This page includes 2005, 2004 & 2003.

For 2006.
For previous years (2002, 2001, 2000, 1999 & 1998)




(Missing information - April, May, June 2005 - will be added shortly)

HONG KONG - 2005 was the THIRD WETTEST YEAR ON RECORD, with a total rainfall of 3,214.5mm - 45.2% above normal. This was mostly due to an active southwest monsoon in June and August, bringing in plenty of moisture. June was the fourth wettest since records began in 1884, and August the second wettest. The rainfall in these two months alone amounted to 1,865.2mm, about 84% of the normal annual rainfall. Low tropical cyclone activity was seen in the western North Pacific and the South China Sea, where only 26 tropical cyclones formed, compared with the normal of 31. Three tropical cyclones affected Hong Kong in the year, roughly half the normal figure. The first tropical cyclone warning signal of the year was issued on August 12, the LATEST IN POST-WAR YEARS. 2005 was also a hazy year. For 27.8% of the time, reduced visibility of 8km or below was observed at the airport, breaking the previous record of 23.6% set in 2004.
CHINA - 2005 was a strange year as far as the weather was concerned, with serious meteorological disasters and abnormal weather patterns reported in Shanghai. Average temperatures for the year were higher than historic averages, especially during the summer when the warm weather arrived earlier than usual and lasted longer. The longer summer weather meant autumn temperatures were also higher than historic averages. 31 days had temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius. Traditionally, temperatures only top 35 in the city 9 times a year. The average temperature for the flood season, from June to September, was 28.5 degrees, the HIGHEST IN 133 YEARS and about 2 degrees above the historic average. Two powerful typhoons affected the city last year and caused serious damage, especially Typhoon Matsa. It's ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL TYPHOONS THAT HAVE AFFECTED THE CITY SINCE 1949. The average temperature for January and February was the LOWEST IN 10 YEARS. The Plum Rain season was dry, with the LOWEST AMOUNT OF RAINFALL IN 40 YEARS. A thunder storm on February 6 was the EARLIEST SINCE 1949. The average date for thunderstorms to begin in the city is March 15.
TEXAS - 2005 was the SECOND-DRIEST YEAR IN EAST TEXAS HISTORY with only 24.34 inches of rainfall. The driest year was 1956, with 24.01 inches of rain. Although there have been recent rains, East Texas is still experiencing one of its driest periods ever.
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12/31/05 -
Three of the most powerful hurricanes of 2005 were filled with mysterious lightning. Hurricanes are notoriously lacking in lightning. During the record-setting hurricane season of 2005 three of the most powerful storms - Rita, Katrina, and Emily - did have lightning, lots of it. And researchers would like to know why. The electric fields above Emily were AMONG THE STRONGEST EVER MEASURED by the aircraft’s sensors over any storm.
Hurricane Zeta, a FREAK tropical storm began swirling through the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, defying predictions and capping a wild hurricane season. Zeta formed off the coast of Africa, adding to the total numbers of the already RECORD HURRICANE SEASON. Zeta is the 27th tropical cyclone of the year, and has TIED A RECORD FOR THE LASTEST DEVELOPING NAMED STORM in recorded history. It ties with 1954's Hurricane Alice.
AUSTRALIA - Cobar district entered Year 2006 with scorching temperatures, a power outage and a continuation of THE WORST DROUGHT SINCE FEDERATION. Maximum temperatures prior to and on New Year's Day soared to nearly 45 degrees celsius. The late December-early January heatwave followed nearly four months without any useful rain and a RECORD DECEMBER EVAPORTAION RATE of 451mm (equivalent to the loss of more than 20 inches of rainfall).
SCOTLAND in 2005 had its THIRD-WARMEST YEAR SINCE RECORDS BEGAN and experts believe the effects of climate change are getting more severe.
AUSTRALIA - last month was not only the HOTTEST DECEMBER QUEENSLAND HAS EVER RECORDED – in one town it was the hottest month for 110 years. St George, in the state's far southwest on the border with NSW, sweltered through the month with an average maximum temperature of 40.3C. You would have to go back to the late 19th century to find a sweatier month in the town, whose average December maximum is 36.
AUSTRALIA - Melbourne topped off its WARMEST EVER DECEMBER with a RECORD HOT NEW YEAR'S EVE. The temperature peaked at a scorching 42.9 degrees in Melbourne at 5.15pm (AEDT) yesterday, the city's previous hottest December 31 was back in 1862 when the mercury topped 41.7 degrees. Victoria also set a new RECORD AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER of 27.7 degrees. The previous record was 27.3 in 1873. "It was in fact the WARMEST DECEMBER ON RECORD."
NEBRASKA - Friday was the 25th-straight day of above-normal temperatures in Omaha. The last time Nebraska experienced a longer streak was in November 2000. In December 1999, there was a 42-day streak of warmer-than-normal weather.
CANADA - Yellowknife is basking in their WARMEST DECEMBER ON RECORD.
UTAH - UNUSUAL HIGHS to linger through holiday. Temperatures will be in the low- to mid-50s on Sunday, which has happened ONLY FIRVE TIMES SINCE 1897.
UTAH - With just three days to go before Christmas, Utah County experienced RECORD-BREAKING HEAT on the 22nd.
CALIFORNIA - LA gets white-hot Christmas Eve as temps soar Many found the weather highly unusual for early winter.
OKLAHOMA - Near Muskogee, many folks say it's the WORST DROUGHT THEY'VE EVER SEEN IN THEIR LIFETIMES.
12/30 -
EUROPE - Much of the continent was battened down against the harsh weather, and it is the COLDEST DECEMBER IN A DECADE in Britain.
12/29 -
CALIFORNIA - A drenching winter storm swelled rivers in northern California to their HIGHEST LEVELS IN SEVEN YEARS.
12/27 -
JAPAN - the HEAVIEST SNOWFALL IN DECADES.
HONG KONG - has had frost in its COLDEST WINTER FOR 20 YEARS.
CANADA - Saskatchewan - It is the first time IN MORE THAN 20 YEARS that sections of some rivers still have flowing water. The volume of water flowing downstream from Lac la Ronge and other waterways is four to five times greater than normal.
12/23 -
OHIO - What's been UNUSUAL so far this winter season is the severe cold. "Up to Dec. 17, it's been the SECOND COLDEST DECEMBER IN THE LAST 100 YEARS. This month, the average temperature is only 32 degrees...Normal temperature for December averages 44 degrees. We haven't hit 40 degrees the whole month."
JAPAN - Some of the HEAVIEST SNOWFALLS ON RECORD FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR have hit Japan since last week, even in some southern prefectures that rarely see snow, but Tokyo has been spared. In northern Niigata, snow had piled up as high as 184cm and more snow is expected in the coming days.
INDIA - India's financial capital has been experiencing an UNUSUAL CHILL this winter, with temperatures falling well below normal for the season. A day after the mercury dipped to 11.6 degrees Celsius - the COLDEST DECEMBER DAY IN MUBAI IN THE PAST 56 YEARS.
COLORADO - it’s really cold in Colorado with tons of snow. The city of Fraser, once called the “Icebox of the Nation,’ has seen 44 below. The Winter Park ski area reported 142 inches of snow midway through December, the MOST SNOWFALL SINCE 1983 when a phenomenal streak of 41 straight days of snow was recorded.
12/22 -
TEXAS - Galveston recorded its WARMEST SUMMER EVER, with an average temperature of 85.5 degrees from June through August. June was the third-warmest ever for the island and August THE WARMEST EVER. Houston didn't quite reach record temperatures in the summer — the city recorded its 13th-warmest summer since year-round records began being kept in 1889. With just .08 inches of rain, the city experienced ITS DRIEST JUNE. September was worse. Not only did Hurricane Rita menace the Texas area, Mother Nature cranked up the heat. In Houston there were RECORD TEMPERATURES on the three days following Rita's landfall, Sept. 25 to 27. The mercury on those days reached 99, 99 and 100 degrees. The Sept. 27 high of 100 was the latest Houston has ever reached triple digits. Galveston, Houston and College Station all recorded their WARMEST SEPTEMBERS. College Station also had its DRIEST SEPTEMBER EVER.
12/21 -
Natural disasters have caused about $US 225 billion in damage in 2005 making this year the COSTLIEST EVER FOR INSURERS especially in the United States. More than half of those insured losses were caused by Hurricane Katrina.
FLORIDA - December marks the beginning of Florida's dry season, and Saturday had a RECORD 4.62-inch RAINFALL - the HIGHEST ONE-DAY TOTAL EVER RECORDED IN GAINESVILLE IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER.
12/20 -
CALFORNIA - Santa Rosa BROKE A 65-YEAR RECORD FOR THE DAY, receiving 2.3 inches on Sunday alone.
INDIANA - The area is experiencing its sixth-coldest and -EARLIEST START TO WINTER IN THE PAST 73 YEARS.
NEVADA - Rainfall totals from the storm were highest seen yet this winter. Sacramento had surpassed its ALL-TIME RECORD FOR RAIN on Dec. 18 with 1.41 inches - old mark 1.40 in 1955 - by noon.
SOUTH KOREA - As Seoul's temperature dropped yesterday morning to minus 14 degrees Celsius (6.8 F), the lowest this year, the Han River froze for the first time this winter, and the EARLIEST SINCE 1965.
12/19 -
JAPAN - RECORD SNOWFALL blanketed parts of Japan over the weekend.
AUSTRALIA - HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR in Townsville. "It is RARE that we get temperatures over 35 degrees. This is EXTREME. It is quite UNUSUAL to have these temperatures here on the coast."
12/18 -
AUSTRALIA - this is Australia's HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD. Australia-wide temperatures during the first five months of 2005 were 1.75C above normal, surpassing the previous record by 0.57C.
12/16 -
This year has been the WARMEST ON RECORD IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. It is the SECOND WARMEST GLOBALLY SINCE THE 1860s, when reliable records began. The warmest was 1998, though the 1998 figure was inflated by strong El Nino conditions. Ocean temperatures recorded in the Northern Hemisphere Atlantic Ocean have also been the HOTTEST ON RECORD. The Northern Hemisphere is warming faster than the south, scientists believe, because a greater proportion of it is land, which responds faster to atmospheric conditions than the ocean. Eight of the 10 warmest years since 1860 have occurred within the last decade.
12/14 -
A "dead zone" has been discovered at the epicentre of last year's tsunami, four kilometres down in the Indian Ocean. Five months after the disaster scientists were shocked to find no sign of life around the epicentre, which opened up a 1000-metre chasm on the ocean floor. There was nothing but eerie emptiness. "The sea is rich in life, and you'd expect a site like this to be quickly recolonised, but that hasn't happened. It's UNPRECEDENTED."
A fissure has been discovered that could soon develop into a new ocean basin in the northeast of Ethiopia. The fissure is 37 miles long and 13 feet wide. The Afar fissure will eventually tear eastern Ethiopia from the rest of the African continent, creating an ocean in the gap. "This is UNPRECEDENTED in scientific history because we usually see the split after it has happened. But here we are watching the phenomenon.''
12/13 -
This autumn is ONE OF THE FIVE DRIEST in central Arizona IN ABOUT FOUR DECADES.
The world has suffered more than 200 billion dollars in economic losses as a result of weather-related natural disasters over the past year, making 2005 THE COSTLIEST YEAR ON RECORD. Most losses resulted from the UNPRECEDENTED NUMBER AND INTENSITY OF HURRICANES in 2005, particularly Wilma, which hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula; and Katrina, which overwhelmed New Orleans. Hurricane Vince was the FIRST HURRICANE ON RECORD TO APPROACH EUROPE, making landfall in Spain in October. It was THE EASTERNMOST AND NORTHERNMOST appearance of an Atlantic hurricane on RECORD, effectively mirroring the appearance of Hurricane Catarina off Brazil in March 2004. Catarina was the first hurricane in the South Atlantic on RECORD.
