Historical Weather Events

HISTORICAL WEATHER EVENTS - 20 January

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

...1854...A large tornado struck the Brandon and Mount Vernon areas in central Ohio. (Intellicast)
...1883...Yuma, AZ set their all- time record low temperature of 22 degrees. This record was subsequently tied in 1911 and again in 1937. (National Weather Service files)
...1933...Phoenix, AZ received 1 inch of snow, setting the record for the most snow ever recorded in Phoenix. (National Weather Service files)
...1937...The wettest Inaugural Day of record with 1.77 inches of rain in 24 hours. Temperatures were only in the 30s as Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for his second term. (David Ludlum) The record low temperature for the state of California was set at Boca when the thermometer dropped to 45 degrees below zero. (Intellicast)
...1943...Strange vertical antics took place in the Black Hills of South Dakota. While the temperature at Deadwood was a frigid 16 degrees below zero, the town of Lead, just a mile and a half away, but 600 feet higher in elevation, reported a balmy 52-degree reading. (David Ludlum)
...1954...The temperature at Rogers Pass, MT plunged to 69.7 degrees below zero to establish a new record for the continental U.S. (David Ludlum)
...1961...The "Kennedy Inaugural snowstorm" belted the mid-Atlantic and New England states. Up to 29 inches of snow fell in northern New Jersey and southeastern New York. Areas north and west of Boston, MA received over two feet. This was the second of three major snowstorms during the 1960-61 winter season in the northeastern U.S. (Intellicast)
...1978...Snowblitz! -- A paralyzing "Nor'easter" blasted New England and the Mid-Atlantic States. Boston, MA recorded 21 inches in 24 hours to set a new record 24-hour snowfall amount -- only to have it broken 2 weeks later. Snowfall was under-forecast since a predicted changeover from snow to rain did not occur. Elsewhere, 15 to 20 inches of snow fell in Rhode Island, and one to two feet of snow in Pennsylvania. Winds along the coast of Connecticut gusted to 70 mph. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
...1987...Gale force winds lingered along the northern Atlantic coast in the wake of a holiday weekend storm. High winds a long the eastern slopes of the Northern Rockies gusted to 67 mph at Livingston, MT, and high winds in southern California gusted to 70 mph near San Bernardino. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
...1988...A storm in the Upper Midwest produced heavy snow and gale force winds. Up to 27.5 inches of snow was reported along the Lake Superior shoreline of Michigan, with 22 inches at Marquette. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
...1989...The temperature in the Washington, DC area warmed into the lower 50s for the Presidential Inauguration during the late morning hours, before gusty northwest winds ushered in colder air that afternoon. (National Weather Summary)
...1990...While heavy thunderstorm rains drenched the Central Gulf Coast States, with 4.23 inches reported at Centreville, AL in 24 hours, unseasonably warm weather continued across Florida. Five cities in Florida reported record high temperatures for the date. Tampa, FL equaled their record high for January of 85 degrees. (National Weather Summary)
...1993...A fast moving 980-millibar low (28.94 inches of mercury) produced high winds in the Pacific Northwest. A wind gust to 64 mph occurred at Sea-Tac airport in Seattle, WA -- the second highest wind gust ever recorded at this location. Wind gusts neared 100 mph at the mouth of the Columbia River. Over 750,000 people in the vicinity of Puget Sound lost power. Damage was severe, with 79 homes destroyed and 581 suffering major damage. In Oregon, wind gusts hit 89 mph at Netarts and 86 mph at Cape Blanco. In the southern U.S., train echo thunderstorms drenched Lafayette and Baton Rouge, LA with 10.83 and 9.02 inches of rain in 24 hours, respectively (Intellicast)
...1994...Frigid conditions persisted over the northeastern U.S. Rangeley, ME reported 45 degrees below zero for a morning low for the cold spot in the nation. First Connecticut Lake, NH dropped to a frigid 44 degrees below zero. Both Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland, OH completed their longest stretch of subzero readings on record, with 52 and 56 consecutive hours, respectively. (Intellicast)