Weather
The Deadliest Tornado in U.S. History Blindsided the Midwest in 1925
Overturned trains. Timber found miles away from where it had been stored. Trees felled. Fires and close calls. A letter that flew almost 100 miles. On a normal day in the Midwest in 1925, any one of these stories would have been worthy of front-page coverage. But March 18, 1925 ...read more
The Monster Blizzard That Turned Kansas Into a Frozen Wasteland
As the stage coach drove up to Camp Supply, its passengers must have felt relieved. They’d been caught in a storm, and the coach’s horses had lost their path in the Kansas snow. Finally, the coach arrived at Camp Supply, a military outpost in Indian Territory in what is now ...read more
How Colonization's Death Toll May Have Affected Earth's Climate
As the 15th century drew to a close, some 60 million people lived across the Americas, sustaining themselves with the bounty of the vast lands they inhabited. But with the arrival of the first European settlers, waves of new diseases, along with warfare, slavery and other ...read more
There’s Cold—and Then There Was February 1899
Snow weighed down the fronds of palm trees of Fort Myers, Florida, while an icy crust formed on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. Nearly three feet of snow buried the nation’s capital, and ice encased steamboats on Lake Michigan. There’s cold—and then there was the Great ...read more
The Worst Time in History to Be Alive, According to Science
The ninth plague of Egypt was complete darkness that lasted for three days. But in 536 A.D., much of the world went dark for a full 18 months, as a mysterious fog rolled over Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The fog blocked the sun during the day, causing temperatures ...read more
The Killer 1911 Heat Wave That Drove People Insane
In July 1911, along the East Coast of the United States, temperatures climbed into the 90s and stayed there for days and days, killing 211 people in New York alone. At the end of Pike Street, in Lower Manhattan, a young man leapt off a pier and into the water, after hours of ...read more
Why Are Hurricanes Classified by Category?
Robert Simpson was just a kid in 1919 when a devastating hurricane hit his home of Corpus Christi, Texas. It was a Sunday, so he was at home with his family when the storm flooded the roads with water six to eight feet above street-level. “The family had to swim—with me on my ...read more
The Biggest Snow Storms in US History
March 11-14, 1888 More than 120 winters have come and gone since the so-called “Great White Hurricane,” but this whopper of a storm still lives in infamy. After a stretch of rainy but unseasonably mild weather, temperatures plunged and vicious winds kicked up, blanketing the East ...read more
Humans vs. Snow: A Love-Hate History
Paleolithic Era: Skiing for Survival Today, skiing is a fun activity winter-lovers can’t wait to take advantage of at the first sight of freshly fallen snow, but it was originally invented thousands of years ago as a means of survival. The first use of skis can be found in a ...read more
What was the “Year Without a Summer”?
In the summer of 1816, the Northern Hemisphere was plagued by a weather disruption of seemingly biblical proportions. Following a relatively ordinary early spring, temperatures in the eastern United States plunged back below freezing, and communities from New England to Virginia ...read more
The Ancient Greek Origins of the ‘Dog Days of Summer’
The sultry “dog days” of summer might spark visions of listless canines baking in the oppressive heat, but the moniker has nothing to do with panting pooches. Instead, it’s a throwback to the time when ancient civilizations tracked the seasons by looking to the sky. The ancient ...read more
7 Withering Droughts
Tropical Africa (133,000 B.C. to 88,000 B.C.) By extracting sediment cores from Lake Malawi, one of the largest and deepest lakes on Earth, scientists determined in 2007 that sub-Saharan Africa experienced a series of mega-droughts from 135,000 to 90,000 years ago. Rainfall was ...read more
6 Bizarre Natural Disasters
1. The Year Without a Summer In April 1815, Indonesia’s Mt. Tambora exploded in one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in known history. The blast killed tens of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and hurled a gargantuan ash cloud into the stratosphere. As the cloud ...read more
Remembering New England’s “Dark Day”
For several days before May 19, people had noticed unusual activity in the skies over New England. The region had only recently emerged from one of the most bitterly cold winters on record, and while the air was now warmer, it was also thick and heavy. The sun had taken on a ...read more
The Hottest Day on Earth, 100 Years Ago
Situated between a series of high, steep mountain ranges in California’s Mojave Desert, Death Valley’s extremely low elevation (282 feet below sea level in some places) and long, narrow configuration keep the region’s temperatures consistently high throughout much of the year. ...read more
Heat Waves Throughout History
London’s Great Stink of 1858 This summer heat wave has lived in infamy not only for its soaring temperatures but also for the malodorous stench it unleashed on England’s capital. Many Londoners had recently traded in their chamber pots for water closets, which flushed an ...read more
The Superstorm That Flooded America
As friends and family gathered for Easter dinner at Benjamin Edholm’s house in Omaha, Nebraska, the sky turned green and a great tornado began to rip through the city. While the revelers huddled for safety, an object burst through the dining room window, slid across the table and ...read more
The Man Who Shipped New England Ice Around the World
The noise of 100 Irishmen shattered the solitude of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond sanctuary during the hard winter of 1846. The eccentric transcendentalist peeked out the window of the rustic cabin where he came to “suck out all the marrow of life” and watched as the Tudor ...read more
Little Ice Age, Big Consequences
Great Famine Beginning in the spring of 1315, cold weather and torrential rains decimated crops and livestock across Europe. Class warfare and political strife destabilized formerly prosperous countries as millions of people starved, setting the stage for the crises of the Late ...read more
The Great Northeast Blackout
At dusk, the biggest power failure in U.S. history occurs as all of New York state, portions of seven neighboring states, and parts of eastern Canada are plunged into darkness. The Great Northeast Blackout began at the height of rush hour, delaying millions of commuters, trapping ...read more
The Tri-State Tornado
The worst tornado in U.S. history passes through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 695 people, injuring some 13,000 people, and causing $17 million in property damage. Known as the “Tri-State Tornado,” the deadly twister began its northeast track ...read more
Bangladesh cyclone of 1991
On April 29, 1991, a devastating cyclone hit the South Asian nation of Bangladesh, killing more than 135,000 people and causing more than $1.5 billion in damage. Although there had been ample warning of the coming storm and shelter provisions had been built in the aftermath of a ...read more
Killer smog claims elderly victims
Killer smog continues to hover over Donora, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 1948. Over a five-day period, the smog killed about 20 people and made thousands more seriously ill. Donora was a town of 14,000 people on the Monongahela River in a valley surrounded by hills. The town was ...read more
Hail storm kills 1,000 English troops in France
On so-called “Black Monday” in 1360, a hail storm kills an estimated 1,000 English soldiers in Chartres, France. The storm and the devastation it caused also played a part in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. The Hundred Years’ War began in 1337; by 1359, King ...read more