12/11 -
The Sahel, a semi-desert zone which separates the Sahara from Africa's more tropical regions around the Equator, has been gripped by the WORST DROUGHT IN MODERN HISTORY since the 1970s. The HEAVIEST RAINFALL IN SOME THIRTY YEARS IN SENEGAL coincided with a RECORD HURRICANE SEASON this year.
INDIANA - A RECORD SNOWFALL of 8 inches hit on Thursday night/Friday morning.
12/9 -
TEXAS - RECORD-BREAKING COLD - The temperature sank to 15 degrees, shattering a record of 17 for Dec. 9 that had stood for 86 years.
AUSTRALIA - Perth is in the grip of its COOLEST START TO SUMMER IN MORE THAN 40 YEARS. The December average for Perth is 29.1 degrees but so far the average has been just 22.6.
US - In Lubbock, Texas, a RECORD 6 above zero was recorded. RECORD LOWS have also been recorded in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
COLORADO - Temperatures plunged to at least 37 below zero in parts of the West . The temperature fell to a RECORD 45-below at West Yellowstone, Montana at the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The old record for Dec. 7 was 39-below, set in 1927. Through Tuesday, Vail had received a RECORD 141 inches of snow for the season, breaking the record of 140 inches set at this time of year in 1985-86.
ILLINOIS - temperatures have fallen earlier than usual this month to roughly 20 degrees below normal. In Chicago, area temperatures Monday dipped down to a low of 4 degrees, beating the previous RECORD of 6 degrees first set in 1895. But it was even colder in the Quad Cities, where RECORD temperatures reached a frigid minus 4 degrees Monday. The previous record low temperature of minus 2 was set in 1886.
MISSOURI - Kansas City area residents awoke to find as much as 10 inches of snow on the ground from a RECORD-BREAKING STORM that moved through the area.
12/8 -
NEW ZEALAND - South Island rivers are flowing at their LOWEST LEVELS ON RECORD, heightening fears of a summer drought.
OKLAHOMA - record cold. Such cold, blustery weather is UNUSUAL for early December.
12/7 -
INDIA - More than 250 people have been killed and as many as one million more have been displaced by THE HEAVIEST RAINS IN 50 YEARS.
12/6 -
INDIA - The north-west monsoon that has crippled Chennai is UNPRECEDENTED.
ALBANIA - was hit by THE WORST FLOODING SEEN IN THE LAST 35 YEARS, following heavy rain.
12/4 -
HURRICANE EPSILON was 642 nmi WSW of Lajes, Azores.
Tropical Storm Epsilon on Friday strengthened into an UNPRECEDENTED RECORD 14th Atlantic hurricane of the year, extending a deadly and hyperactive six-month season. This year the Atlantic Basin produced the equivalent of more than two entire hurricane seasons over the course of one season.
12/2 -
HAWAII - A 40-acre section of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park's coastline collapsed this week, producing a six-foot-thick geyser of molten rock. The collapse was the LARGEST SINCE 1983 when the Kilauea Volcano began erupting.
12/1 -
TROPICAL STORM DELTA - assailed Spain’s Canary Islands, killing seven and wreaking UNPRECEDENTED HAVOC on the archipelago. “It’s JUST NOT NORMAL, first in that a storm forming off the Azores tends to brew up further south. That it should then come east towards Europe, and to the zone and latitudes of the Canaries, is a VERY UNUSUAL PHENOMENON. An UNUSUAL PATTERN APPEARED TO BE EMERGING following Tropical Storm Vince hitting Spain in October. “With Vince it was ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT PRECEDENT that it should come as far as the Spanish coast and now this year we have already had two phenomena of this type. It seems to us that since we have had satellite images, for 20-30 years, there has not been another tropical storm in the Canaries. There have been pertubations coming from the south, but far less virulent and not as a tropical storm.”
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11/30 -
GERMANY - A FREAK SNOWSTORM brought 50 pylons and hundreds of power lines crashing down in Germany's WORST BLACKOUT FOR 60 YEARS. Some 250,000 people suffered outages. The weight of ice on the power-lines and swinging caused by fierce winds had created forces that made the pylons buckle last week.
FLORIDA - By 2 p.m., sunny skies and warm breezes brought the temperature up to 82 degrees, tying a record set in 1990. November brought the second straight month of above-average heat, with two records equaled or beaten and seven days in the 80s. November also had near-record cold, with the low reaching 33 degrees on Nov. 18.
Months of good rain have ended years of severe dust storms that have swept millions of tonnes of soil from the Australian continent. A wet winter and spring across much of Australia has covered the arid rangelands with vegetation. That has ended the so-called "dust age" which has blasted the topsoil off the earth's driest continent in ONE OF THE WORST EVENTS OF ITS KIND IN AUSTRALIA'S RECORDED HISTORY.
11/29 -
MONTANA - a sudden storm spewed more than a foot of snow, in Great Falls it BROKE A CENTURY OLD RECORD by nearly 2 inches. One hundred years ago, over Nov. 26 and 27, 10.2 inches of snow fell.
NEW YORK - At 9 degrees Fahrenheit, last Friday was Binghamton’s COLDEST Nov. 25 ON RECORD. Just four days later the temperature rebounded to a RECORD HIGH 63 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest Nov. 29.
“Within a span of four days we went from a record low to a record high EUROPE - In Italy, civil defense officials are monitoring swelling rivers and nearby homes are being evacuated. More rain is expected. The level reached by the Tiber was historic and HAS NOT BEEN SEEN FOR MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A CENTURY.
11/28 -
OKLAHOMA - Oklahoma is well below its average rainfall for this time of year and the southeastern portion of the state is experiencing a RECORD-SETTING DROUGHT.
COLUMBIA - Colombian authorities said that this year's rainy season was the WORST FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS. The annual tropical rains are expected to continue until mid-December.
11/27 -
IRAN - The surrounding area of a 5.9 quake has NOT BEEN HIT BY A QUAKE IN MORE THAN 25 YEARS.
11/27 -
CHINA - A quake, which measured 5.7 on the Richter scale, damaged 130,000 homes. At least 14 people died, hundreds more were injured. The quake was THE BIGGEST IN THE REGION IN HALF A CENTURY (since 1949). "The biggest earthquake in recent years in Jiangxi struck in 1987, measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale."
11/23 -
ALASKA - The current unusual warm trend across the south has not broken any records of consecutive days above zero in the Whitehorse area but has knocked off RECORDS FOR DAYTIME HIGHS. Last Wednesday’s beginning of the warm spell began with a Whitehorse daytime high of 3.8. That edged out the previous record for Nov. 16 of 3.5 set in 1979. Last Thursday’s high of 7.4 shattered the 1957 record of 3.3 and last Friday’s 6.1 tied the record set in 1971. November’s record daytime high for Whitehorse is 11.7, set in 1970.
11/24 -
FLORIDA - wind gusts were as high as 44 mph - the STRONGEST IN MONTHS. Sustained winds were clocked at 36 mph Monday afternoon - STRONGER THAN DURING HURRICANES KATRINA AND RITA, and just 3 mph shy of tropical-storm-force winds.
11/16 -
NEW YORK - A RECORD HIGH of 70 degrees was set in the morning. The thermometer hit 70 degrees at 6 a.m. at the Greater Rochester International Airport. It BROKE A RECORD of 69 degrees set in 1933. The normal high for this time of year is 47 degrees.
CALIFORNIA - A strong high-pressure system parked over the state brought RECORD-BREAKING TEMPERATURES to the the Bay Area and gusts up to 80 mph in the hills. San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Rosa and San Jose all saw records tumble Tuesday, with San Francisco's 79 degrees topping by one degree a record for that date that had stood since Prohibition. San Rafael's 75 tied a record that has been unbroken since Grover Cleveland was president — 1895.
11/13 -
AUSTRALIA may be experiencing ITS HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD. The Bureau of Meteorology says the 10 months from January to October were the warmest since monthly records began in 1950 and would probably make it the hottest year since annual records began in 1910. In the first 10 months this year, temperatures were 1.03 degrees celsius above the 30-year average. This year's was the WARMEST SEPTEMBER FOR 125 YEARS.
AUSTRALIA - Farms on South Australia's Adelaide Plains have been devastated by the WORST FLOOD IN THE REGION'S HISTORY.
11/11 -
IOWA - One person died in a tornado, the FIRST FATALITY KNOWN TO RESULT FROM A NOVEMBER TORNADO IN IOWA.
11/10 -
AUSTRALIA -(11/9)AN INTENSE STORM that streaked across southern Victoria has been rated by a senior forecaster as the FASTEST HE'S SEEN IN MORE THAN 30 YEARS of weather watching.
11/9 -
BAHAMAS - When Hurricane Wilma ripped through Florida two weeks ago, the devastation didn't stop once the storm left the U.S. After cutting a swath from Marco Island to Miami, Wilma picked up new strength and made a change in course that local forecasts didn't predict. Few would realize this, however, until Wilma made landfall the next day, October 24, on Grand Bahama. The storm became what many here are saying was THE MOST DEVASTATING HURRICANE THE ISLAND HAS EVER SEEN.
11/8 -
INDIANA - The tornado that struck Evansville and Newburgh WAS THE DEADLIEST STORM TO HIT INDIANA SINCE 1974.
11/6 -
INDIANA - A tornado that struck Evansville and Newburgh WAS THE DEADLIEST STORM TO HIT INDIANA SINCE 1974.
11/5 -
MINNESOTA - The temperature this year has remained above 28 degrees — the National Weather Service’s threshold for a killing frost — since March 26, a RECORD 226-DAY SPAN.
11/2 -
PENNSYLVANIA - Some Pennsylvanians, including tree experts, suggest the leaf-changing/falling pattern in 2005 is LATER THAN IN ANY AUTUMN IN DECADES, as late as some people can remember in their lifetimes, running up to 4 weeks behind schedule.
NEW ZEALAND - Masterton residents are still mopping up after a FREAK thunderstorm bombarded half of the town and left the other half completely unscathed. They recorded 32mm of rain and hail in less than an hour on Sunday afternoon between 4pm and 5pm – the MOST INTENSE HAIL STORM ON RECORD in the town. The storm was "off the scale" as far previous records were concerned. --------------------------------
OCTOBER 2005 -
10/30 -
MARS - A new dust storm has erupted on Mars, big and bright enough to see through backyard telescopes. Some longtime observers say it's the MOST INTENSE THEY HAVE EVER SEEN. On Oct. 28th the billowing cloud assumed the shaped of a giant tentacled octopus.
10/28 -
OKLAHOMA - This past week saw RECORD COLD, A WEEK AFTER RECORD HEAT was registered in McAlester.
TEXAS - Barring a huge cloudburst before the end of the month, this October will go down as the DRIEST SINCE the Athens Daily Review began keeping records 48 YEARS AGO.
10/27 -
EASTERN U.S. It has been the WETTEST MONTH ON RECORD in Providence, R.I., with 15.07 inches of rain. Worcester, Mass., also TOPPED ITS OCTOBER RECORD with 15.52 inches so far this month.
NEW YORK - got more rain in October than this region has EVER RECORDED IN A SINGLE MONTH. Most other records that are broken are broken by a nose. Not this one. At the Mohonk Preserve near New Paltz, 18.2 inches had fallen in October as of the 28th - about 3.5 inches more than the previous record, set in 1897. "That really is the startling thing, that it is three and half inches above any previous high month." At the Dutchess County Airport in Wappinger, the story was much the same. The 17.6 inches recorded in October were 3.7 inches more than the next-highest month, July 1975. The single heaviest rain of the month came on Oct. 8, when 7.6 inches fell at the airport. It was the single heaviest day of rain ever recorded there, in nearly 50 years of records — and it broke the record by a long shot. The previous record had been set on July 14, 1975, when 4.7 inches fell.
