This Date in Weather History

A strong storm developed in the southeastern United States on the 27th of March 2005 and grew even more dangerous as it moved up the East Coast on March 28th before moving out to sea off the New England Coast. Heavy rain fell across the Philadelphia and New York City metropolitan areas on the 28th and set the stage for a one-two punch of flooding when a second storm arrived in early April. Poor drainage and urban flooding resulted from the storm on the 28th and some rivers also experienced flooding, especially in New Jersey, notably along the Passaic and Ramapo Rivers. Rainfall totals exceeded 3” in New York City and much of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Most of the ground was still covered in snow from the winter season adding to the flooding woes. Further to the south on the tail end of the storm system, severe weather broke out dumping 4” diameter hail in Raleigh North Carolina and striking Florida with heavy thunderstorms that produced several inches of rain.

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The prairies and plains of west central Canada, like those on the plains of the central United States are subject to wide swings of weather. Geographic barriers like mountains and large bodies of water can block or deflect even large-scale weather systems. Ocean temperatures and currents impact the track of storms. The influence of abnormally warm or cold waters, known as El Nino and La Nina, off the west coast of the Americas results in abnormal snow and rainfall patterns across much of the North American continent. Sometimes, as slow-moving storms come toward ocean shorelines, those storms almost bounce a bit off the coast directed away by the friction that winds encounter with landmasses. On the vast open plains of North America, no such impediments exist. That often times manifests itself in temperature extremes not expected at southern and northern latitudes. For example, Texas sees much colder weather than Florida. Canada will often see high temperatures not usually associated with that northern clime at certain times. On March 27, 1980 such and occurrence happened when Winnipeg, Manitoba reached an all-time March record high temperature of 74 degrees.

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Late season Nor’easters in March are often times the most powerful storms to strike the northeast. On March 26, 2014 one such storm struck New England. The strong late season winter storm brought howling winds and heavy snow to Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Winds gusted as high as 82 mph on Nantucket, and more than 100 mph just off shore. The wind drove snow against buildings and homes plastering doors shut. Drifts of snow several feet high impeded emergency vehicles from removing trees and power poles brought down by the hurricane force winds. Most of the major cities in New England missed out on the heavy snow from the storm, but some offshore islands received almost a foot of snow.

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Tornado Alley is that area in the United States that has more tornados than anywhere else in the world. Stretching from central Texas to Eastern South Dakota. Tornados are more likely in Texas and Oklahoma in the Spring, and then they are more numerous in the northern plains in the summertime. Fed by the contrast between moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and super dry air that blows down off the Rockies, and the contrast in temperatures between the ground surface and midlevels in the atmosphere, severe weather development is primed. This is most common in Tornado Alley, and more common in southern areas early in the season. Oklahoma’s most active month is May, but March is the 4th most active of the year. Averaging almost as many tornados as July, August and September put together. It’s not unusual then for tornado to strike the same part of Oklahoma more than once in March. But what happened on this date in weather history on March 25, 1948 was unusual. A tornado struck Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 35 airplanes. Just 5 days earlier a tornado had also struck the air base destroying 50 airplanes.

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It had been fairly snowy across Kansas and Missouri in the 1911-1912 winter season. By the later stages of March, Kansas City already had recorded more than 40” of snow including 15” earlier in March alone. Average snowfall for an entire season is about 15” so the city already had well above it’s normal snowfall. Milder weather had made several attempts to move into that part of the nation during March, but cold air held firm and so it was cold on March 23, 1912 as a storm spun up in the southern Rockies. That’s system moved eastward pulling moisture from the Gulf of Mexico ahead of it and skirted along the southern edge of the cold air mass that was in place across the Plains states. As the storm moved through Texas, Kansas City was deep in the cold air. Snow began to fall in the afternoon of the 23rd and by the time it ended on the evening of March 24, 1912 Kansas City experienced its greatest snowstorm on record. 25” fell in 24 hours bringing the total snowfall there to more than 40” for March and 67” for the winter more than 4 times normal. Both the March and seasonal snowfall totals were records for Kansas City. Not far away in Olathe, KS 38” fell during that storm, a single storm state record.

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On March 23, 1913 the rain started falling across the Mid-west and it didn’t stop for 4 days and 4 nights. The deluge resulted in epic flooding unequaled in American history before and after. Known as the Great Flood. The storm system that produced the flood in late March 1913 began with a typical winter storm pattern, but developed characteristics that promoted heavy rain and at times sleet and snow. Strong winds in the high atmosphere cut off from the jet stream, caused a high-pressure system to stall off Bermuda and blocked the eastward movement of the storm. In the meantime, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico moved northward into the Midwest. The storm that formed in the nation’s mid-section had nowhere to move for several days, causing heavy rain over the four-day period between March 23 and March 26. As the storm gained strength on Sunday, March 23, high winds, hail, sleet, and tornadoes settled in across a vast swath of the nation’s mid-section. Major tornadoes hit Omaha, Nebraska where 94 died; also hit were Lone Peach, Arkansas; and Terre Haute, Indiana. On Monday and Tuesday, March 24 and 25, 3 to 8 inches of rain fell in Ohio, Indiana, and southern Illinois. Major rivers in Indiana and Ohio experienced heavy runoff. Downstream, where the Ohio River enters the Mississippi River, the water level broke record highs. By Tuesday, March 25, the Ohio River and its tributaries flooded cities such as Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Youngstown and Columbus. Dayton, Ohio, was particularly hard-hit. On Wednesday, March 26, the storm moved east into Pennsylvania and New York, while heavy rain continued in the Ohio valley. The heaviest rainfall, 6 to 9, covered an area from southern Illinois into northwestern Pennsylvania. As the storm continued eastward, flooding began in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Virginia. The Potomac River overflowed its banks in Maryland. 467 died in the floods and damage reached $147 million or almost $4 billion in 2021 dollars.

