This Date in Weather History

Forays’ of cold air had been frequent across the Plains states in the fall of 2013; snow had even accumulated in places across Montana and the Dakotas. But the middle of December brought somewhat milder weather as winds across the region shifted from the north to the southwest and south and air came surging up out of Mexico. The change in the wind brought and marked change in the weather and on December 18, 2013 Record warmth spread across the Plains. Boulder, MT. tied the record of 54 set in 1979. Denver, CO. reached 68, breaking the record of 66 last recorded in 1979. Imperial, NE broke their record of 65 from 1979 by reaching 69. All across the region people welcomed the break in the early season cold that had held sway earlier in the month – it was not to last – just a couple of days later temperatures in parts of the region dipped into the teens and single digits.

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The archives of the National Weather Service report that Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with their first powered aircraft on December 17, 1903. After having success with their 5-foot biplane kite, the brothers realized the weather conditions in Dayton, OH, where their bicycle workshop was located and where they worked on heavier than air, aircraft were not ideal for their flying experiments. They wrote the National Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. requesting a list of suitable places on the east coast of the United States where winds were constant. 

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Wednesday, December 16, 1835 was a bitterly cold day, known as ”cold Wednesday”. Hanover, NH only reached a high temperature of - 17 degrees. It was -12 degrees at Boston by sunset. But it was in New York City that the cold did it’s most damage. It was so cold that the East River was frozen: Fire fighter couldn’t access the water, The Great NYC Fire of 1835 leveled 17 blocks that night, including Wall Street. The fire began on the evening of December 16, 1835, in a five-story warehouse at 25 Merchant Street, now known as Beaver Street at the intersection of Hanover Square and Wall Street. As it spread, gale-forces winds blowing from the northwest toward the East Rivers the spread the fire. The conflagration was visible from Philadelphia, approximately 80 miles away.  At the time of the fire, major water sources including the East River and the Hudson Rover were frozen in temperatures as low as −17 °F . Firefighters were forced to drill holes through ice to access water, which later re-froze around the hoses and pipes. Attempts were made to deprive the fire of fuel by demolishing surrounding buildings, but at first there was insufficient gunpowder in Manhattan. Later in the evening, a detachment of U. S. Marines and sailors returned at 3 o'clock in the morning, with gunpowder from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and began to blow up buildings in the fire's path. An investigation found that a burst gas pipe, ignited by a coal stove, was the initial source; no blame was assigned.

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Mild weather had persisted in western New York and indeed all across the Great Lakes region well into December in 1945. With the end of World War II, it seemed like the nice autumn weather was allowing people to enjoy peace of mind and carefree mild days for the first time in years. Great Lake water temperatures were also on the warm side when compared against long-term seasonal averages. Then on December 15 time ran out. A bitter blast of artic air – the first of the season arrived and blasted that cold air across the warm lakes setting an intense lake effect snow event. The city of Buffalo, New York got pounded with more than 36” of snow and areas south of the city in what are known as the snowbelts had twice as much snow – some places upwards of 70” of the white stuff. The region had some removal equipment – but heavy snow removal equipment was still sparse as many of the trucks and earthmoving type equipment was in use in the war effort and still had not been returned to many cities.

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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 arctic 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. 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 running 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 pushed southward by the jet-stream 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 ears 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 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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On December 10, 1699 in one of the first major ice storms in New England 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 to move 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 snow 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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