MARYLAND - This was the WETTEST OCTOBER EVER in Maryland.
CONNECTICUTT - High winds and intermittent rain BROKE THE OCTOBER MONTHLY RECORD FOR RAINFALL in Fairfield County. Setting a new October record of 11.35 inches of rain and breaking the 1952 monthly record for rainfall of 10.72 inches.
VERMONT - An early season snowstorm dumped up to 20 inches of heavy snow in the mountains, and left 40,000 customers without power. "This is the worst fall snow storm damage we've seen since October of 1987. ..when the damage is tallied up, this will be ONE OF THE FOUR OR FIVE WORST STORMS IN RECENT MEMORY."
VERMONT - As of Wednesday morning (10/26), St. Johnsbury had received 8.6 inches of rain this month, making this the WETTEST OCTOBER SINCE RECORDS WERE FIRST COLLECTED IN 1894. On Mt. Washington, the storm "set some pretty significant records." October is already the WETTEST MONTH EVER RECORDED ON THE MOUNTAIN, at 27.85 inches of rain and snow as of Wednesday (10/26) morning. The old record was 25.56 inches set in February 1979. This storm BROKE THE 24-HOUR SNOWFALL RECORD ON THE MOUNTAIN FOR OCTOBER, with 25.7 inches falling between Tuesday and Wednesday. The previous record was set earlier this month, on Oct. 17, at 25.5 inches.
UNITED KINGDOM - October 27 was the HOTTEST DAY EVER RECORDED THERE. The temperature at Aultbea, on the banks of Loch Ewe, peaked at 21.2C. It beat the British record of 20.3C for the previously hottest 27 October, which was recorded in London in 1888. Similar soaring temperatures were seen throughout Scotland, with Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, the Moray coast and the Scottish Borders all exceeding 20C - HIGHLY UNUSUAL for the second half of October. In central London, the mercury rose to 21.5C in the afternoon. There has been a wind but even the wind is very warm. The average temperature in Scotland for this time of year is normally as low as 12C, but throughout the country that figure has been significantly beaten. Edinburgh's temperature hit 21C - the HIGHEST IN THE LAST TEN DAYS OF OCTOBER SINCE RECORDS BEGAN. "For late October it is unusual to have had such a hot day. "
SCOTLAND - Scotland was hit by the HOTTEST OCTOBER 27 ON RECORD with the mercury soaring to 21.2°C in the north-west of the country.
SW FLORIDA - TEMPERATURES DROPPED TO RECORD LEVELS. The lowest high temperature ever recorded in Fort Myers on Oct. 25 was 72, in 1937 — that is, until Tuesday. Tuesday's high was a record 71, 14 degrees below the average high of 85 for the day. The low was 56, two degrees short of tying the record low of 54, set in 1982. The predicted low for Wednesday morning was 52, which would tie a record. Today's low temperature record was set in 1990.
10/26 -
Southeastern Oklahoma is now in a RECORD DROUGHT.
SOUTH INDIA - Karnataka and Tamil Nadu continue to reel under floods, with Bangalore experiencing its WETTEST OCTOBER IN NEARLY 50 YEARS. The city had received 52.5 cm of rain by Tuesday afternoon, a new record for October.
With an active Northeast monsoon covering the entire peninsular INIDA with heavy rain, the Stanley reservoir at Mettur has been receiving an inflow of more than two lakh cusecs for the FIRST TIME IN 44 YEARS, leading to water discharge and Cauvery overflowing in some areas. The water level is 121.5 feet against the dam’s capacity of 120 feet.
WILMA - FLORIDA - We expect storms to hit land and slow down from the sheer friction of their mass or the obstacles they encounter. And we expect them to do more damage on the side of the state they enter than on the side they exit. But, not Wacky Wilma. "I guess we could classify it as RARE because we don't get a lot of Category 3 hurricanes making landfall any time of year, much less in October." Wilma followed a BIZARRE TRACK that flooded the playground of the rich, then shot the storm across the state before becoming the MOST DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE TO HIT THE FORT LAUDERDALE AREA SINCE 1950. She intensified from a Category 2 to a Category 5 storm overnight - ANOTHER RECORD.
10/25 -
The National Climate Data Center’s 111-year period of record that begins in 1895 shows that the Florida statewide wet season rainfall from 2001 to 2004 was THE LARGEST RAINFALL OF ANY OTHER SIMILAR FOUR-YEAR PERIOD. August 2004 to July 2005 was THE WETTEST PERIOD ON RECORD.
This year, much of the Amazonia region has registered the LOWEST RAINFALL IN 40 YEARS, similar to the levels seen in 1963 and 1964. The water in the Negro River - along whose banks is located Manaus, a city of over 1.5 million that is the capital of the state of Amazonas - is at its LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 1903.
PENNSYLVANIA - This was THEIR WETTEST OCTOBER ON RECORD.
10/24 -
ITALY - Torrential rain battered southern Italy overnight, demolishing a bridge, sweeping away cars and derailing a Eurostar train. 20 passengers were injured when six carriages of a Eurostar train were derailed after a landslide swept away the earth beneath the rail tracks, leaving one carriage overhanging a chasm. The deluge was described as an "EXCEPTIONAL CLIMATIC EVENT WHICH CAN ONLY HAPPEN ONCE IN A HUNDRED YEARS. In just three hours in a limited area last night we had 161 millimetres of rain – AS MUCH RAIN AS THE APULIA REGION GETS IN A WHOLE YEAR."
NEW ZEALAND - The North Island's east coast was pummelled with the kind of rainfall that drops only ONCE EVERY 100 YEARS on Friday night, stranding whole towns and cutting electricity and water supplies. Areas surrounding Gisborne, particularly Tolaga Bay, face a big clean-up after more than 300mm of rain fell in 24 hours in some places. Over 300mm was EXCEPTIONAL RAINFALL. "Statistically, it's a one-in-100-year event.
Hurricane Wilma - Storm surges have reached as high as the third story of some hotels as Hurricane Wilma batters Mexico's popular Cancun resort area. Winds of 140mph (225km/h) have damaged buildings considered hurricane-proof. "This is THE EQUIVALENT OF HAVING FOUR OR FIVE HURRICANES OF THIS SIZE PASS OVER ONE AFTER THE OTHER, given the amount of time we have been suffering hurricane-force winds. NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF QUINTANA ROO HAVE WE HAD A STORM LIKE THIS. The water is crossing over from the sea into the lagoon." The stalled storm had battered the Mexican coastline for more than 24 hours and was expected to hang over the area for at least another 24 hours, raising the risk of disaster. "It's a monster, it is roaring all the time." Wilma dumped 590mm of rain on Isla Mujeres island yesterday, an UNPRECEDENTED DOWNPOUR for Mexico. "We are talking about A RECORD HURRICANE AS FAR AS RAIN IS CONCERNED." The storm was expected to dump between 250mm and 500 mm of rain across the Yucatan and western Cuba. Some areas could get up to 1000 mm. Wilma had an UNUSUALLY WIDE DIAMETER of 800km.
More from Mexico - Schools, hospitals, hotels and highways were substantially damaged. "A LEVEL OF DESTRUCTION WITHOUT PRECEDENT."
NEW YORK - At Kennedy Airport, almost a foot of rain was measured between Monday, Oct. 10, and the morning of Oct. 8, including a RECORD-SMASHING record-smashing four-plus inches last Friday alone. The deluge made this October THE WETTEST SINCE RECORDS WERE FIRST KEPT IN 1949. A combination of a high-pressure front over Nova Scotia and a subtropical low off the coast of North Carolina were the primary causes of last week's storms, which affected much of the Northeast. The front stalled out just south and east of Long Island. and it remained there for a week. A total of 11.18 inches had fallen at JFK by the time the storms cleared.
10/22 -
Alpha is the 22nd named storm of this RECORD-BREAKING SEASON. Alpha BROKE THE ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON ACTIVITY RECORD set in 1933 and marked the FIRST TIME THAT FORECASTERS HAVE RUN OUT OF NAMES and had to resort to the Greek alphabet for additional names. 10/20 -
ENGLAND - EAST SURREY residents are being warned they are facing the BIGGEST DROUGHT IN DECADES. The region faces its THIRD LOWEST ANNUAL RAINFALL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1910. Only 46mm of rainfall during September, nearly 20mm below the average. Only in 1921 and 1934 was less total rainfall recorded and, if drought conditions continues, it will be the first time for more than 40 years that the area has received below-average amounts every month. A dry October this year will mark virtually a full 12 months of below-average rainfall in Mole Valley and surrounding areas.
In some ways, Wilma is another strange wrinkle in an already strange hurricane season. "THIS STORM IS DOING THINGS THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. It had a 2-mile-wide eye. That's ridiculous. It had a pressure of 882 millibars. I've been speechless watching this hurricane...I thought Wilma would be a major hurricane, but I didn't think it would be a Cat 5: It's already three-quarters through October. That's pretty unusual...This is Hurricane Season 2005. You might as well throw away the book." "The storm is over the very warm waters of the Caribbean, and wind shear is virtually non-existent. Then there's the size of the envelope: The circulation is drawing warm, moist air from the eastern Pacific as well as the Caribbean."
10/19 -
Wilma is the third hurricane this year to reach category five status, SOMETHING NEVER DONE BEFORE. Two hurricanes each in 1960 and 1961 did reach category five status. The two storms that hit within 3.5 weeks of one another, Katrina and Rita, had "THE LARGEST IMPACT ON GULF OF MEXICO OIL PRODUCTION EVER.” Katrina, Rita and Wilma are THREE OF THE TOP FIVE MOST INTENSE HURRICANES ON RECORD. Wilma was the 21st named storm of the season, TYING WITH 2005 with 1933 AS THE BUSIEST ON RECORD. It was the 12th hurricane of the season, TYING WITH 1969 FOR THE MOST HURRICANES. Wilma INTESIFIED MORE RAPIDLY THAN ANY OTHER SYSTEM, growing from a tropical storm with 40-mph winds on Monday (17TH) to a Category 5 monster with 175-mph winds Wednesday (19TH). 10/15 -
From March through September, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport got about 13 inches of precipitation - 12 inches below normal. That's the DRIEST STRETCH ON RECORD FOR THE SEVEN-MONTH PERIOD in northeastern Illinois.
With the month only half over, this is already THE WETTEST OCTOBER ON RECORD for Connecticut. The previous record was 11.61 inches of rain in 1955. Hartford had 12.77 inches as of Friday. This is also the FOURTH-WETTEST MONTH EVER since the National Weather Service started keeping records for Hartford a century ago. The Natchaug River in Chaplin was running at RECORD LEVELS after nine straight days of heavy rain in the state. "We probably got three months of rain in this past week."
A state of emergency has been declared for New Jersey after eight days of rain caused ponds, lakes and rivers to overflow. The rain in the past eight days itself may set a record for New Jersey rainfall for the entire month. The record of 9.13 inches of rain was set in October 1903. The current rainfall is expected to average about 9 inches.
September was THE HOTTEST MONTH RECORDED ON THE PLANET EARTH SINCE 1880 when the first reliable instrument recordings were available. Earth's second-hottest month was September 2003. September 2005 was only the fourth-hottest month ever for the United States. The U.S. state of Louisiana had its hottest September in 111 years. "Considering the record low amounts of sea ice this year leading up to the month of September, 2005 will almost certainly surpass 2002 as the lowest amount of ice cover in more than a century. "
10/10 -