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The winter of 1935-1936 was a severe one with lower than normal temperatures in the eastern half of the United States. As of early March, it was estimated that the snowpack in Northern New England contained an average of about 7.5 inches of water – the equivalent of almost 100” of snow. Deep snow also covered the ground across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York state. Early in March 1936, a warm, moisture-laden storm moved into the area from the Ohio Valley to New England and stalled producing heavy rainfall. As the snow started to melt and the rains fell, streams and rivers began to fill, and the ground became soggy and saturated. A second moisture laden storm moved into the same region on March 18th and continued into the 20th. Again, the combination of heavy rain and melting snow resulted in more flooding. But this time almost the entire snow cover in New England melted, and with the ground already water-logged and the rivers full, severe flooding ensued. In many locations, this was the most severe flooding that has ever been experienced. The height of the flood, when the waters peaked, was March 22, 1936. The flood in Pittsburgh was more than 6 feet, higher than ever recorded, almost 9 feet higher in Hartford, Conn. and many other locations on that day would see flooding records not surpassed since. 107 lives were lost and $270 million dollars in damage or more than $5 billion in 2021 dollars.

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March 1868 started out relatively mild across the Eastern states. The winter of 1867-1868 had been a uniformly cold winter. Life was finally starting to get back to normal in the aftermath of the Civil War in the Northeastern states and the break in the winter, early in March was welcomed as the harbinger of an early spring. In the middle of the month though, a storm took form across the nation’s midsection and as it rolled eastward arctic air moved out of western Canada, across the Great Lakes into the Northeast. With cold weather firmly in place the storm moved in, and snow began to fall and quickly. Reports form the day indicated that 15-20” of snow fell at Philadelphia on March 21, Georgetown DE has an incredible 32” in just 16 hours. Many other parts of Delaware and New Jersey had close to 2 feet of the white stuff. The winter itself would go into the record books as the snowiest recorded up to that time. The storm on March 21, 1868 would bring seasonal snowfall totals to more than 80” in both New York City and Boston.

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Often times wave patterns develop in the high atmosphere, the strongest winds in these waves are represented by the jet stream. These waves in the air, like waves in the ocean, have high and low points over time and space. From a geographical perspective the high point usually supports high pressure and the low points low pressure or storms. On the western side of the high pressure or ridging it’s usually warm and winds blow from the south, close to the center of the low point or trough of the wave there is storminess. When patterns like this develop to the extreme, with great definition contrast in the waves, in the wintertime there can be awesome extremes. One such extreme case happened On March 20, 1948. A trough or dip in the wave caused a massive storm to hit Alaska dumping heavy snow in Juneau, the states capitol, where 32.5” of snow fell the heaviest ever there from one storm. Meanwhile far to the east in the eastern part of the US, a ridge, or rise in the jet stream, resulted in record warmth across the Carolinas. In some places like Raleigh and Greensboro, NC the mercury barely dipped below 70 for a low temperature setting records for the warmest March night ever recorded there.

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On March 19, 1958, Rain began falling along the eastern seaboard as a weak storm moved across the Ohio Valley. As that system approached the East Coast cold air was drawn into the storm from eastern Canada. The storm exploded. As it strengthened rapidly and the cold air was pulled southward all the way into the Mid-Atlantic states, the rain changed to snow and more and more moisture was fed into the system from a strong jet stream that reached all the way down into the Gulf of Mexico. When the rain started in March 19th temperatures were well up into the 40s. By the night of the 19th temperatures had sagged down to near freezing. The snow picked up in intensity and continued for the next several days. Most of the time the ratio of water content to the amount of the mid-Atlantic states is 10 to 1. That is for every inch of water there is about 10” of snow. In this situation though, later in March, with temperatures at or above freezing that ratio was more than 4 to 1 or even 3 to I. That meant the snow was much heavier than usual the result would soon play itself out with collapsed roofs and buildings as they yielded to the sheer weight of the snow. When the snowfall was over more than foot of the white stuff covered many of the big northeastern cities from Philadelphia to Boston. Many of the northern and eastern suburbs received almost 2 feet of snow from the storm that would go into the History books as the “Eve of Spring Snowstorm”. Just south of the snow area in Washington DC and Baltimore had record rainfall of almost 4” and flooding.

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