AIR PRESSURE

• Lowest barometric pressure recorded in the western hemisphere:  888 millibars (26.17 inches) during Hurricane Gilbert (1988). 

• Highest barometric pressure -- world record:  1083.6millibars (32.01inches); Agata, USSR; 31 December, 1968

• Fastest surface wind speed: 231 miles per hour (Mount Washington, New Hampshire; April 12, 1934)
• Fastest tornado winds: 286 miles per hour (Wichita Falls, Texas; April 2, 1958

• Greatest rainfall in a day: 73.62 inches (RØunion, Indian Ocean; March 15, 1952) 
• Greatest rainfall in a year: 1,041 inches (Assam, India; August 1880-1881)
• World's one minute rainfall record:  July 4, 1956, 1.23 inches of rain fell in Unionville, MD. 
• 12 inches of rain in Holt, MO, on June 22, 1947 in 42 minutes. 
• It takes about one million cloud droplets to provide enough water for one raindrop. 
• Greatest snowfall in a day: 75.8 inches (Silver Lake, Colorado; April 14-15, 1921) 
• Greatest snowfall in a single storm: 189 inches (Mt. Shasta, California; February 13-19, 1959)

• Saratoga Springs, NY greatest snowfall: 58 inches (1888, March 11-14)
• Largest hailstone: 17.5 inches (Coffeyville, Kansas; September 3, 1979), weight 1.67 pounds

• Lightning from the blue: Lightning bolts can jump 10 or more miles from their parent cloud into regions with blue skies. 
• Temperature of lightning:  estimated   50,000°F ( hotter than the surface of the sun )  
• Odds of being struck by lightning: approx. 1 in 800,000.  
• Lightning strikes:  9 out of 10 lightning bolts strike the continents rather than oceans. 
• For each lightning bolt that hits the ground, about 200,000 pounds of rain are also formed.
• Number of thunderstorms:  Nearly 2,000 thunderstorm cells are estimated over the planet at any given time. The U.S. has over 100,000 thunderstorms annually, the global average being 16 million!

• Fastest tornado winds: 286 miles per hour (Wichita Falls, Texas; April 2, 1958)
• Worst tornado outbreaks: Some  have not been in the midwestern "tornado alley." On March 28, 1984, 22 tornadoes ripped across the Carolinas, killing 57, injuring 1,248 and causing $200 million in damages. On May 31, 1985, 41 tornadoes in Ohio, Pennsylvania and ontario killed 75, injured 1,025 and left almost $500 million in damages.

• Tornado frequency in U.S. :  3 out of 4 of all world tornadoes hit the U.S. 
• Long distance traveler:  293 miles on the ground, 1917,  traveled from Missouri to Indiana.  
• Only 2% of U.S. tornadoes reach "violent" intensity, yet those few result in 70% of all tornado deaths.  Winds in these tornadoes exceed 200 mph and can stay on the ground for an hour or more.