Tropical storm Vince had turned into a hurricane on Sunday after forming near the mid-Atlantic Madeira islands, about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) southwest of Portugal. Madeira is an unusual location for the formation of tropical storms. The historical record shows no tropical cyclone ever before making landfall on the Iberian Peninsula. The center of Vince passed just to the south of the coast of Portugal before becoming THE FIRST TROPICAL CYCLONE TO EVER MAKE LANDFALL IN SPAIN.
10/9 -
It has been one of the most deadly hurricane seasons on record.
Hurricane Vince formed Sunday in the far eastern Atlantic, making this hurricane season THE SECOND BUSIEST ON RECORD. The storm formed between the Azores and the Canary Islands in waters that are cooler than what is typically needed for a tropical storm. Water temperatures are about 73 to 75 degrees, below the 80 degrees usually needed for a tropical storm. Forecasters said this appears to be THE FARTHEST EAST AND NORTH THAT A TROPICAL STORM HAS FORMED IN RECORDED HISTORY IN THE ATLANTIC.
The WORST DROUGHT IN MORE THAN 40 YEARS is damaging the world's biggest rainforest, plaguing the Amazon basin with wildfires.
RECORD-BREAKING 8 INCHES OF RAIN in the Mid-coast region of Maine.
In Allentown, Pennsylvania, nearly nine inches of rain fell. That's the MOST RAIN ON RECORD IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD in Allentown. The old record was 6.3 inches.
In Keene, New Hampshire, the Whetstone Brook has overflowed in the past during periods of heavy rain, but Saturday's storm was THE WORST SEEN IN THE LAST 35 YEARS. "I've never seen flooding like that which occurred Saturday night. It was totally out of the ordinary."
In Delaware,the region's first drenching since spring was one that weather officials say BROKE A PREVIOUS RECORD. Georgetown broke a record 1 inch of rainfall set in 1951 with 4.4 inches reported from 8 p.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Saturday. Wilmington, which received 3.2 inches of rain during the same period, also broke a record, set in 1996, when 1.4 inches fell.
10/8 -
Over 3000 people were killed when the massive earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale shook parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, flattening houses and sweeping whole villages away. Thousands more were believed injured as the quake, ONE OF THE STRONGEST TO ROCK THE REGION IN THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS.
10/7 -
The Washington D.C. area's months-long drought ended today with hours of driving downpour that BROKE AT LEAST TWO RAINFALL RECORDS. They set a record for Oct. 7 of 2.03 inches, well above the previous mark of 1.60 inches in 1965. The rainfall was by far the most in the region in weeks. Almost 20 times as much rain fell as in all of last month. Rainfall also set a record at Dulles International Airport, with 2.24 inches measured by late afternoon, compared with the previous high of 1.55 inches in 1965.
For the latter half of September alone, Romania and Bulgaria received more than 200 PERCENT OF THEIR NORMAL ANNUAL RAINFALL. Rainfall totals were well above average throughout most of the spring and summer too.
The Amazon River has hit its LOWEST LEVEL IN THE 36 YEARS SINCE RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT near its source in Peru.
In central Pennsylvania, it was the HOTTEST YEAR ON RECORD AND THE WARMEST FOUR-MONTH PERIOD ON RECORD. September concluded with a monthly average nearly 6 degrees above normal, THE GREATEST DEPARTURE FROM NORMAL OF ANY SEPTEMBER ON RECORD. September also strung together 23 straight days of the mercury reaching at least 80 degrees. That’s NEVER HAPPENED SINCE LOCAL WEATHER RECORDS BEGAN. Temperatures in June, July and August also were well above normal.
Several locations in the eastern U.S. reported NEW RECORD LOW SEPTEMBER RAINFALL TOTALS, including Columbia, S.C., which received no measurable precipitation for the month. Parts of New York and the Virginias also established new records for dryness during September, breaking marks which had stood for more than a century, in some instances. College Station, Texas broke a 75-year-old record by reporting only 0.02 inch of rain for the month of September. 2004/05 was one of the 10 DRIEST WATER YEARS ON RECORD for some locales, including Portland, Salem, and Eugene, Oregon.
10/5 -
A 64-YEAR-OLD SNOWFALL RECORD WAS SHATTERED as Jack Frost made his first visit of the season to Westman, Canada. Up to four centimetres of snow fell in the Wheat City by 2:30 p.m., blowing away the previous Oct. 5 record of 3.3 cm set in 1941.
The EARLIEST BLIZZARD IN MEMORY in Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming.
10/4 -
4.61 inches of rain fell at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and BROKE THE RECORD FOR OCT. 4 and set a DAILY RECORD FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER. The old record was 2.75 inches. The October average rainfall is only 2.11 inches.
10/3 -
While last week's storms in Colorado, boosted flows temporarily, most drainages in the Blue River Basin have dropped to NEAR OR BELOW HISTORIC LONG-TERM MEAN AVERAGES, even considering that this is the driest time of the year.
10/2 -
Summer is hanging tough, as evidenced by a RECORD-BREAKING HIGH TEMPERATURE in Michigan on the 2nd. The old record high of 73 degrees, set in 1997, was shattered by Monday's high temperature of 78. "It's in the top five of hottest summers for most of the regions in the Upper Peninsula."
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SEPTEMBER 2005 -
9/30 -
Large parts of the Amazon rainforest are at their DRIEST IN LIVING MEMORY, a direct consequence, scientists say, of the severe hurricane season off the US Gulf coast. Rainfall has been significantly below average this year along the Rio Solimoes and the Rio Madeira, two of the major Brazilian tributaries that flow into the Amazon, causing water levels to drop to RECORD LOWS. Rivers and lakes are drying up, revealing huge sandbanks and making navigation difficult for boats. The north Atlantic was slightly warmer than usual, which had shifted the tropical weather system further north. A secondary factor was that cold fronts that usually came from the south of Brazil at this time of year had not been arriving. "These cold fronts have been heading straight into the ocean, instead of heading north towards the Amazon." Even though the river levels in the south-western Brazilian Amazon are always low at this time of year, the scale is much worse than usual and has HIT AREAS NEVER PREVIOUSLY AFFECTED. In towns such as Humaita the lush landscape has drastically changed. "A beach has been born in the middle of our town. Before this year I'd never seen the river less than 10 metres deep - now its only 2 metres. This is the BIGGEST DROUGHT IN OUR HISTORY."
In Nebraska, the Platte River continues to provide good water flows, but most of the other downstream tributaries continue to fall. Releases from the reservoirs will be limited to the rate necessary to maintain minimum target flows. They will be reduced to near 9,000 cubic feet per second in October with the closing of the commercial navigation season. The current runoff forecast for 2005 is 20 million acre feet, compared to a normal of 25.2 MAF. As previously announced, the NAVIGATION SEASON WILL BE SHORTENED 48 DAYS, THE GREATEST SHORTENING ON RECORD.
9/27 -
The Charleston, South Carolina area was inundated Wednesday with upward of a half-foot of rain that broke records, By 11 a.m., a record total of 2.79 inches of rain had fallen at Waterfront Park in downtown Charleston, BREAKING THE OLD RECORD for the date of 1.91 inches set in 1957.
9/26 -
The Arctic ice shelf has melted for the fourth straight year to its SMALLEST AREA IN A CENTURY, driven by rising temperatures. If melting rates continue, the summertime Arctic may be completely ice-free before the end of the century,
The death toll in India's WORST ENCEPHALITIS OUTBREAK IN NEARLY 30 YEARS has reached 900.
Spring snowmelt in Alaska's Arctic is occurring progressively earlier, accelerating the region's climate change and helping produce its WARMEST SUMMERS IN AT LEAST 400 YEARS.
Typhoon Damrey, the 18th typhoon to hit china this year was the 2ND BIGGEST SINCE 1960 and the LARGEST IN 31 YEARS.
9/24 -
In Shreveport, Louisiana Wednesday saw a RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 103, NOT ONCE, BUT THREE TIMES DURING THE DAY. "The old record was 99 degrees, set back in 1937. And by noon, it was broken." Occasional winds knocked the mercury back down to 102 degrees and 101 degrees occasionally. But about 2:30 p.m. and just before 4:40 p.m., 103 degrees registered again, perhaps setting a record for records in one day here.
The summer of 2005 was THE 5TH RAINIEST EVER IN NORTHEAST GEORGIA, topped off with hurricane-triggered tornadoes Aug. 30.
9/22 -
Temperatures in Minnesota - it HIT A RECORD 89 DEGREES IN AUSTIN, breaking the old record of 86 set in 1941. Hutchinson also HIT A RECORD 89 degrees, breaking the old record high of 86 degrees set in 1959.
Hurricane RITA is a POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE and she continues to strengthen. Rita is the THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE IN TERMS OF PRESSURE EVER IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN.
9/21-
In Florida, sea creatures are suffering from red tide poisoning, caused by a single-cell organism that cuts off oxygen in the water. This year, it has been particularly bad. The offshore bloom normally doesn't occur until the fall of the year. This year, it appeared in January, and, while its intensity has fluctuated, it has persisted. Scientists say it is the WORST CASE IN 30 YEARS, and the worst of it is concentrated in a 2,000-squaremile underwater "dead zone" stretching from north of Clearwater to south of Sarasota.
Jinan, capital city of east China's Shandong Province, was drenched with a record-breaking rainfall which had continued since Sunday. It was the BIGGEST RAINFALL IN AUTUMN IN THE PAST 54 YEARS. The unremitting rain, with a precipitation of more than 170 mm,set a new record since the city established its weather records in 1951. The observatory said it was very rare to see a rainfall exceeding 100mm in the autumn in Jinan. The only exception occurred in the autumn of 1964, when the precipitation reached 102.3 mm. The heaviest rainfall that ever struck Jinan occurred in 1994's summer with a precipitation of 188 mm and this one is the SECOND LARGEST ONE IN THE CITY'S WEATHER RECORD.
9/20 -
The threat of drought is looming for Wairarapa and the Kapiti Coast in New Zealand after some of the WARMEST AND DRIEST WINTER MONTHS ON RECORD.
Florida scientists and engineers studying extreme weather patterns this summer say that they are the result of the rare convergence of climatic and weather phenomena. “We are experiencing an uncommon event. South Florida climate varies in cycles, some that form patterns with long return frequencies. This certainly is an event of a magnitude that NORMALLY OCCURS ONCE EVERY 50 TO 100 YEARS." A monster hurricane like Katrina and the fact that Florida was hit by four large hurricanes last summer are but the most extreme manifestations of the unusual weather patterns we are experiencing, the scientists say. Other evidence includes a rare warm phase in the North Atlantic, RECORD RAINFALL, historic RECORD WATER LEVELS IN LAKES, predictions of much higher than normal rainfall, extremely warm ocean currents, and unusually high predictions of hurricane activity. The June-August summer season was the 10TH WARMEST ON RECORD for the lower 48 states, while precipitation was above average. Global temperatures were SECOND HIGHEST ON RECORD for the boreal summer, which runs from June 1 through August 31. Twelve named tropical systems formed in the Atlantic by the end of August, including Hurricane Katrina, which was AMONG THE STRONGEST HURRICANES EVER TO STRIKE THE UNITED STATES.

