HISTORICAL WEATHER EVENTS - 18 January

From the files of the Aviation Weather Center, Kansas City, MO and Intellicast

• ...1857...A great "Cold Storm" swept across the Atlantic Seaboard from North Carolina to Maine. Snowfall totals of 12 inches were common, whole gales caused shipwrecks and damage property on islands, and temperatures near zero prevailed from Virginia northward. Great drifts of snow blocked transportation. Richmond, VA was cut off from Washington, DC for a week. (David Ludlum)
• ...1930...The record low temperature for the state of Oregon was set at Seneca when the thermometer dipped to 54 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• ...1943...The record low temperature for the state of Oklahoma was set at Watts when the mercury dipped to 27 degrees below zero. The record low temperature for the state of Idaho was set at Island Park Dam when the temperature fell to 60 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• ...1957...The record low temperature for the state of Massachusetts was set at Birch Hill Dam when the mercury fell to 35 degrees below zero. This record was tied in January 1981. (Intellicast)
• ...1973...A baby was carried 300 to 400 yards by the strong winds of a tornado at Corey, LA, yet received only minor injuries. (The Weather Channel)
• ...1977...The record low temperature for the state of South Carolina was set near Long Creek when the mercury plunged to 20 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
• ...1982...A cold morning in the Northeast with the temperature at Princeton, NJ at 9 degrees below zero and Bridgehampton on New York's Long Island at 10 degrees below zero, close to an all-time record. (Intellicast)
• ...1986...A Pacific storm dumped heavy rains over northwestern Washington, with 6 to 9 inches of rain in the Seattle area. There were 30 mudslides in the Seattle area alone. Major flooding occurred along with tremendous land erosion. Land under a railroad track south of Seattle gave way, derailing an Amtrak train with 28 people injured as a result. (Intellicast)
• ...1987...A storm in the south-central U.S. blanketed Oklahoma City with eight inches of snow, their highest total since 1948. Snowfall totals in Oklahoma ranged up to 13 inches at Gage, with drifts five feet high. Roof collapses across the state resulted in seven million dollars damage. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• …1988...A storm in the southwestern U.S. produced a 15 to 20-foot surf along the southern coast of California resulting in more than fifty million dollars damage. A small tornado in California's Orange County lifted a baseball dugout 15 feet into the air -- depositing it some 150 yards away, in the midst of a city street. The same storm was also responsible for 26 inches of snowfall at Duck Creek, UT. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
• ...1989...While fair and mild weather prevailed across the forty-eight states, bitter cold gripped Alaska. The high temperature for the day at Fairbanks was 30 degrees below zero. Thunderstorms along the western Gulf coast drenched parts of southwest Houston with more than four inches of rain. (National Weather Summary)
• ...1990...A winter storm produced heavy snow and high winds across the southwestern U.S. Snowfall totals ranged up to 18 inches at Lake Arrowhead, CA and Ashford, AZ. High winds in New Mexico gusted to 100 mph east of Albuquerque. Unseasonably warm weather continued from Texas to the Atlantic coast. Twenty cities reported record high temperatures for the date including Roanoke, VA with a reading of 71 degrees. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• ...1993...Salt Lake City, UT recorded 0.5 inches of snow on this day to push its seasonal snowfall to 76.0 inches to set a new seasonal snowfall record. The old record was 75.6 inches set back in the 1948-49 season. Total snowfall for the month at this point stood at 45.1 inches, which is a record for any month. The old record was 41.9 inches set in 1977. The blast of arctic air spread over the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. Chicago's high temperature for the day reached only 11 degrees below zero -- tying its record for the lowest daily maximum temperature ever. Tower, MN dropped to 44 degrees below zero for a morning low. Super intense snow squalls commenced in the lee of Lake Ontario in New York State. Adams was buried under 36 inches of snow in only 9 hours. Lowville picked up 25 inches for a total of 65 inches on the ground. A big 3-day snowstorm came to an end at Valdez, AK over which time 57 inches of snow buried the city. (Intellicast)
• ...1994...The massive overrunning snowstorm that had buried the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys the day before moved northeastward and clobbered interior sections of New England and the mid-Atlantic. Two-day snowfall totals included 24 inches at Grafton, NH, 23 inches at Long Pond, PA, 22 inches at Patten, ME and Hanover, NH, 20 inches at Eustis, ME, and 19 inches at Caribou, ME. 20 inches of new snow at Jay Peak, VT raised its snow cover to 91 inches. Wilkes-Barre Scranton, PA recorded 16.6 inches, which brought its monthly snowfall to 36.9 inches -- its snowiest January on record. (Intellicast)