This Date in Weather History

Hurricane Audrey’s latest movements were fresh on the minds of families in Cameron, Louisiana, before bedtime on June 26, 1957, according to AccuWeater.com. Broadcasters that evening announced that the storm, that had strengthened into a Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico the day before, would make landfall at the Texas and Louisiana border late the next day. In a time before satellites, meteorologists relied on aircraft reconnaissance, ship reports and minimal radar to monitor the storm’s whereabouts. The United States Weather Bureau’s 10 p.m. report placed Audrey 235 miles south of Lake Charles, a Louisiana town 52 miles inland. The advisory warned that those living in low exposed areas should move to higher ground as the storm crept northward toward the coast at 10 mph. Assuming that they had ample time to escape Audrey’s impact, Cameron residents had packed their vehicles in preparation for an early morning evacuation. In its final six hours before landfall, a strong flow in the Jetstream dropped southward and helped the intensifying hurricane rapidly accelerate as it barreled toward the southern U.S. and by 1am its winds had increased to more than 150 mph. By that time, however, broadcasters had gone off the air and residents were fast asleep. Audrey came ashore and pounded the southern U.S. coast and destroyed coastal communities with intense winds and flooding. People woke up around 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning with 6 feet of water coming into their houses. About 1,000 people made it safely into Cameron’s three-story courthouse. However, those unable to escape the powerful hurricane drowned in Gulf waters pushed inland by a storm surge of at least 12 feet. Audrey, was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the month of June, and killed at least 500 people and caused an estimated $150 million in damage in the U.S. It was the 7th deadliest hurricane in modern history. The storm’s impact and intense storm surge were felt 25 miles inland, many of the victims were never found.

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In June 2007 the Great European heat wave impacted most of Southern Europe. The extreme heat began affecting Italy and Turkey on June 17 and expanded into Greece and the Balkans along with Hungary and Ukraine on June 18. Up until June 21, temperatures generally topped out between 97–102 in most of the region; however, starting on June 22, temperatures wratched up even higher in the entire region. During the 3-day period from June 23 to June 25, temperatures soared to 109–111 . By June 26, 2007, Greece seemed to bear the brunt of the heatwave with temperatures in Athens reaching 115. The same day, Greece's national power consumption set a new record. Parts of Greece, including neighborhoods in Athens, suffered from power outages due to high electricity demand and heat damage to the grid. Explosions from overheating transmission towers were implicated in forest fires that started to rage across the country. There was no relief either in the night of June 26 when the mercury failed to drop below 90. More than 200 people were hospitalized for heat-related treatment and 18 people died from heat exhaustion. By June 28 northerly winds started blowing and temperatures finally began falling, but still managed to reach 102. The damage was done by the Heat Wave that climaxed on June 26 and by the time the temperatures finally started to lower more than100 fires were burning across Greece.

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As early as 1946, the idea of cameras in orbit high above the Earth to observe the weather was being developed. One advantage this would bring was in regions that had sparse data observation coverage. But the expense of using cameras on rockets was very high and the rockets unreliable. By 1958, the early prototypes for TIROS and Vanguard, developed by the Army Signal Corps, were created. The first weather strictly satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched on February 17, 1959. It was designed to measure cloud cover and resistance, but a poor axis of rotation and its elliptical orbit kept it from collecting much of any useful data. The first weather satellite to be considered a success launched by any nation in the world, was TIROS-1, or Television Infrared Observation Satellite, launched by NASA on April 1, 1960. TIROS operated for 78 days and proved to be much more successful than Vanguard 2. TIROS paved the way for the Nimbus program, whose technology and findings are the heritage of most of the Earth-observing satellites NASA and NOAA have launched since then. Beginning with the Nimbus 3 satellite in 1969, temperature information through the entire atmosphere began to be retrieved by satellites from the eastern Atlantic and most of the Pacific Ocean, which led to significant improvements in weather forecasting. Weather satellites collect data for climate, and environmental monitoring applications including precipitation, sea surface temperatures, atmospheric temperature and humidity, sea ice extent, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, global vegetation analysis, hurricane information and cloud cover. The United States was the only country the have a weather satellite in space until June 25, 1966 when the Soviet Union launched it’s first. As of 2020 there are more than a dozen weather satellites in orbit around the Earth, operated by several different counties who all share the weather information.

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Violent thunderstorms racked across the northern plains state on the evening of June 24 1991. Hot humid conditions had held sway across a vast part of the nation’s midsection during the middle of June, while chilly air built up over Alaska and the Yukon. On June 23 that cold air was unleased southward by a strong current in the Jetstream. As it pushed into the early summertime heat thunderstorms began to grown. By June 24, 1991, aided by moisture streaming northward from the Gulf of Mexico heavy thunderstorms erupted across the Dakotas as the cold air mass cut into the region. The warm steamy air holding near the grounds surface was enough to supply plenty of moisture – but the cold air moving in high in the atmosphere was enough to cause large hail to form and in the town of Scranton, North Dakota 3.5” of rain in 28 minutes along with 1.5-foot drifts of marble sized hail. Front-end loaders were needed to clear the streets.