Heavy rains in India have inundated some 70 villages, damaging crops and disrupting traffic and electricity. Kalingapatnam in Srikakulam received a RECORD RAINFALL of 35 cm by Monday afternoon. Other places in the region received 10 to 25 cm rainfall.
9/17 -
A cyclonic circulation in India caused the HEAVIEST SPELL OF RAINFALL WITNESSED IN THE STATE IN THE MONSOON SEASON SO FAR. Kanpur recorded the highest rainfall of 150 mm during last 24 hours, followed by Dalmau with 130 mm and Lucknow 127.5 mm. In fact, the state capital received THE HEAVIEST RAINFALL OF THE SEASON IN A SINGLE DAY with 115 mm rains from 5.30 pm on Thursday till 8.30 am on Friday.
9/16 -
A huge sunspot has been blasting Earth with magnetic clouds for weeks, producing SOME OF THE MOST VIBRANT AND VISIBLE SUMMERTIME AURORAS IN YEARS. Skywide northern lights have awed Alaskans since last week and produced red displays as far south as Arizona.
In Texas, this might end up one of the top 10 warmest Septembers. Thursday's high of 99 degrees at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport broke a record for the date set in 1950.
9/15 -
Surging surf in Hawaii is causing a dangerous threat. Two days of 10- to 12-foot faces prompted lifeguards to bring out extra protection as dangerous conditions along the packed beaches of Oahu created dozens of close calls. On Lanai, residents say they are seeing SOME OF THE LARGEST SURF ON THE SOUTH SHORE IN YEARS. "I've never seen the surf this big coming in from the south breaking over the breakwall, and when it hits the breakwall, going over the harbor master's office."
9/14 -
More than three inches of rain fell in the Rochester, New York area on Friday, setting a NEW RECORD.
9/13 -
In Amsterdam,Netherlands, the first 10 days of September HAVE NOT BEEN THIS WARM FOR 100 YEARS. The average minimum temperature of 14.2 degrees at night this month also has NEVER BEEN SO HIGH.
Farmers in far western New South Wales are hoping an UNPRECEDENTED FOURTH YEAR OF DROUGHT aid will be announced this week.
9/11 -
Researchers at South Florida Water Management District are concerned about the current wet phase of weather in South Florida. South Florida is in a wet cycle and Lake Okeechobee is at ONE OF ITS HIGHEST LEVELS IN 74 YEARS."In July it reached 16.67 feet, a level it had not reached in the wet season since 1936.
9/9 -
July 2005 was a record-setting month in the world of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. That's because there were MORE NAMED STORMS (5) RECORDED IN THE MONTH OF JULY THAN EVER BEFORE. "Emily and Dennis were both strong hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or higher; it is highly unusual for two strong storms to develop in close succession as early as July in the Atlantic hurricane season."
NOT SINCE THE 1930s HAS THE WEATHER BEEN THIS EXTREME IN FLORIDA — RECORD RAINFALL, high water levels in lakes and wetlands and a hurricane season that may be among the worst in recorded history.
9/7 -
In New York it was the HOTTEST JUNE-JULY-AUGUST PERIOD in Buffalo's 135 years of recorded weather history. For the three-month period, the average temperature was 73.2 degrees, easily beating the previous high of 72.7 degrees, set in 1949. It's not that any one of the months was a record-setter, but each of the months was among the warmest the area had seen in a long time. "For example, we had our WARMEST JUNE IN 39 YEARS, our WARMEST JULY IN 50 YEARS and our WARMEST AUGUST IN 46 YEARS. It's not unusual for one such month in a summer, but all three in one summer? Amazing." The period ended with the remnants of Hurricane Katrina sweeping across the area, dropping three inches of rain at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Had it not rained, the June-July-August period would have also been well below normal for precipitation. The rainfall from Katrina boosted the three-month total to 11.01 inches, just above the average of 10.83. The heat this summer comes after two cool, cloudy summers.
Hurricane Katrina's storm surge was the HIGHEST EVER MEASURED IN THE U.S. The surge at Bay St Louis was 29 feet. The previous record was the 22 foot surge of Hurricane Camille which struck in 1969 near Pass Christain, Mississippi.(New York Times)
9/4 -
An asteroid the size of a house that exploded with the power of an atom bomb over Antarctica last year may help scientists prepare for the entrance of larger bodies into the Earth's atmosphere. The 1000-ton asteroid crashed to Earth in millions of pieces last September, 900km from the nearest humans at Japan's Syowa station. A trail of dust recorded by a physicist 1500km away at Australia's Davis station shows that if the asteroid had not fragmented into tiny pieces when it hit the Earth's atmosphere, it would have had an impact similar to the bombing of Hiroshima. IT WAS THE LARGEST BODY TO ENTER EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE IN A DECADE.
9/2 -
A trace snow fell at Fairbanks, Alaska, International Airport late Wednesday as THE DRIEST AUGUST ON RECORD came to a close. The slight snowfall marked the FIRST TIME SINCE 1969 THE WEATHER SERVICE HAD RECOREDED SNOW AT THE AIRPORT IN AUGUST. The snowfall 36 years ago was also a trace amount. Before that, in 1922, 3 inches of snow fell in town in August. Snow in the outskirts of town or in the hills in August is not unusual. Only 0.24 of an inch of rain fell on Fairbanks this August, compared to 0.37 last August. "Normal is just under one and three-quarters inches."
9/1 -
Sydney, Australia has just experienced ITS WARMEST WINTER with an average maximum temperature of 19.4C through June, July and August. The previous record of 19.2C was set just last year. Five of the six warmest Sydney winters had been in the past five years, signalling an ongoing trend. The dry conditions have forced 19 council areas around the state to bring forward their fire danger period to today – one month earlier than usual. Another 10 council areas had already declared fire bans since August 1.
But parts of the state also recorded some extreme low temperatures during this winter. Perisher Valley, in the Snowy Mountains, recorded its LOWEST DAYTIME MAXIMUM of minus four degrees in August. Dunedoo, on the central tablelands, recorded its LOWEST EVER MAXIMUM FOR JUNE, at seven degrees. While there were a number of record weather conditions this winter, the bureau said there was no unusual weather forecast for spring. There was a slight preference for above average rainfall until November but temperatures were expected to be average.
Successive hot summers, vast swaths of insect-weakened trees and lightning strikes have combined to torch about 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) of forest in Alaska this summer, nearly tying the state's third-largest fire season on record. The two consecutive large fire seasons are UNPRECEDENTED, according to wildfire managers and forestry experts. Within a week, this year's total is expected to surpass the 1969 total of 4.017 million acres (1.63 million hectares), the third-largest on wildfire season on record.
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AUGUST 2005 -
8/30 -
A lingering drought that stymied Illinois' grain crop has helped wetlands thrive along the Illinois River and that could mean bigger flocks of waterfowl during hunting season. Wetland plants that drown in standing water during typical summers have flourished during the state's sixth-driest March through July on record, providing food for migrating ducks, geese and other waterfowl. Wetlands need to dry out periodically to give root to native plants. The state's worst drought since 1988 has kept the river in its banks, creating THE BEST WETLAND GROWING CONDITIONS IN NEARLY A DECADE. "It looks like a prairie, not a mud hole."
8/26 -
Spain's worst drought in 60 years has forced the Environment Ministry to open one of its 16 emergency wells in the Murcia and Alicante regions. At present the reservoirs in the region hold only 20.7 percent of their capacity. "This is the least rain we've had since reliable records were kept. It's a serious drought, and it's very probable that next year will be dry as well." Underground aquifers are due to reach record-low levels by the fall in Málaga. A 10-kilometer stretch of the Jarama River, in Maddrid's northern hills, has dried up completely.
8/24 -
Sydney, Australia's biggest city, may get a A$2 billion ($1.5 billion) desalination plant as the nation's WORST DROUGHT IN 100 YEARS empties reservoirs. Warragamba Dam, which supplies 80 percent of Sydney's water, fell to 37.2 percent of capacity on Aug. 18. Sydney has less than two years of ``poor quality'' water left. Rainfall last month was between 40 percent and 70 percent of the monthly average for southeastern Australia.
8/23 -
Portugal is suffering ONE OF THE BIGGEST WAVES OF WILDFIRES IN MEMORY as a result of a heatwave and drought not experienced since the 1940s.
8/22 -
Sections of the U.S. Midwest are suffering the WORST DRY SPELL SINCE THE LATE 1980s. Water flow in some rivers has hit near 60-YEAR LOWS, weeks before usual low-water months. Conditions there are "extreme drought:" 60 percent of average rainfall for six months.
All but two of Oklahoma's counties have been declared agricultural disaster areas after months of heat, high winds and little rain caused significant crop losses. Rainfall since March 1 statewide is between 2.3 inches and MORE THAN A FOOT BELOW NORMAL. Oklahoma is typically hot and dry in summer months. However, this year's March-through-May period in the state ranked as THE DRIEST SINCE 1921.
In Thailand, the Northeast is experiencing a weird weather phenomenon as some provinces are facing the SEVEREST DROUGHT IN FOUR DECADES while others situated along the Mekong river have been battling floods as the water level rises. Rainstorms usually come in September and the Ubonrat dam is likely to get 800 million cu/m of water during that period. If the weather does not oblige, there will only be enough water left for two months of consumption. The reserve in the Huai Jorakaymark reservoir measures only 2.6 million cu/m, THE SMALLEST AMOUNT IN 48 YEARS. The amount usually stands at 18 million cu/m. In Surin province the amount of rain was THE SMALLEST IN A DECADE. In the meantime, the Mekong river, which received excessive water in its upstream section from heavy rain early this month, has overflowed into more than 400 villages.
8/17 -
For the second summer in a row, Alaska has been baking under sweltering heat, stirring anxieties about global warming and its impact on the polar region. The weather has been clear and hot over almost all of Alaska for the past week, due to an intense high pressure dome that is reluctant to move on. Scientists say this is more than just a string of freak summers. Between 1949 and 2003, the average annual air temperature in Alaska increased by 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit, with some areas in the state registering increases of almost twice that much, especially in the spring and the autumn. "The moment it [the permafrost ] starts to thaw, we will be able to say we are THE WARMEST WE HAVE BEEN THE PAST 100,000 YEARS."
RECORD-BREAKING HIGH TEMPERATURES were expected to continue throughout the week in Central Florida.
8/13 -
A more than a 20% increase in Michigan wildfires this summer is burning up the fire division's budget. Last year, DNR firefighters battled 278 wildfires from April to September. This summer, the department has already nearly doubled that number, fighting more than 450. From April to August, the department has battled a RECORD NUMBER OF FIRES.
A mix of preparation and good luck has led to the QUIETEST WASHINGTON STATE WILDFIRE SEASON IN 15 YEARS , even after a severe drought had the state expecting much worse.
8/12 -
Bendigo in central Victoria, Australia has experienced its COLDEST AUGUST DAY IN 10 YEARS. "We've had a really strong cold front come through and directly from the south and that has had no time to warm up, it's come in quite quickly and that's why [we've had] these really low temperatures and cold air mass and widespread snow falls."
