This Date in Weather History

Heavy rain on July 17, 1996, produced several rainfall records and was the second most costly weather disaster in Illinois history. The 16.94 inches recorded at Aurora still stands as the statewide record for the most rain from a single 24-hour period. The 10.99 inches on the west side of the Chicago metro area was the most ever recorded in the Chicago urban area. Just as impressive as the point values was the size of the area covered by heavy rainfall. It was estimated that 16.3 inches fell over the wettest 100 square mile area of the storm, 12.6 inches over the wettest 1000 square mile area, and 5.2 inches over the wettest 10,000 square mile area. Another way to look at it is that an area of 1350 square miles exceeded the expected 100-year, 24-hour storm while 4650 square miles exceeded the expected 10-year, 24-hour storm for northeast Illinois. The widespread heavy rains led to excessive flooding. Damage estimates were on the order of 700 million dollars or more than 1.1B in 2020 dollars. FEMA estimated that more than 35,000 residences were flooded.

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July 16, 1945 the first nuclear devise ever detonated in Earth history occurred at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. From a weather perspective, scientists wanted good visibility, low humidity, light winds at low altitude, and westerly winds at high altitude for the test. The best weather was predicted between July 18 and 21, but the Potsdam Conference near the end of WWII between the Allies was due to start on July 16 and President Truman wanted the test to be conducted before the conference began. It was therefore scheduled for July 16, the earliest date at which the bomb components would be available. The detonation was initially planned for 4am Mountain War Time but was postponed because of rain and lightning from early that morning. It was feared that the danger from radiation from and fallout would be increased by rain, and lightning had the scientists concerned about a premature detonation. A crucial favorable weather report came in at 4:45am and the final countdown began at 5:10. By 05:20 the rain had gone. At 5:29am the device exploded with an energy equivalent to around 22 kilotons of TNT. The desert sand, largely made of silica, melted and became a radioactive light green glass. At the time of detonation, the surrounding mountains were illuminated "brighter than daytime" for one to two seconds, and the heat was reported as "being as hot as an oven" at the base camp. The roar of the shock wave took 40 seconds to reach the observers. It was felt over 100 miles away, and the mushroom cloud reached 7.5 miles in height. John Lugo was flying a U.S. Navy transport at 10,000 feet, 30 miles east of Albuquerque en route to the west coast. "My first impression was, the sun was coming up in the south. What a ball of fire! It was so bright it lit up the cockpit of the plane." Lugo radioed Albuquerque. He got no explanation for the blast but was told, "Don't fly south." Because the rain cleared and the test went off successfully Truman was able to tell Soviet leader Stalin then an ally, of a terrible new weapon the US had in its possession as it became, at that moment, the only nuclear power in the world. After the blast and the initial euphoria of witnessing the explosion had passed, Bainbridge one of those working on the project told Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the project, "Now we are all sons of bitches." Oppenheimer later recalled that, while witnessing the explosion, he thought of a verse from a Hindu holy book, the Gita, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

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Weather reporting up until the mid-1700’s was sketchy at best across North America. Colonial leaders who formed the path to independence of our country were avid weather observers. Thomas Jefferson purchased a thermometer from a local Philadelphia merchant while in town for the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He also purchased a barometer — one of the only ones in America at the time — a few days later from the same merchant. Jefferson made regular observations at Monticello from 1772-78, and participated in taking the first known simultaneous weather observations in America. George Washington also took regular observations; the last weather entry in his diary was made the day before he died. During the early and mid-1800's, weather observation networks began to grow and expand across the United States. Although most basic meteorological instruments had existed for over 100 years, it was the telegraph that was largely responsible for the advancement of operational meteorology during the 19th century. With the advent of the telegraph, weather observations from distant points could be "rapidly" collected, plotted and analyzed at one location in real time. In 1870 a Joint Congressional Resolution required the Secretary of War "to provide for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent”. And so, a national weather service had been born within the U.S. Army Signal Service’s Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. The first systematic weather observations didn't start in colonial America until 1644 in what would become the state of Delaware. Occasional observations of the weather were reported a bit before that and on July 15, 1643, John Winthrop from Newberry, MA entered in his in diary; “There arose a sudden gust at NW; so violent for half an hour as it blew down multitudes of trees. It lifted up their meeting house at Newberry, the people being in it, but only killed (one person) with the fall of a tree”. It was one of the first ever reports of weather’s impact in America.

