying areas it was even colder, in the 20s and did some damage to the trees. Still not quite as devastatingly cold as often had occurred in Florida where temperatures in the northern groves had dropped into the teens and lower destroying all the trees numerous times in the 1800’s.

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During the winter huge storms form in the Gulf of Alaska south of the 49th state and are pushed southward by the jet-stream and often slam into the region from the Pacific Northwest to central California. Often times powerful winds batter the region as they blow in off the Pacific Ocean and produce massive rainfall amounts. On the east side of the mountain ranges that run through are area significant snowfalls often occur. On December 12, 1995, a ”monster storm” slammed Washington, Oregon, northern and central California. The storm brought flooding rains and hurricane force winds. Wind gusts were recorded as high as 119 mph at Sea Lion Caves, OR. The central barometric pressure dropped to 28.45". 12.27" of rain fell at Marin, CA and 80 mph wind gusts were recorded at San Francisco, CA. 1.5 million people were without power. In some places power was off for weeks.

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On December 11, 1905, the highest temperature in South American history recorded at 120°F in Rivadavia, Argentina. Rivadavia is located in northern Argentina, just south of the Paraguayan border in the Gran Chaco and east of the Andes. This coastal province sees a wide range of temperatures due to its position along the sea. In Rivadavia, the heat is intense from November to February, with average highs temperatures of generally of 95 °F, In winter, from May to mid-August, the daytime high temperatures drop to around 75 °F. However, the daily temperature range can be remarkable, it can get hot even in winter, but it can sometimes get cold at night, especially when the Pampero blows a cold wind coming from the southern lands.

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According to the website Vox.com before World War II, few US cities used salt in the winter. When snow fell, local governments would plow the roads and then spread sand and cinders around to improve traction. Cars would don snow chains, and people generally accepted that the roads weren't always passable in icy conditions. But as America's highways expanded and became ever more crucial to the economy, that changed. Increasingly, truckers and commuters needed to be able to drive in all conditions. New Hampshire's state government became the first to use salt on the roads in the winter of 1941–'42, and the practice spread as the interstate highway system was built in the 195-‘s and grew. Road salt is basically sodium chloride — much like table salt — and comes from deposits leftover after prehistoric oceans evaporated, with huge mines in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Kansas, and Louisiana. Oftentimes, extra chemicals will be mixed in. For instance, road salt is less effective at melting ice when temperatures drop below 20 degrees — when it gets extremely cold, other chemicals like magnesium chloride or calcium chloride are mixed in. Salt, after all, has plenty of drawbacks. It can corrode the steel in cars, trucks, bridges, and reinforcing rods in concrete — weakening valuable infrastructure. Transportation departments can add chemicals to the salt to inhibit corrosion or add coating to steel, but this gets pricey. One study in Utah estimated that salt corrosion now costs the US almost $20 billion a year. Salt dissolves and splits into sodium and chloride, it washes away, into rivers and streams. Chloride, in particular, doesn't get filtered out naturally by soil and accumulates in waterways. In December 2014, the US Geological Survey found that chloride levels were on the rise in 84 percent of urban streams studied — with 29 percent exceeding federal safety limits. On December 10, 1699 in one of the first major ice storms in New England recorded history, ice shut down the city of Boston for a week – there was no salt or anything else to cause the ice to melt as temperatures remain very cold for days. In addition, the ice caused massive damage to orchards in the region as the heavy frozen rain brought down many tree limbs.

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December 9, 1977 brought a massive snowstorm accompanied by powerful winds and blindly low visibility to southern Ontario as an intense storm system moved across the Ohio Valley in the United States. The total snowfall for the storm averaged about a foot in most places, but some areas received much more, as enhanced snowfall was created by additional lake effect snowfall combined with the large-scale storm system. The blizzard was made unique by the sustained winds, gusting up to 70 mph which picked up the snowdrifts already accumulated earlier in the season and dumped that snow load in western New York and southern Ontario. 2-day totals brought close to 40 inches of snow. The combination of roads drifted shut and the powerful wind that continued unabated for several days caused the city of London, Ontario to be isolated for days.