A strong weather system brought RECORD TEMPERATURES to the Alaskan Interior on Wednesday and will keep things hot for several days. The heat wave is due to a "FABULOUSLY STRONG high-pressure dome" aided by a cloudless sky. The high-pressure ridge responsible for the warm weather is OF RECORD PROPORTIONS, according to the weather service, and it is expected to remain in place into the middle of next week. The temperatures are UNUSUAL FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR.
8/11 -
Freezing weather blanketed Victoria, Australia in THE MOST WIDESPREAD SNOW FOR 50 YEARS. Freak snowfalls forced the closure of at least three schools, as well as major highways and other roads in Southern Victoria that remained closed for much of the day. The bitter Antarctic-born cold air that caused yesterday's extreme conditions has moved into Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea. The Southern Hemisphere continent is in the grip of winter at this time of year, but snow is nonetheless rare in communities near sea level, such as parts of the city of Melbourne.
8/10 -
Bitter Antarctic weather has hit the Tasmanian capital with its FIRST SNOW IN ALMOST 20 YEARS.
8/9 -
As of Monday, Toronto, Canada had sweated through 39 days with temperatures above 30C, roughly THREE TIMES THE 30-YEAR AVERAGE FOR A WHOLE SUMMER. "In many ways it is a preview, a dress rehearsal, of what we may see more often." according to projections of the greenhouse effect. Although the heat has been most intense in southern Ontario, temperatures have been above average across much of Canada. Montreal had 22 days above 30 C, compared with an average of seven or eight. Winnipeg had 16 hot days, compared with an average of 13 for an entire summer. As for smog, which is in large part a function of the heat, so far this summer they have recorded a record-setting 45 days with smog above health limits. This year's heat wave is just a shadow of life in a greenhouse world. "The thing to say is, you ain't seen nothing yet. To say this is a glimpse is probably ONE OF THE GREATEST UNDERSTATEMENTS OF ALL TIME. The projections of what is likely to happen in this century would put events like this as minor." The weather across the Canada - not only the heat wave in Ontario but the droughts, downpours and floods in other regions - is consistent with what computer models predict. "We may in fact be seeing real changes linked to climate change now but even if this is just some freak weather this is what we have to look forward to in the future." Experts have also been warning for years that Canada's sovereignty over the NW passage is likely to be challenged as the ice melts. The Northwest Passage route from Tokyo to London would be 40 per cent shorter than that using the Panama Canal.
8/7 -
Since June 1, rainfall in Ohio has been about four inches below normal. Because of this summer's unusual heat, 13 Cincinnati City pools have extended their seasons, some of them past mid-August. As of Friday, the tri-state had experienced 20 days in which the thermometer reached 90 or higher. That's two more than the average for the entire summer. Buffalo, N.Y., had its WARMEST JUNE AND JULY EVER. Las Vegas had its HOTTEST JULY EVER.
8/6 -
Fires worsened in Portugal in the last two days as hot winds from Spain sent temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in the interior. Firefighters fought at least 31 fires raging out of control across the nation, forcing the evacuation of three central villages and the closure of several roads. "The situation is out of control, it is dramatic, it is worrying." The high temperatures are expected to last until at least Saturday. In the town of Torres Vedras, 60 km north (37 miles) of Lisbon, the thermal hot springs baths of Vimeiro were shut. "There isn't enough water to feed the baths. It is the FIRST TIME IN OUR 60 YEARS that we have had to shut." Other thermal baths across Portugal have also complained about low water levels in recent weeks. All of Portugal is in severe or extreme drought this year in the WORST DRY SPELL SINCE AT LEAST 1945. There have been 4,353 forest fires this year, almost two-thirds more than the average for the previous five years. Neighbouring Spain is also suffering its WORST DROUGHT SINCE REOCRDS BEGAN IN THE 1940s. In western France, water levels are at their LOWEST SINCE A DROUGHT IN 1976.
Scotland had its DRIEST JULY IN 50 YEARS. It experienced only 39% of the long-term average rainfall for July. Scotland East had 53% of the average, and Scotland North slightly more at 54%. "The average temperature across the country, even up to Shetland and down to Glasgow, has been above normal. The average hours of sunshine were just above the norm too." "The weather is strange and when we have these really extreme spells then, of course, it puts wildlife under pressure."
8/5 -
In the U.S. July is expected to rank in the TOP HOTTEST IN 111 YEARS.
8/3 -
In Australia the mercury topped 21.7C at 2pm, which was a NEW AUGUST 2 RECORD, eclipsing the previous high of 20.9C set in 1991. The above-average temperature was unseasonal for August which is wintertime in Australia.
8/1 -
Slovakia has banned public access to forests in the northern High Tatras mountains near the border with Poland after THE WORST FIRE THERE IN 60 YEARS consumed more than 250 hectares (620 acres) of woodland. In November 2004, a violent storm struck the mountain range, flattening thousands of trees and causing losses of more than 200 million dollars.
The drought in the South East in England is the result of a major reduction in rainfall since November 2004. Levels are at only 68 per cent of the national average. 'THE LAST SIX MONTHS HAVE BEEN THE DRIEST SINCE 1976.' As a result, reservoir levels are dangerously low. Britain's water crisis is mirrored by heatwaves and droughts afflicting much of Europe. Italy is currently in the grip of a searing heatwave, with Level 3 alerts in operation - the highest warning, indicating a danger to the general population - in many cities. Spain is suffering its worst drought since national figures were first produced in 1947. In some areas reservoirs are down to just 14 per cent of their capacity. And in western France, water levels are at their lowest since the drought of 1976. Some 52 Portuguese municipalities are now receiving water from tankers, as are some villages in northern Spain. A brutal heatwave has hit the US, killing dozens of people and frying areas already suffering severe drought. Across the US, new temperature records were set in 200 cities last week.
-----------------------
JULY 2005 -
7/31 -
As July wraps up, it's shaping up as THE HOTTEST JUNE-JULY EVER RECORDED IN SEVERAL EASTERN U.S. CITIES. The National Weather Service said the average in June was 72.3 degrees, 3.6 degrees higher than normal. Syracuse (73.8), Buffalo (73.6), Albany (73.5), Utica (71.7), Ithaca (71.4) and Binghamton (70.6) all set two-month records, as did Scranton (74.1) and Erie (73.4) in Pennsylvania.
7/29 -
On July 17 temperatures in the Arctic, 600 miles from the North Pole, soared to the HIGHEST EVER RECORDED HERE, an extraordinary 19.6C, a full degree-and-a-half above the previous record. 'We have found that not only are glaciers retreating dramatically, but the extent of the pack ice that used to stretch across the sea from here to the pole is receding. It is now at an ABSOLUTE MINIMUM SINCE RECORDS BEGAN.'
7/28 -
RECORD HIGHS HIT NORTH CAROLINA ON TUESDAY and sent people scrambling for shade, air conditioning and water. The temperature topped 100 degrees Tuesday.
7/27 -
Except for a small area in the East Greenland Sea, Arctic sea ice has retreated almost everywhere in June 2005. The month set a NEW RECORD LOW: 6 percent below the long-term mean for June sea ice extent.
Nineteen people have been injured - three seriously - as a tornado ripped through the streets of Birmingham, England. The sudden storm damaged buildings, uprooted trees and trapped people in their homes with wind speeds estimated to have reached 130mph. One sq km of damage was caused in Kings Heath, with "hundreds" of properties affected. "It all happened in just a couple of minutes. There is a tree through a car and trees on houses - it looks like something from a film set." "We have an average of 33 reports of tornadoes in the UK each year but THESE ARE ESPECIALLY RARE IN BUILT-UP AREAS AND THERE HAS NOT BEEN ONE OF THIS STRENGTH IN MANY YEARS. City centres are not the natural habitat of a tornado; the tall buildings would normally stop their formation." Birmingham also experienced flash floods on Thursday afternoon. Freak weather conditions have hit many parts of England, including London, in the last few days with heavy rain and high winds. (11 photos)
India's financial capital was paralyzed Wednesday by the strongest rains ever recorded in the nation, with floods, landslides, building collapses and torrential downpours marooning drivers, snapping communication lines and leaving at least 800 people dead statewide. At its worst, the RAINFALL DESCENDED IN WHAT LOOKED LIKE A SOLID WALL OF WATER, overwhelming Bombay, a crowded city long accustomed to monsoon rains. "NEVER BEFORE IN BOMBAY'S HISTORY HAS THIS HAPPENED." At least 83 people have died in Bombay, crushed by falling walls, trapped in cars or electrocuted since the most intense rains swept through the city Tuesday evening. Phone networks collapsed, highways were blocked and the city's airports, among the nation's busiest, were closed. While Wednesday's precipitation was still being totaled, officials said parts of the city had been hit by up to 37.1 inches of rain Tuesday, much of it falling over just a few hours. Across Bombay, traffic was backed up all night and into Wednesday, with drivers abandoning their vehicles on roads turned into waist-high rivers. At one point, about 150,000 people were stranded in railway stations. Others stayed for hours on buses and trains surrounded by swirling water. Television footage showed crowds of people scrambling for food parcels dropped from helicopters by navy rescue teams as the bodies of two men lay sprawled in the streets of a Bombay neighborhood. SUCH SCENES HAVE NEVER BEFORE BEEN SEEN IN BOMBAY, a cosmopolitan city that is home to India's financial and movie industries. Every year, Bombay is brought to a halt for a day or two by heavy monsoon rains that drench the country between June and September and often leave hundreds dead nationwide. But this week's downpours left the city reeling. "The city always gets heavy rains in the monsoon but it has never been like this. The waters have not receded." "Most places in India don't receive this kind of rainfall in a year." Weather officials predicted more heavy rains on the way for the city of 15 million. 7/26 -
At least 99 people were reported killed and more than 100 trapped as the HEAVIEST DAY OF RAIN EVER RECORDED IN INDIA triggered landslides and building collapses in the western state of Maharashtra. Mumbai received 944.2 millimeters (37.1 inches) of rainfall in a 24- hour period ending mid-morning Wednesday, beating a record which has stood since July 1910.
7/19 -
Oceanic plankton have largely disappeared from the waters off Northern California, Oregon and Washington, mystifying scientists, stressing fisheries and causing widespread seabird mortality. In perhaps the most ominous development, seabird nesting has dropped significantly on the Farallon Islands off San Francisco. The collapse of the nesting season is UNPRECEDENTED IN THE LAST THREE DECADES. 2004's spring and summer ocean surface temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska and off British Columbia were THE WARMEST IN 50 YEARS.
In the south of France, the RECORD DRY HOT WEATHER has spawned a new threat, more common to northern Africa than to France - swarms of locally-hatched locusts have invaded. Hundreds of farms are at risk.
--------------------------------------------------