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Rainfall in Southern California in the summertime is almost non-existent. In fact, the climate takes on desert-like conditions. The average rainfall in June, July and August in Los Angles is less than a quarter of an inches of rainfall – 2 tenths of an inch to be exact. July is the driest month with barely more than a spritz of rain at an average of one hundredth of an inch – the lowest measurable total of rainfall that is officially observed. In contrast New Orleans is generally regarded as the rainiest big-city in the US and averages more than 6 inches of rain for the month of July. It’s not always dry in LA with the months of January, February and March all averaging more than 3 inches of rain each month. Certainly, though there are two distinct seasons in LA, a wet season and a dry season. To give you an idea of just how dry it is in Southern California in July, on this date in weather history on July 14, 1886, twenty-for hundredths of an inch of rain – just shy of a quarter of an inch fell in LA, the most ever on a single day in July in the region in recorded history. Not much impact was felt in the region – today of course a rainfall like that on a July day would result very slippery freeways because the accumulated oil dripping off of cars and onto the highway would mix with the water and cause the roads to become slippery.

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The year 1816 featured unprecedented cold conditions throughout the United States and Europe. The key cause was the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora in April 1815, the largest volcanic explosion in recorded history. “Mount Tambora ejected so much ash and aerosols into the high atmosphere that the sky darkened and the sun was blocked from view in many places around the world that year. The eruptions killed up to 100,000 people – some immediately from the blasts – and tens of thousands of others as a result of starvation and the resulting crop failures and disease. “It might have been millions who died in total, across the globe in the next year” said AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel Myers. The smaller particles spewed by the volcano were light enough to spread into the stratosphere and eventually had a worldwide impact on the climate by reflecting solar radiation back into space. The Earth’s average global temperature dropped 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and in some areas, the drop was more than 10 degrees.  The uncharacteristic cold ruined agricultural production in the United States, Europe and China, which led to drastic increases in food prices, as well as famine and epidemics of cholera and other diseases.  The U.S. consisted of just 18 states in 1816 and five were in New England, which was devastated by the frigid temperatures and the lack of food. Frost throughout May killed crops in several Northeast states, snow fell in June in wide areas from New York to Maine, and heavy frosts and ice storms occurred as late as July in parts of New England.  There were freezing temperatures in all 12 months of the year in New England, many of the crops failed, causing famine and triggering a western migration from New England where there was a depression and starvation. In 1815, before the effects of the volcano were known, the typesetter of the Old Farmer's Almanac jokingly printed "snow, and hail" across eastern North America for this date of July 13, 1816. The editor missed it, and the publication went to print. But because of the severe climate change; snow, and hail did fall across parts of New England on July 13. Even though later editions of the Almanac had the "correct" forecast in place, those who received the earlier editions "swore" by the Almanac the rest of their lives.

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Munich, the German state of Bavaria’s capital, is home to centuries-old buildings and numerous museums. The city is known for its annual Oktoberfest celebration and its beer halls, including the famed Hofbräuhaus, founded in 1589. Munich lies on the elevated plains of Upper Bavaria, about 30 miles north of the northern edge of the Alps at an altitude of almost 2,000 feet. The proximity to the Alps brings heavy thunderstorms and high volumes of rainfall than other parts of Germany. Showers and thunderstorms bring the highest average monthly precipitation in late spring and throughout the summer. The most precipitation occurs in July, on average. Winter tends to have less precipitation, the least in February. On July 12 1984 a rapidly developing storm pounded the Munich area with hailstones the size of tennis balls, high winds and heavy rains, injuring 300 people and causing extensive damage. The Red Cross said the storm injured about 200 people in Munich and 100 in surrounding south-east Bavaria, most of them hit on the head by ice balls, cut by glass shattering from windows, or hurt in car crashes. 1 person was killed and damage reached nearly $100 million.