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The December 7-8, 1703 Windstorm (November 26-27 on the old calendar still used in England at the time) was the most damaging to have affected the southern part of Britain for at least 500 years. The fame of the storm owes much to the fact that it cut a swathe of damage through London. The City of London had been entirely rebuilt after the 1666 Great Fire of London, and thatch had been prohibited for use in roofing to reduce the fire hazard. After the storm: ‘the streets lay so covered with Tiles and Slates, from the Tops of the Houses, especially in the Out-parts, that the quantity is incredible, and the Houses were so universally stript, that all the Tiles in Fifty Miles round would be able to repair but a small Part of it’. Approximately 2,000 massive stacks of chimneys were blown down in and about London, along with gable ends of Houses, some whole roofs and 16-20 entire houses on the edge of the town. The level of damage was similar in many towns and villages across southern Britain, with the majority of houses partly or completely stripped of tiles. As in London, a significant number of houses were demolished by the collapse of a central chimney stack. In all more than 800 dwelling houses were blown down, and in the county of Kent there were over 1,000 out-houses and barns destroyed. One hundred churches had the lead sheeting rolled up or blown off their roofs, as well as pinnacles dislodged, windows broken, and in a few cases, steeples collapsed into the remainder of the structure. Of all buildings, the most vulnerable were windmills with more than 400 either toppled and broken, or burnt to the ground after the sails rotated at such speed as to cause the axles and brake to overheat and catch fire. There was widespread destruction of millions of trees in forests, parks and orchards. Although the storm in England occurred entirely at night, when casualty rates are around a quarter of daytime, 123 people were killed on land in England and Wales, due to the collapse of roofs and chimneys. 21 people were killed by falling stacks of chimneys in London, with 200 severely wounded and maimed. At least another 20 died in damage in continental Europe. Around 80 people are known to have drowned in their cottages in the marshlands. Even these totals are dwarfed by the estimated 8,000 killed in more than 100 shipwrecks at sea.

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For much of the country, the weather Hawaii was experiencing in the late stages of autumn 1941 would have been considered unseasonably warm, but in Hawaii, the mild temperatures and partially cloudy skies were common at that time of year. Nobody on the island of Oahu on December 7, 1941 expected there to be any significance to the weather conditions, but little did they know that the beautiful weather would lead to the start of a terrible morning. As Japanese fighters crossed the Pacific, they were given hope that their mission of a sneak attack on the 7th US Fleet anchored near Honolulu in Pearl Harbor would succeed when the announcement was made of “clouds mostly over the mounts. Visibility good.” There was nothing obstructing their sight-lines, no heavy cloud cover to hide the harbor and no heavy rains to make flight difficult. After crossing the rough waters of the North Pacific, the Japanese were met with a clear “long white line of coast” once the island was in view. Though the United States suffered greatly due to the clear conditions of the morning, something else was happening approximately 2,200 miles away at Wake Island. Scheduled to return to Pearl Harbor on the morning of the 7th, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, encountered unfavorable conditions. As the Enterprise tried to return on schedule, she was met with rough seas that delayed the arrival, this turned out to be a strike of good fortune. Had the mighty vessel made it back to Pearl Harbor on time, she would have been engaged by Japanese fighters and likely damaged or destroyed. The USS Enterprise played a vital role in World War II, earning enough commendations to become the most decorated US ship in the war. The good weather at Perl Harbor aided the Japanese attack, but the adverse weather that prevented the Enterprise from returning and perhaps being sunk, greatly aided the American cause and that ship helped turn the tide of the war in the pacific.

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The National Christmas Tree is a large evergreen tree located in the northeast quadrant of The Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D. C. Each year since 1923, the tree has been decorated as a Christmas tree. Every year, early in December, the tree is traditionally lit by the President of the United States Every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has made formal remarks during the tree lighting ceremony. In 1970 the 78-foot tall blue spruce from South Dakota’s Black Hills was carried to Washington, D.C. on a train. While en route, the train derailed twice. Then the weekend before the tree lighting ceremony, on December 6, 1970, the tree blew over in high winds and several cut branches had to be attached to the tree to replace damaged ones.

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The city of Vicksburg lies hard against the Mississippi River at a sharp bend in that river. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vicksburg was built by French colonists in 1719. It was incorporated as Vicksburg in 1825 named after Methodist missionary Newitt Vick. In the American Civil War, it was a key Confederate river-port, and its surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, in July 1863, after a month’s long siege marked the turning-point of the war. Much destruction was visited upon the city as it held out with constant shelling from cannon fire. On December 5, 1953 Vicksburg, was visited by a tornado outbreak that was a deadly severe weather event that affected northeastern Louisiana, southeastern Arkansas, and western Mississippi on December 5, 1953. At least four confirmed tornadoes touched down. One of the tornadoes produced F5 damage as it moved through the city of Vicksburg, causing 38 deaths and injuring at least 270 along the seven-mile path of devastation. Historical records show that the ravages visited upon the city from the severe weather in on single afternoon caused more damage and destruction than months of war.

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