MARCH 2005:
Friday was the HOTTEST MARCH 11 EVER in eight of the 11 Bay Area stations that keep records going back at least 30 years. On Friday, San Francisco, California broke a 91-year-old record by 1 degree to become the hottest March day in the city's history. Oakland and San Jose also had their hottest March days ever Friday, with highs of 88 and 87, respectively. The month's heat records for San Jose and Oakland were set last year, both at 85 degrees. The heat came from a weather pattern more typical in spring and fall: High pressure in Nevada causes winds to blow into the Bay Area from the east rather than the west.

Lake Powell, one of the largest reservoirs in the western United States, has lost more than 60-percent of its water to the WORST DROUGHT IN 500 YEARS.

* In March 2005, experiencing SOME OF THE MOST SEVERE DROUGHT CONDITIONS IN DECADES, were India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and southern China. Fires filled the skies with smoke.

* Newfoundland, Canada residents dealt with RECORD-SETTING FALLS OF SNOW AND RAIN with waist-deep drifts and washed-out roads in many communities on the island Thursday.

* The Ebola-like Marburg virus outbreak in Angola is THE WORST EVER RECORDED. The number of deaths from the disease, which has no cure, since the start of the outbreak in October, stands at 126.

* Cuba's WORST DROUGHT IN A CENTURY has left one in six Cubans without running water and will get worse.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this almost certainly will be the COOLEST MARCH IN MORE THAN 20 YEARS. Through last Wednesday, below-normal temperatures were posted on every day but one, March 7, when the thermometer soared to 69. Incredibly, the first 16 days of March were 7.2 degrees colder than the first 16 days of January and 4.5 lower than the comparable February period. Those March temperatures should have been about 15 degrees higher than January's and February's. The negative phase took hold in mid-February, and this particular one has tied a record for the most number of days with extreme negative values. As a result, since Feb. 18, above-normal temperatures have been recorded on just three days.
* Temperatures plunged to record levels as the European
continent experienced one of its worst cold snaps in years. At
least 25 people were injured in Germany in two pile-ups on a motorway
engulfed in thick fog. A 30-car pile-up also cut off Scotland's main
highway linking Glasgow to Edinburgh, but no one was injured. Trains
were forced to return to stations in Spain's Grenada and Almeria,
while frozen tracks led to the cancellation of dozens of trains in
Switzerland. Records were broken across the continent:
The mass of snow covering the Czech Republic was "probably the
largest in the last 40 years".
The Swiss capital Bern registered -15.6C, its coldest at this time of
the year since data began to be collected in 1901.
Croatia had its coldest night since 1963, with -21C in the central
parts of the country.
France beat records set in 1971. It was coldest in the village of
Saugues in the western region of Haute-Loire where thermometers
registered -29.5C overnight.
Worst hit though was the Berchtesgaden region near Germany's
border with Austria, with temperatures of -43.6C, close to the -45.9C
record set in 2001.
At Stuttgart airport, the mercury dropped to -18.6C - the lowest
temperature in March in 105 years.
The cold snap has so far caused 80 million euros ($134 million)
worth of crop damage in the region, including 26 million tonnes
of strawberries.


FEBRUARY 2005:
* Greenland witnessed record winter high temperatures. The official record of 16.0 C (60.8 F) was recorded in the town of Paamiut (Frederikshob) on the western coast of the Greenland. The temperature is the highest recorded winter temperature since record keeping began in 1958. Greenland's coastal areas do not typically have harsh winters, but this temperature was forty degrees above normal for the month. The warm air spread northward, raising temperatures all across the ice sheet before dissipating in the high arctic.
During the second week of Feburary, a completely unprecedented and unexplained heat wave struck Greenland. Already, melt off Greenland's glaciers has reached record proportions. The warm air originated in the Caribbean, and rolled north along the frontal edge of the jet stream. It was not an unusual formation for summer, but for it to appear in midwinter was unprecedented.
* It has been the deadliest winter in nearly two decades in Japan
where heavy snow since December has killed 61 people.
* An hour after the massive Indonesia quake occurred, scientists
could actually detect the entire state of Alaska undulating up
and down, rising and falling an inch or more every 30 seconds
for several minutes. The power that represents over such a distance
is astounding. There is mounting evidence that the earthquake
in the Indian Ocean on Christmas weekend also triggered a second
earthquake 6000 miles away in Alaska. That second quake was minor,
but the fact that it happened at all was a revelation to scientists.
*Singapore has been hit by their worst dry spell in 29 years.
* Indian-administered Kashmir is virtually paralysed by the heaviest snowfalls
in two decades - nearly 40 people have died in avalanches and more
than 60 others have been reported missing since Saturday. Dozens of houses
in the region have been damaged by the heavy snow, and the army has saved
as many as 30 people trapped inside. 4.5 metres (15 feet) of snow has fallen
in some places. Several thousand motorists remain stranded.
* Parts of England have been hit by the most snow some areas have seen in years
and forecasters are warning more blizzards are expected over the next few days.
* This winter is the wettest in Los Angeles in 22 years.
* A flash of radiation on December 27 was so powerful that it
bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's atmosphere. A
neutron star only 20km across, on the other side of our galaxy,
released more energy in a 10th of a second than the Sun emits
in 100,000 years. It's distance, 50,000 light-years away, puts
it beyond the centre of the Milky Way and a safe distance from
Earth. "Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would
have severely damaged our atmosphere and would possibly
have triggered a mass extinction." It's probably the biggest
explosion observed by humans within our galaxy since 1604.
It packed so much power it briefly altered Earth's upper
atmosphere. No known eruption beyond our solar system
has ever appeared as bright upon arrival.
* Super-cyclone Olaf, one of the most powerful in the South Pacific
for years, hit American Samoa's Manu'a Islands.
*Effects of the 7.9 Denali Fault Earthquake in Alaska in 2002,
such as swaying objects and sloshing swimming pools, reached
as far as the East Coast. Most notably, however, the Denali Fault
Earthquake triggered earthquakes 2000 miles away, with quake
swarms across Canada and as far away as Yellowstone National Park,
California and Utah. This is the first time seismologists have documented
this effect at such great distances.
* Last week's low-pressure system that brought severe storms to eastern
Australia broke about 100 weather records. "This rain event
was extremely unusual because of the wide area covered by the
heavy rain. Records are often created in isolated spots, often as a
result of slow-moving thunderstorms, but it is much rarer for extreme
rainfall to occur across such an area." Among the records set were:
all-time daily rainfall records, wettest February day records, first
sub-zero maximum temperature ever recorded in Australia in February,
and coldest February day records.
* 2004 was the deadliest year for earthquakes in five centuries.
* 2004 was the fourth warmest year on Earth since temperature
measurements began worldwide at the end of the 19th century.
The warming effect of the El Nino current could make 2005
approach or beat the record warmth of 1998, NASA said.
The warming trend is already significant enough to permanently
make the seasons warmer.
*Heavy rains and snow lashed a vast region of Pakistan.
The hill resort of Murree, near the capital Islamabad, has
been hit with 12 feet (four metres) of snow in the past five
weeks - a ten-year record. The rain in Baluchistan was
the heaviest in 15 years. Some parts of the country had received
the heaviest rain and snow in seven years.
* Manali, India has received their heaviest snowfall in 25 years.
They have been experiencing heavy snow for the last two weeks
along with cold temperatures.
* Snowfall this
winter in southern Kashmir is the heaviest in five years.
* In Japan's Niigata Prefecture some of the heaviest snow in 19 years
has been falling. Elsewhere, record winter snowfall had been
recorded as of Feb. 7 in 10 locations in Hokkaido and six
prefectures.
* Iran is having one of its harshest winters in decades, the
worst weather for 34 years.
* This year's snowfall is the heaviest in years in Afghanistan.
*A cyclone in the Mediterranean has created one of the gravest
winters in decades in half of Bulgaria.
*A thick winter smog is blanketing southeastern Quebec and much
of southern Ontario because of unusually warm weather and is
unlikely to lift before some time next week. In Quebec, pollution
levels in the air are three times the normal level for this time of year,
and Ontario's Environment Ministry has issued its first-ever smog
alert in the month of February.
* The heaviest rain in 156 years of records in Melbourne,
Australia was caused by a cold-climate cyclone. It dumped 120mm
of rain on the city in 24 hours.
* Snowpack is at or near record lows in many parts of the Western U.S.
- a discouraging sign that suggests the long drought there may continue
for yet another year. Snowpack is at record lows in parts of Montana
after an unseasonably warm spell in January. Snowpack in the Black
Hills of South Dakota has tied the lowest reading in the last 62 years.
In Washington state, January's snowpack was the lowest in 28 years.
*Drought and few ice jams have caused the US Army Corps of
Engineers to keep flows at some of the lowest river levels in recent
years in St. Joseph, Missouri.
*In South Dakota, moisture and snow levels already at record
lows this year, and many ranchers say they are willing to try anything
if it will break the drought cycle.


JANUARY 2005:
* Record-breaking snowfall paralyzed the New England area
of the U.S. Boston's January total was 43.1 inches
- more snow than in any month since the National Weather Service
began keeping records in 1892.
* More than two feet of snow fell Des Plaines, Illinois, one of
the "deepest" Januarys on record.
*Shocking weather has plagued Australia in the past 48 hours. Victoria is one of the worst hit states, yesterday recording its coldest February day on record. Rainfall in the southern and central districts is setting new records.
A massive dust storm, the worst in a decade, or possibly even in the last 20 years. "It isn't unknown but coming this far north is a little bit less usual." Such severe dust storms occur only every two to three years.
Melbourne recorded its heaviest rainfall since records began in 1856.
*The heaviest snow in two decades in Japan has killed three people across the country. The area was rocked on October 23 by a quake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale which killed 40 people and injured some 2,900. It was Japan's deadliest tremor in a decade.
* The heaviest snowfall in several years in Afghanistan.
*Russia is predicting that several of their volcanoes will be next to erupt and the U.S.G.S. has increased the watch levels in Alaska for all of their volcanoes. This has been described as an activity level not seen in 5000 years.
*The amount of energy that has been released in the aftershocks of the 9.0 Indonesian quake is higher than any other case in the world ever recorded.
*A powerful snowstorm that raged in Moscow on January 28th was the heaviest day's snowfall since weather records began, forcing planes to divert away from airports, snarling city traffic and making pedestrians wade through meter-high snowdrifts. Winter's return came after some of the mildest January temperatures on record. January may turn out to be the snowiest since city weather records began in the 19th century. This month's snowfall is twice the January average. Such severe snowfalls only take place every 25 or 30 years. More snow is expected throughout this week.
*Since early July 2004, an increased number of earthquakes has been recorded from beneath Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. From week to week, the numbers fluctuate but generally remain well above the norm. Through January 20, 2005, more than 1750 earthquakes related to the ongoing seismic activity have been recorded. Such a concentrated number of deep long-period earthquakes from this part of Mauna Loa is unprecedented.
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/current/
*The Pleasant Grove bench in Utah has seen 149 percent of the normal precipitation, with 3.7 inches more water than normal. The lower portion of Provo Canyon is having its wettest year in recorded history. The area has seen 7.7 inches more water than normal so far this winter - about 170 percent of the normal precipitation.
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=46546&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
*Snowfall on Thursday night in Jammu, India, was the first in recorded history. Snowstorms, droughts and floods have been reported one after the other over the past two-three weeks from across the world in a pattern unprecedented in the recent past.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/31/stories/2005013100521300.htm
*Heavy rain and flash floods have killed 29 people in Saudi Arabia's western city of Medina. The storm is believed to have been the worst to hit the desert kingdom in some 20 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/middle_east/4205373.stm
*Russia's winter is so warm that a bear in a zoo has woken from her hibernation two months early, while another hasn't gone to sleep at all. The normally ferocious Russian winter has been unusually mild this year with temperatures hitting record seasonal highs.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28960/story.htm
*Moscow is enjoying the warmest January in recorded history. These have been the warmest first 10 days of January since the beginning of weather monitoring in the country in 1879. The first 10 days of 2005 may be the warmest spell in more than a century, but the temperature never reached the record high of 5.6 degrees set in 1992. Similar warm spells occur every five to seven years. Moscow's coldest spell for January was recorded in 1893, when the temperature averaged minus 23 degrees.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/01/13/011.html
*The high temperature at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was 62 on Janaury 19, breaking the record of 60 degrees for the date set in 1961.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-northwest-storm,0,4079989,print.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
*The coming weeks could bring the most severe thinning of the ozone layer over northern Europe since records began. The conditions are being driven by unusual weather in the high atmosphere above the Arctic. The stratosphere, where the ozone layer lies, has seen its coldest winter for 50 years; there have also been an unusually large number of clouds.
*Victoria, Australia's State Emergency Service had its busiest night in a decade last night after the worst flash flooding in the Geelong area for 25 years.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12067131%255E1702,00.html
*The drought of the past two years in the Western Cape of South Africa has been described as the worst since 1978.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=2385871
*Portugal is struggling to cope with the nation's worst drought in more than two decades. Desperate farmers in southern Portugal have resorted to cutting leaves off trees to try to save cattle from starvation.
http://www.terradaily.com/2005/050123132852.9lp2d4me.html
*Although mild in global terms, a 2.7 quake that hit Scotland is fairly significant because it was the biggest in the Perthshire area for 15 years.
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=76262005
*The 5.5 quake that rocked greater Wellington, New Zealand caused minor damage but was the largest in the region for nine years.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3164407a10,00.html

