This Date in Weather History

The North Carolina ice storm of 2002 caused up to an inch of freezing rain from December 4 into December 5 in central North Carolina. A total of 24 people were killed, and as many as 1.8 million people were left without electricity. Power outages began December 4, and power was not completely restored until December 14. Raleigh got the most freezing rain from a single storm since 1948, and Bristol, Tennessee received the most ice it had seen in 28 years. The storm also produced heavy rain in both the mountains and coastal plain of North Carolina. Much of the Southern Plains and the Northeast received snow with this system. During the power outages many residents used propane and kerosene powered generators and heaters to combat the cold, with some resorting to moving charcoal grills indoors to heat their households. The increased usage of these heating methods, particularly grills led to a substantial number of cases of carbon monoxide poisoning. Varying reports cite up to 200 cases of poisoning. Hispanic residents were disproportionately affected by the impacts of the ice storm, sustaining 23% of total injuries and 65% of carbon monoxide poisonings during the storm period.

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The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected the British capital in early December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with a large region of high pressure and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from December 3 to December 9, 1952, then dispersed quickly when the weather changed. It caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called “pea-soupers”. Government medical reports in the following weeks estimated that up to December 8, 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the total number of fatalities may have been considerably greater, one paper suggesting about 6,000 more died in the following months as a result of the event. London has suffered since the 13th century from poor air quality and this worsened in the 1600s as the city grew and coal become the common method to heat homes. The Great Smog is thought to be the worst air pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom, and the most significant for its effects on environmental research, government regulation, and public awareness of the relationship between air quality and health. It led to several changes in practices and regulations, including the Clean Air Act of 1956.

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Unusual early winter cold moved out of Canada in the last week of November 1896. Few low temperature records were set but the cold was persistent and held sway from Mississippi and Alabama across Georgia and all the way to the Carolinas. Fortunately for the first few days of the cold outbreak there was no precipitation. Then on December 1, 1896, a reinforcing surge of air reached the region all the way from the Arctic, at the same time a storm was gathering strength on the Gulf coast near New Orleans. That storm system moved east northeastward across the southern portions of Alabama and pulled moisture out of the Gulf. Snow began to break out all across Dixie. When the storm departed on the evening of December 2, 1896 records for snowfall had been set in many southern cites for the month of December. 4 inches of snow fell in Raleigh with more than half a foot of snow in Atlanta and 10 inches in Charlotte, North Carolina and Greeneville, South Carolina. Without any means to clear the snow from city streets commerce came to a halt for several days.

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Rain fell in San Francisco often in the first half of November 1876 and it would seem that the winter or rainy season, along the west coast of the United States might turn out rather wet. December averages almost a dozen days of rain in the month with rainfall totals close to 4 inches on the average. No rain fell on December 1, 1876, not on the second. In fact, not one drop of rain fell for the entire month as a persistent area of high pressure camped along the west coast for the entire month and into January deflecting storms to its north. No rain fell in area all across the northern half of California, not only in San Francisco but also Sacramento and even up in rainy Portland Oregon less than an inch feel for the entire month in one of the driest periods on record, even including today in the current era of drought in the west.

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n Buffalo, New York, during November, snow falls an average of 4.9 days and averages and monthly accumulation of 7.9" of snow. In Buffalo, during the entire year, snow falls for 61 days, and averages 94.7". On November 30, 2001 the weather record books closed for the month in Buffalo. Amazingly no snow, not even a trace was reported for the entire month. This was the first time that happened for the city in the month of November since records first stared to be kept in 1871. Interestingly the previous November of 2000 was a record-breaking snowfall November for Buffalo with 45.6” recorded in the month, two Novembers in succession, one with the greatest November snowfall the next year, the least.

