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
PRECIPITATION
Greatest
rainfall in a day: 73.62 inches (RĜunion, 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
THUNDERSTORMS
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!
TORNADOES
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.