Do you remember last year's weather? (from September 2004) - For the first time in history, four hurricanes – Charley, Frances, Ivan (the Terrible), and Jeanne - smacked into Florida's long coastline one after another in a single hurricane season (not yet over then). In March Brazil experienced the South Atlantic's first hurricane ever - Brazilian meteorologists didn't even know what to name it; the Atlantic coast of Canada got whacked by Hurricane Juan, "the storm of the century," late last year (and the Canadian government suspects a link to global warming); the United States had already experienced a record number of tornados in 2004; Japan had the worst season of typhoons in memory; extreme weather events increased across the planet, including massive flooding in Europe, Bangladesh, and China. At a hearing the Inuit Circumpolar Conference Chair said, "We find ourselves at the very cusp of a defining event in the history of this planet… The Earth is literally melting." And she pleaded with the assembled senators: "Use us as your early warning system. Use the Inuit story as a vehicle to reconnect us all so that we can understand the people and the planet are one." You might say that, "as the Inuit canary expires in the mine, our response is to dig harder and faster, while those whose job it is to signal danger point the rest of us the other way." Our failure to act on the global warming threat - "someday this will, of course, look like the most errant of follies (if anyone's left to look)."

Click here to view this page with source URLs included for 2004

DECEMBER 2004:
* Kentucky received record snow in December.

*A string of storms brought parts of the Sierras their most snowfall in nearly 90 years.
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBV1DKWR3E.html
*New Zealand has experienced its coldest December since 1945 and the fifth coldest since records were begun in 1853.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3151291a7693,00.html
*Salinity levels in the soil in Australia is at a record high and eclipses levels measured during the 1982-83 drought.
*2004 was the tenth hottest year in Australia with a two-week hot spell in February, which set new temperature records.
*Snow has fallen over the United Arab Emirates for the first time ever.
*A 9.0 earthquake in Indonesia that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map. The tragedy is one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.
It was the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years. The colossal scale of the quake was more powerful that all the world's earthquakes of the past five years put together.
It was the largest tsunami in the Indian ocean since Krakatoa in 1883.
*An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1, then the year's strongest, and the largest in 4 years, shook the ocean floor around Macquarie Island near Antarctica.
*The Southern Cape of South Africa was swamped by record deluges. Knysna and Robertson had the most rain ever measured in a single day in December since records began in the 1880s.
*Snowfall in Vladivostok,Russia was the strongest in the past 80 years. A double norm of snow for December fell in the city overnight.
*Cayman Islands shaken by a 6.7 quake, their strongest since 1900.
*Fifteen people have died in the worst flooding in two decades in Malaysia.
*Afghanistan remains in the grip of the most debilitation drought in living memory, now in its seventh year.
*Record rains in Argentina's north-eastern state of Chaco.
*Record temperatures in Tokyo.

NOVEMBER 2004:
*In Hawaii, Mauna Loa has been slowly inflating for more than two years, since May 2002. Scientists interpret the swelling as a sign the reservoir inside the volcano is probably filling with magma. Scientists also have puzzled over a long series of hundreds of relatively small but deep earthquakes that began during the summer of 2004. The seismic pattern is unlike anything scientists have recorded there before.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/22/ln/ln10p.html
*The drought across the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia is the worst since records began.
*A 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck northern Italy, the strongest tremor in the area in more than a century.
*New Zealand hit by their biggest earthquake in 73 years.
*Israel hit by their worst locust plague since the 1950s.
*Alaskan storm that descended on California, brought record snowfall.
*An Alaska storm was the worst to hit the Bering Sea coast in more than 30 years.
*The worst drought in two decades in Thailand's northeastern province of Yasothon.
*Poor autumn rainfall has caused the worst drought conditions in South China in nearly 50 years.

OCTOBER 2004:
*San Diego, California received 4.98" of rain (nearly half their annual rainfall), making it the wettest October on record, despite the fact that they also set a record earlier in the month for longest period without rain.
*The killer earthquake that struck Japan registered a record high maximum acceleration in Japan, well above the figure recorded in the Kobe quake in 1995.
*Japan was jolted by a series of quakes - the largest, a 6.9, was the worst quake since 1995.
*Typhoon Tokage produced the biggest wave ever recorded in Japan.
*Typhoon Tokage was Japan's deadliest storm in more than 25 years.
*San Diego, California set a new record for the longest period without rain. The last time it rained in the San Diego area was 182 days ago – on April 17. San Diego broke the record just last year, so that's two years in a row with record streaks of no measurable rainfall in the area.
*Sydney, Australia's dam levels fell to 42 per cent on the hottest October day on record.
*In the last 10 years we have seen more hurricanes than in any decade in the past 150 years.

SEPTEMBER 2004:
*The total number of tornado reports in the United States reached a record high for the second month in a row because of land-falling hurricanes, according to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center. Preliminary numbers indicate a total of 247 tornadoes reported during the month of September.This significantly tops the previous September record of 139 tornadoes set in 1967. Hurricane Frances produced the most tornadoes ever, topping Hurricane Beulah's 115 tornadoes in September 1967. September's record follows a record-breaking 173 reports during August, partially due to Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley. With a total of 292 tornado reports associated with land-falling tropical systems, this has been the most active period since 1967. The total number of tornadoes reported in 2004 so far is 1,516, already surpassing 1998's record total of 1,424 tornadoes for the year. The actual number of tornadoes for 2004 will not be known until June 2005.
*The crushing six-week period in which Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne smacked Florida is unprecedented in 130 years of hurricane records.
*Japan has been hit by a record number of typhoons (8) which have effected the nation from the southern island of Okinawa to as far north as Hokkaido.
*The 2004 hurricane season may be the costliest on record.
*Two 5.0 quakes in Russia were the strongest in Northern Europe for several decades. Experts say it is very unusual that an earthquake that far away was registered at such strength in the Oslo region. It is also unusual that two such strong quakes occured within two-and-a-half hours.

*The total area burned by wildfires in the U.S. this year - almost 7.7 million acres, or about 12,000 square miles - is the second largest in almost a half-century, behind 2000's 8.4 million acres scorched. 83 percent of that was in Alaska.
*A record rain followed by a record flood struck Austin, Minnesota.
*A rise in deadly storms has battered the southern U.S. with three successive hurricanes - a greater intensity than at any time since 1950.
*Alabama was hit by Hurricane Ivan - suffering the worst weather to hit the area in 25 years.
*Bangladesh's capital Dhaka was hit by the worst flooding in decades. Nearly all main roads in the city are under water. Officials say such severe flooding is "unprecedented". Meteorological officials believe recent rainfall is the worst for many years, overshadowing July's floods when the rest of the nation experienced its worst floods in six years. 341mm of rain had fallen in Dhaka, the highest recorded level in 50 years and two more days of rain are forecast.
*Jamaica was hit by Hurricane Ivan, one of the most powerful hurricanes in decades. It threatened to be the worst natural disaster to hit the island for 50 years. The BBC Caribbean service's reporter in St George's says the hurricane is the worst in living memory - worse than Hurricane Janet, which wrecked Grenada in 1955.
*2004 is the wettest summer on record for North Texas.
*In China, the Yangtze River had its largest flood peak in decades.
*Typhoon Songda was the most powerful to hit Okinawa since 1972.
*Over 6.5 million people are at risk from Afghanistan's worst drought in recent history.
*It has been the worst breeding season on record for seabirds in Scotland, which - like the recent extreme weather - has been blamed on climate change.

AUGUST 2004:
*England and Wales have just splashed through the wettest August in almost half a century. Rainfall figures for August had been the highest for that month since 1956.
*The concentration of carbon dioxide, one of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, in the lower atmosphere is now at its highest level for at least 420,000 years and stands 34 percent above its level before the Industrial Revolution.
*Glaciers in eight of Europe's nine glacial regions are at their lowest levels in terms of area and mass in 5,000 years.
* In Canada on the eastern Prairies it looks like it is going to be the coldest summer on record since data started being collected in the 19th century. For May through mid-August, temperatures were on average three degrees below normal, beating records that go back to 1872.
*Hurricane Charley was the worst hurricane to hit Florida in a dozen years.
*Melbourne, Australia was whipped by an Antarctic blast, shivering through its coldest day in six years and its coldest August day in 26 years.
*Typhoon Rananim is thought to be the worst storm to hit China since 1997.
*Iceland's capital experienced its hottest day on record as temperatures in Reykjavik hit 24.8 degrees Celsius. The unusually warm weather was caused by slow-moving low fronts resulting from Hurricane Alex.
*A war on locusts has been declared as the New South Wales, Australia Government braces for the worst plague in 30 years.

JULY 2004:
*July was the coldest worldwide since 1992. That year's cool spell was precipitated by the eruption of the Philippine volcano Pinatubo.
*A portion of coastal British Columbia has been experiencing one of its hottest summers on record. Victoria and Vancouver had their second-warmest July on record. In Victoria, July was the second warmest in records that go back to 1898, and a similar record-setting month was experienced in Vancouver, where temperatures were on average 2.2 degrees above the monthly average.
*Wildfires have scorched over 5 million acres in Alaska, a new record that signals possible changes in climate conditions and the composition of the vast forests. Six hundred fires have b