This Date in Weather History

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1934: Newspapers and radio stations East of the Mississippi on the morning of May 12, 1934 carried ominous messages and headlines of a thickening black cloud of chocking dust and dirt moving out of the Great Plains states. The cloud would envelope the Mid-west and then Eastern states on May 12, turning mid-day sunlight into an eerie darkness, that seemed like night in many major cities. What happened? Actually, the causes can be traced back decades. Favorable weather conditions in the from 1900 to the 1920s with significant rainfall and relatively moderate winters, encouraged increased population and farming in the Great Plains. But the region entered an unusually dry period in the summer of 1930. During the next decade, the Northern Plains suffered four of their driest years in almost 100 years. When this severe drought hit the Great Plains region in the 1930s, it resulted in erosion and loss of topsoil because of farming practices at the time. The drought dried the topsoil and over time it became reduced to a powdery consistency. Native high grasses that held the soil in place had been plowed under to make room for expanding crop lands, so when high winds that occur on the plains picked up the topsoil massive dust clouds and dust storms occurred, giving rise to the term Dust Bowl. The continuous dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion. The fine soil of the Great Plains was easily picked up and carried east by strong winds. In November 1933, a very strong dust storm stripped topsoil from South Dakota farmlands in just one of a series of severe dust storms that year. But beginning on May 9, 1934, a strong, several days dust storm removed massive amounts of Great Plans soil in one perhaps the worst storm of the Dust Bowl. The dust clouds first blew all the way to Chicago, where they deposited 12 million pounds of dust. By May 12, 1934, the same storm reached cities to the east, such as Cleveland, Buffalo, Boston, New York City and Washington, D. C. turning day to night and chocking millions of people as dirt all the way from the plains states was deposited more than 1000 miles away on the streets and in the homes of major cities. 

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2003: The first week of May in 2003 had one of the worst tornado outbreaks on record in the United States reports indicate that 384 tornadoes occurred in 25 states, causing 42 deaths with at least 23 tornadoes on each day. Hardest hit were Missouri, where tornadoes occurred on 6 of the 7 days and 19 died; and Tennessee, where tornadoes occurred on 5 days and 11 died during the week-long outbreak that ended on May 11, 2003. The outbreak was so important that an entire paper was published on it in the American Meteorological Society magazine. There were also an incredible 723 wind reports and 1,782 hail reports that week! Oklahoma City suffered multiple twisters... from the National Weather Service report: "One day after and F4 tornado struct the southern Oklahoma City metropolitan area on May 8, 2003, a single supercell thunderstorm produced ten tornadoes in central Oklahoma, including one F3 and three F1 tornadoes in the northern Oklahoma City metropolitan area." A total of six F4 tornadoes struck during the week, including one around Kansas City and another near Memphis. 

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1889: May of 1889 was particularly warm and humid across the eastern United States. The jet-stream that steers weather system had lifted far north into Canada and air from the steam Gulf of Mexico has surged northward into the void. By May 9th chilly weather has re-established itself across the mid-west and was heading eastward as the jet stream dipped southward to push the chilly weather along. As the cold front marking the leading edge of the change moved into the east on the afternoon of May 10, 1889 a rash of violent thunderstorms erupted and brought extensive damage to a corridor in Pennsylvania through Williamsport, Shamokin, Pottsville, Reading, Pottstown, Philadelphia and to Atlantic City, New Jersey. A tornado cut a large swath through Berks County, including the city of Reading, which was the second twister to cut through the city that year. The damage was very extensive and at least of par with that of major midwestern tornadoes. Dozens narrowly escaped death. Visibility lowered to less than 10 feet at times in blinding, wind-driven rain. Temperatures reached the mid to upper 90's before the storm hit. 

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1977: One of the most powerful May snowstorms to strike the Northeast hit on May 9, 1977. 13" fell at Gardiner, MA; 12.7" at Worchester, MA; 1/2 million people lost power. Officially 1/2" in Boston, but thunderstorms with snow in the suburbs dumped 10" in the Wellesley area. A foot of snow fell at Foster, RI. Bare grass did not reappear in Wellesley, MA until the afternoon of the 11th and it was the heaviest snow of the entire winter there...all the plows were activated although in many cases the plows had already been removed for the season from the trucks...schools were closed in the western suburbs it was the latest school "snow day" ever...because of the convective nature of the storm, like hit and miss thunderstorms in the summer, some weird local variations occurred...with one town getting almost a foot of snow while just 5 miles away only a couple of inches fell. Vivid lightning accompanied the snowfall in many communities. Slide Mountain, NY had 27". Heavy snow also covered parts of New York. Cooperstown picked up 12.7" and in Connecticut 20" fell at Norfolk. 

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1360: The Hundred Years War between England and France began in 1337; by 1359, King Edward III of England led a huge army across the English Channel to France. The French did not engage in any pitched battles and mainly stayed behind protective walls of towns and cities. Meanwhile Edward conquered the countryside. In April 1360, Edward’s forces reached the Paris suburbs and began to move toward Chartres and its famous cathedral. While they were camped outside the town, now a suburb of Paris, in early May, a sudden storm hit. Lightning struck, killing a number of people, then large hailstones began falling hitting the soldiers. Two of the English generals were killed and panic set in among the troops, who had no shelter from the storm. Heavy losses were suffered by the English with more than 1000 estimated dead in the stampede caused by the storm. Some said it was a sign from God. King Edward of England was convinced to negotiate peace with the French. On May 8, 1360, a treaty was signed, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Edward agreed to renounce all claims to the throne of France. The hail storm and thunderstorms that caused it were a direct line the signing of the treaty.