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Attempts by European’s to settle in North America were spotty in the 1500’s. Most groups large enough to establish a permanent base did not really take hold until the 1580s and later. Most of those that arrived where men in search of fortune and adventure, often times at the expense and persecution of the Native American inhabitants. It wasn’t until the 1600’s that waves of European’s came to escape mainly religious persecution and in a striking twist of irony they also built their settlements exhibiting some of the same behaviors they were escaping from Europe. One of the earlies colonies set up was on Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. First settled in 1585 by Ralph Lane it was re-supplied by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1586. Raleigh stayed for some weeks, but as he was set to return to England a powerful Hurricane hit on June 23. The storm wrecked most of the colony and it had to be abandoned and those surviving evacuated back to England. The following year another group of settlers arrived in the same spot. They were dropped off and the ships returned to England. No contact was maintained with the colony and 3 years later when a supply ship arrived no trace was found of the second colony. Some thought hard times caused those there to abandon the site or simply perish. Some believed the 1586 hurricane that destroyed the infrastructure left no base for the new colony to build on. It would another 2 decades before the English would establish a permanent site on the Mid-Atlantic coast in Jamestown Virginia.

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The AccuWeather.com archives report that almost 50 years ago in 1972 of one of the first billion-dollar hurricanes in the history of the United States struck. Total damage from Agnes was over $3.0 billion in the U.S. Adjusted to today's dollars, this would be well over $20 billion. Agnes also caused extensive damage to railroad lines in the region, already taxed by bankruptcy. While the Agnes disaster has been eclipsed by more powerful and costlier storms during recent decades, it still ranks in the top 10 costliest hurricanes in the U.S., adjusted to today's dollars. Because of its impact the name Agnes has been retired from the list of Atlantic hurricanes, by the World Meteorological Organization.

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The Depression of 1893 was one of the worst in American history with the unemployment rate exceeding ten percent for half a decade. The Depression of 1893 can be seen as a watershed event in American history. It was accompanied by violent strikes, the climax of the Populist and free silver political crusades, the creation of a new political balance, the continuing transformation of the country’s economy, major changes in national policy, and far-reaching social and intellectual developments. Between 1870 and 1890 the number of farms in the United States rose by nearly 80 percent, to 4.5 million. Farm property value grew by 75 percent, to $16.5 billion. The advancing checkerboard of tilled fields in the nation’s heartland represented a vast indebtedness. Nationwide about 29% of farmers were encumbered by mortgages. One contemporary observer estimated 2.3 million farm mortgages nationwide in 1890. But farmers in the plains were much more likely to be in debt. Kansas croplands were mortgaged to 45 percent of their true value. Under favorable conditions the millions of dollars of annual charges on farm mortgages could be borne, but a declining economy brought foreclosures, tax sales and adverse weather could tip the balance over the edge. Railroads opened new areas to agriculture, linking these to rapidly changing national and international markets. Mechanization, the development of improved crops, and the introduction of new techniques increased productivity and fueled a rapid expansion of farming operations. The output of staples skyrocketed. Yields of wheat, corn, and cotton doubled between 1870 and 1890 though the nation’s population rose by only two-thirds. Grain and fiber flooded the domestic market. The depression, which was signaled by a financial panic in 1893, has been blamed on the deflation dating back to the Civil War. The economy exhibited other weaknesses in early 1893. Then in the summer of 1893 agriculture was hit with drought. The drought started in June 1893 with a blistering heat wave that got underway on June 21 1893 when the mercury topped out at 106 degrees in Dodge City, Kansas and the drought didn’t break for 3 years. The boom to bust cycle would repeat itself 4 decades later during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl in almost the same exact location.

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On June 20, 1921 the Billings Gazette reported that a man and a baby drowned and barns, granaries, houses and a bridge were swept away before an unprecedented downpour tapered off in McCone County. The 11.5 inches of rain that fell in 24 hours at Springbrook, near Circle, established a state record. That record stands today. Hot and humid air covered the great plans as winds all the way from the Gulf of Mexico pushed the summertime heat and moisture northward. Circle sits on the vast high flatlands that rise toward the Rockies and often times it gets covered with stifling heat and humidity. Temperatures can sometimes top 110 degrees. At the same time cold air can sweep down from Canada, even in the summertime and this causes violent clashes in the atmosphere. Those dynamics lead to the cloudburst and heavy thunderstorms that inundated the region on June 20, 1921.

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In the years leading up to the Civil War, Galveston Texas was a bustling port and the main United States port west of New Orleans. When New Orleans was captured by Union forces early in the Civil War, Galveston became, along with Mobile, Alabama the main Confederate ports on the Gulf. When Mobile fell in 1864, Galveston was THE main port on the Gulf. As such it was well fortified, but it was also cut off from the rest of the confederacy once the Union gained control of the Mississippi with the fall of Vicksburg. Galveston’s importance diminished as the war went on. So, it came to pass that at the end of the war, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, finally landed at Galveston, with news that the war had ended and that enslaved people were now free. This was 2.5 years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation — which had become official January 1, 1863. Contrary to popular belief, the Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new executive order. When Granger’s regiment arrived, forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance. Specific weather records are scarce from that June day in 1865 in Galveston. But given the location of the docks in proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, it was clear that the day was relatively calm with sunshine and light breezes. The information that General Granger brought quickly spread and led to joyous celebrations among the now emancipated enslaved people and it all happened with no adverse weather conditions on that now rightfully celebrated day now known as Juneteenth.

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On June 18, 1992 heavy thunderstorms formed across the Mississippi River valley and headed eastward. Those storms reached Indiana late in the evening of June 18 producing heavy rains, gusty winds and hail. Flights all across the mid-west were already being diverted from some of the airports as the storms came closer. As one of the strongest storms approached Indianapolis, the control tower at the airport was evacuated as the severe thunderstorm moved in. 1” diameter hailstones fell, a 62-mph wind gust was reported, and a tornado was spotted 2 miles northwest of the airport. Flights were sent on to other airports and traffic controllers in other cities had to take over the duties of those in Indianapolis for several hours.

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