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Red River, New Mexico area has a rich history. Indigenous Apaches established settlements in the region hundreds of years ago. Fur trappers and prospectors moved into the area as they named River City, as Red River was first called. Hundreds of gold, silver and copper mines were carved into the mountain with names like Golden Treasure, Silver King and Black Copper. Red River's population soared. There were stores, a livery stable, two newspapers, a sawmill, blacksmith shop, barber shop, more than a dozen saloons, several hotels and boarding houses, a dance hall and a hospital. The mines played out eventually, but soon homesteaders outnumbered prospectors. The town gained new momentum by renting abandoned mining cabins to flatland visitors seeking refuge from the heat. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, ski areas soon started to develop. In those days without artificially made snow Red River and indeed ski resorts across the world relied on natural snowfall. Some locations fared well – but others would suffer from snow droughts and be ruined. Snow making in the United States started mainly in the eastern states after World War II. In the west, in places like Red River, snowmaking was still a novelty in 1975. On November 29, 1975, the ski season started off with a bang when 34” of snow fell setting up a great start to the ski season and also but the 34” also set a New Mexico state record for a 24-hour snowfall.

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On November 28, 1973, warm, humid air moving northward from the Gulf of Mexico out ahead of a strong cold front fed violent weather in the lower Ohio Valley and all across the southern United States. Tornadoes and flash floods killed 3 people and injured more than 600 during the day. 9 twisters touched down in southern Louisiana, northern Alabama, and Tennessee. Hundreds of houses and trailer homes were destroyed as the cold front blasted into Georgia and the Carolinas. Huntsville, Alabama was hardest hit - winds were clocked at 94 mph before the weather instruments broke. Extensive flooding occurred in southern West Virginia. Warm air surged northward ahead of the storm system as temperature readings reached close to 70 as far north as Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City.

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The famous "Portland" storm struck off Cape Cod on November 27, 1898 with loss of 200 lives in strong winds and heavy wind whipped snowfall across southern New England. Many were lost in 50 small vessels to the raging sea off the coast. 27” of snow fell in New London, CT. 15" at Waterbury, CT. A peak wind of 72 mph was recorded at Boston. Boston received more than 12” of snow... then 5” more fell on November 30th to give them their deepest ever Nov. snow depth at 16". Boston Harbor filled up with shipwrecks. Block Island had an estimated gust to 98 mph. Docks in Boston Harbor where also torn up disrupting shipping commerce for weeks.

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The Queen Elizabeth Way – better known as the QEW is the major super highway that runs from Niagara Falls across southern Ontario to Toronto, Canada’s largest city and one the world’s major metropolises. Each day hundreds of thousands of travelers, computers and others travel the highway. On November 26, 1983 a bitter cold airmass had settled in over the region. Lingering moisture held close to the ground from a storm just a few days earlier. Meanwhile a bank of low clouds formed, it was the perfect setup for fog to form. Fog began to appear just as rush hour started. The fog formed a thin layer of moisture that quickly froze, the result was black ice – invisible to drivers at first. Treacherous morning rush hour conditions resulted caused a more than 100-car pile-up and closed the QEW for hours.

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On November 25, 1950, one of the greatest November storms in recorded North American History blasted the eastern half of the United States and Canada with unprecedented early season snow and cold, paralyzing the region for more than a week and causing untold damage and suffering. Cold air had been scarce in the lower 48 states in November, but was building to prodigious proportions across the artic. It was unleased southward in a bitter blast that would even be extreme in the depths of winter let along November. Caused by a huge wave action high in the atmosphere in the jet stream those high-level winds plunged southward right out of the Yukon. On the eastern side of the continent the wave action cut off into a swirling ball of winds that spawned a monster storm. Known as The Great Appalachian Storm, it achieved the region's greatest sustained wind force when gales continued at many points for 12 hours or more. At coastal cities, such as Newark and Boston, single minute speeds in excess of 80 mph were registered. Peak gusts were recorded of 110 mph at Concord, NH, 108 mph at Newark, NJ, and 100 mph at Hartford, CT. Atop Mt. Washington a wind gust hit 160 mph from the SE early on the 26th. Central Park in the heart of sheltered Manhattan Island set an 80-year record with fastest mile of 70 mph. There were 34 deaths across New York State. Heavy flooding rains along coast. The snowfalls were equally as extreme almost 28” in Pittsburgh. Toronto had its greatest one-day November snowfall of a foot and in Steubenville Ohio snow piled up to a depth of more than 36” – 3 feet! Roads were blocked and roofs collapsed. Just behind the storm came some of the coldest temperature of the winter. Both Louisville, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee dipped to 1 below zero the earliest below zero reading on record. In Atlanta the mercury dropped to 2 above, and despite sunshine the afternoon high temperature only reached 17.

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