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1840: Natchez, Mississippi was a bustling and booming river town along the Mississippi River in 1840, 20 years after Mississippi joined the union and 20 years before the Civil War. But on May 7, 1840 the second deadliest tornado in U S history struck the city. A large and powerful tornado went right through the center of town, flattening most of the buildings. But even worse was the damage on the Mississippi River, which was filled with boats, including 120 flatboats and steam boats. Many bodies were never found. The powerful tornado wrecked many boats at the Natchez Landing in Mississippi as well and then plowed through the city. The tornado killed 317 people and injured 109 others. The only storm on record this destructive to kill more than it injured. The storm is still as of May 7, 2020, the second deadliest tornado on record. The actual death toll could be higher as enslaved persons were not counted.

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1937: The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crewmembers on May 6, 1937. After opening its 1937 season by completing a single round-trip passage to, Brazil, in late March, the Hindenburg departed from, Germany, on the evening of May 3, on the first of 10 planned round trips between Europe and the United States that were scheduled for its second year of commercial service. Except for strong headwinds that slowed its progress, the Atlantic crossing of the Hindenburg was otherwise uneventful. Although carrying only half its full capacity of passengers and crew for the flight, the Hindenburg was fully booked for its return flight. The airship was hours behind schedule when it passed over Boston on the morning of May 6, and its landing at Lakehurst was expected to be further delayed because of afternoon thunderstorms. Advised of the poor weather conditions at Lakehurst, the Captain charted a course over New York City, causing a public spectacle as people rushed out into the street to catch sight of the airship. After finally being notified at 6:22 p.m. that the storms had passed, the airship headed back to Lakehurst to make its landing almost half a day late. At the time of the disaster, sabotage was commonly put forward as the cause of the fire, but in order to make up for the delay of more than 12 hours in its transatlantic flight, the Hindenburg passed through thunderstorms with high humidity and high electrical charge. Although the mooring lines were not wet when they first hit the ground and ignition took place four minutes after, it was theorized that the lines may have become wet in these four minutes. When the ropes, which were connected to the frame, became wet, they would have grounded the frame but not the skin. This would have caused a sudden potential difference between skin and frame and would have set off an electrical discharge – a spark. Seeking the quickest way to ground, the spark would have jumped from the skin onto the metal framework, igniting the leaking hydrogen, causing the explosion.

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1761: The office of the Town Clerk is the repository for the maintenance and safekeeping of records for the Town of Ashford, Conn. The Town reports that housed in the fire-proof vault or in the office of the Town Clerk are all land records, Town Meeting minutes, Town Ordinances, birth/marriage/civil union/death records, land surveys, election records, trade names, liquor permits, contracts, town reports, veterans discharge filings, Town board/commission/agency agendas and minutes, listings of Notaries Public, Justices of the Peace, election records, and other historical documents. In addition to maintaining records, the Town Clerk’s Office is the place to go for absentee ballots, copies of vital records, dog licenses, marriage licenses, voter registration forms. The Town of Ashford is not unique to New England, for centuries the Town Clerks at these hamlets great and small have dutifully recorded, not just those official papers I reported on, but other significant events. They have told the story of America, it so happens that on May 5, 1761, Ebeneser Byles, Town Clerk of Ashford reported that 5" of snow fell and that it was. And I quote from his official record "A very stormy day of snow, an awful sight, the trees green and the ground white. The 6th day the trees in a blow and the fields covered with snow" 

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1774: The neighborhood of Germantown in Philadelphia sits at a higher elevation than most of the rest of the city. From 250-300 feet above sea level the temperature can average a degree or two colder than the rest of the city. During weather situations that are borderline between rain and snow, often times much of the City of Philadelphia will have a slushy mixture of rain and snow, while only wet snow falls in Germantown and its adjacent elevated neighborhood of Chestnut Hill; sometimes depositing a couple inches of snow. On May 4, 1774 Germantown was a not part of the City of Philadelphia yet, it was a prosperous town of hundreds living in long established stone houses. Germantown was founded in 1683 and awaited its fate as the location of one of the most important battles of the Revolutionary War in 1777. On May 4, 1774 as a strong storm surged up the Atlantic seaboard temperatures held just near freezing, and while rain fell in the City of Philadelphia below 4” of heavy wet snow blanketed Germantown in one of the latest snowfalls on record in the region, before or since.

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1978: Most of New Orleans, Louisiana is below the flowing water level of the Mississippi River, that also means that the city is below sea level and so both the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain surfaces are also above the ground level of the city. Because of that, the city does not have a natural drainage for rainwater, so pumps are required to remove rainwater from the region. On May 3, 1978 the pumping drainage system had been in operation since 1900. That system was designed to handle one inch of rain per hour for the first three hours, and one-half inch per hour thereafter. Any rainfall in excess of this limit resulted in drainage slowdown and flooding, often times during extensive thunderstorm cloudbursts or tropical systems and Hurricanes the capacity to pump out the water simply was not effective. May 3, 1978 was proclaimed 'Sun Day.' All across the United States, celebrations were planned to pay tribute to the power and potential of solar energy. No celebration occurred in New Orleans, the sun was not visible all day, in fact heavy rains fell most of the day. Almost 11” of rain fell, more and 8” of that from 8am until noon. It was more than the drainage system could handle, actually more than twice its capacity. There was severe property damage, as much of the city sat in more than 5 feet of water as a result of the heavy rains and the failure of the pumping system.

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