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1888 was a year of extremes across the United States, of course the famed Blizzard of ’88 in March in the Northeast brought heavy snow and blinding visibility and hundreds of deaths in the worst March snowstorm in that region since unofficial records began before the Revolutionary War. The wild weather continued and not only in the northeast. It would come to pass that on July 11, 1888 a high amplitude or high wave pattern would establish itself in the upper atmosphere where the Jetstream steers storms and other weather systems. In the western states the jet stream pulled way north into Canada and pumped up high heat and humidity all the way from Mexico. Meanwhile in the East the Jetstream plunged southward toward Georgia and brought record cold and storminess. On July 11, under that western heat, the temperature in Bennet Colorado reached 118 degrees, still listed as a state record. In the East heavy rains on the Monongahela River caused a flash flood as the water rose a whopping 32 feet in less that 24 hours. Meanwhile on the same day, July 11, 1888, along the Presidential range in New Hampshire heavy snow blanked the peaks like Mt Washington and some snow reached all the way down to the base of those mountains.

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A bolt of lightning at the Picatinny Army Arsenal in northern NJ triggered a massive explosion in an ammunition dump there on July 10, 1926, triggering three major explosions within half an hour in the early evening hours that killed 22 people and injuring dozens more. The Morris County, NJ News reports that the historic fire of 1926 raged throughout the night, fueled by exploding military shells that set more fires across the landscape surrounding the 6,400-acre base in Morris County. For the next three days, a series of minor explosions followed as the blaze devoured much of the base. The remaining flames were finally doused by rain on July 13. The initial blasts at the Arsenal depot, could be felt as far as 30 miles away. Every building within a half mile was leveled by the blast. Debris landed as far as 22 miles away and over 100 million of 2021 dollars of damage was done. This is the costliest damage ever due to lightning in the United States. In an odd twist an "unexploded ordnance" unearthed in late February of 2020 at a Picatinny Arsenal site was a relic from a deadly explosion that rocked the military munitions base nearly a century ago.

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1936 was the epicenter of the worst heatwave in American history. The Old Farmers Almanac reports that even on the “cool” eastern seaboard in July of 1936, it was the heat wave that made the news. The heat wave had interesting impacts. In Boston, the price of cream skyrocketed as the combination of the drought in the Midwest and the hot weather in the East made for a “very short cream market.” Wholesale prices rose from $11 for a 40-quart can of cream in 1935 to $17.28 a can in July of 1936. Central Park in New York City hit 106°F on July 9. That still stands as the all-time record today. The next day, Waterbury, Connecticut, saw 103°F, while many other New England towns hit over 100°F. Those who could, left the steaming asphalt of the cities. Others stood under sprinklers or slept on roofs. In New York City, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia declared public beaches open all night for the duration, promising not to arrest anyone. City swimming pools lengthened their hours. Nearly 1,000 deaths occurred nationwide—76 in New York City were attributed to the 10-day heat wave, some from heat stroke or lung ailments, others from accidental drownings as non-swimmers desperately attempted to cool off. Canadian towns and cities also felt the severity of the sun. Ontario alone marked over 500 deaths from the heat.

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The "Dust Bowl" years of 1930-36 brought some of the hottest summers on record to the United States, especially across the Plains, Upper Midwest and Great Lake States. For the Upper Mississippi River Valley, the first few weeks of July 1936 provided the hottest temperatures of that period, including many all-time record highs the string of hot, dry days was also deadly. Nationally, around 5000 deaths were associated with the heat wave. In La Crosse, WI, there were 14 consecutive days (July 5th-18th) where the high temperature was 90 degrees or greater, and 9 days that were at or above 100°F. Six record July temperatures set during this time still stand, including the hottest day on record with 108°F on the 14th. The average high temperature for La Crosse during this stretch of extreme heat was 101°F. Several factors led to the deadly heat of July 1936; A series of droughts affected the U.S. during the early 1930s. The lack of rain parched the earth and killed vegetation, especially across the Plains states. Poor farming techniques across the Plains furthered the impact of the drought, with lush wheat fields becoming barren waste lands. Without the vegetation and soil moisture, the Plains acted as a furnace. The climate of that region took on desert qualities, accentuating its capacity to produce heat. On the night of July 8th, 1936 temperatures across most of the state did not drop below 90, setting records for the highest, low temperatures. Indicative of summer heat and dryness impact on farming was a report from near Erie PA where it was reported that 40 acres produced only 1 load of hay all summer when a normal year can produce 7-10 loads.

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