Strangest Weather Events Ever Recorded

Weather is usually fairly predictable, as it’s supposed to be. There’s a whole field of science dedicated to predicting the weather and at this point, advances in technology have made it pretty dependable; if the weather forecast says it will rain, it likely will rain. But sometimes, weather events transpire that leave even the most seasoned meteorologists scratching their heads.

If we’re lucky, we’ll go through life without ever experiencing a truly catastrophic weather event. Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme temperatures, windstorms, and other “acts of God” have the potential to completely uproot our lives in ways we can’t even imagine. Houses can be destroyed, belongings can be swept away, and lives can be lost.

While major weather events like these used to be rare, they’re unfortunately becoming more and more common due to global climate change. “One-hundred-year floods” used to be called that because there was only a 1-in-100 chance of it happening in any given year, but Houston got hit with three 500-year floods in three years: 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Not every extreme weather event – like volcanic eruptions – is tied to climate change, but as time goes on, it’s going to affect us more and more — even those of us who live outside of areas typically affected by extreme weather. For example, Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, a part of the world that doesn’t usually see hurricanes, head-on in 2012.

Strange and anomalous weather events have happened since the dawn of time, and they’re certainly not going to slow down. Mother Nature is undeniably powerful, occasionally terrifying, and incredibly unpredictable. These are some of the strangest weather events ever recorded. Some were so extreme that they even changed the course of history .

The Year Without a Summer (1816)

The 1816 eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora did a number on basically the whole world’s climate. It’s called The Year Without a Summer because the huge amounts of ash spewed into the atmosphere caused extreme cold and widespread crop failures in Europe and North America, even snow in June.

The Peshtigo Firestorm (1871)

This massive Wisconsin forest fire swept through a swath of the northeastern part of the state on October 8, 1871. The deadliest wildfire in recorded history, it burned about 1.2 million acres and killed an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 people. It got its name because the fire was so big that it created its own weather patterns, including fire tornadoes.

The Great Blizzard of 1888

The Eastern Seaboard was completely paralyzed by a freak snowstorm in March 1888, which dropped up to 58 inches of snow and was exacerbated by wind gusts of more than 45 miles an hour, causing snowdrifts more than 50 feet tall. Railroads were shut down and telegraph cables destroyed, forcing people to be confined to their homes for a week. Overhead cables in affected cities were buried underground afterward.

The Great Galveston Hurricane (1900)

The massive hurricane that hit the then-major Texas city of Galveston in 1900 is the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. With a massive storm surge and high winds, it walloped the city, causing widespread devastation and killing an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people.

The Tunguska Event (1908)

In 1908, a comet or asteroid struck Siberia with a force equivalent to a giant thermonuclear bomb. Two thousand square kilometers of forest were flattened by the massive explosion, and the area is still feeling its effects today. Needless to say, it would have been much worse if it had struck a populated area.

The Tri-State Tornado (1925)

On March 18, 1925, an outbreak of 12 tornadoes hit a large portion of the midwestern and southern United States, making it the deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history and one of the worst in world history. Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas got the worst of it, with nearly 700 people killed.

The Dust Bowl (1930s)

Drought and poor agricultural practices combined to disastrous effect in the 1930s, when massive dust storms led to massive crop failures, displaced thousands of families and resulted in economic hardship for millions of people, especially farmers.

The China Floods (1931)

The devastating floods that resulted from the Yangtze River overflowing its banks due to monsoon rains and snowmelt in 1931 killed up to four million people, making it history’s deadliest known natural disaster by death toll.

The New England Hurricane (1938)

One of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to ever strike the United States, the New England Hurricane of 1938 was a surprise Category 3 hurricane that made landfall on Long Island on September 21. It killed 682 people and caused widespread damage. It remains the most powerful and deadliest hurricane in recorded New England history.

The Great Smog of London (1952)

A combination of cold weather, windless conditions, and coal burning led to a bizarre natural phenomenon over London in 1952, in which toxic smog settled over the city for several days. An estimated 12,000 people died as a result of the event.

The Great Iran Blizzard (1972)

A series of severe winter storms hit Iran in early February 1972, dropping as much as 26 feet of snow and completely burying some 200 villages in a swath of land the size of Wisconsin. It resulted in the deaths of a reported 4,000 people, making it the deadliest blizzard in recorded history.

Saharan Desert Snowfall

Snow in the Sahara Desert does happen, but it is extremely uncommon and one of the strangest weather events. This weather phenomenon happened several times in recent history: In 1979 in southern Algeria, and in both 2017 and 2018 it fell near the Algerian town of Aïn Séfra.

The Bangladesh Hailstorm (1986)

A massive hailstorm hit the country of Bangladesh in 1986, causing widespread damage and destroying crops. It’s notable for the sheer size of the hail. The hailstones themselves weighed up to 2.2 pounds, making it the heaviest hailstorm of all time. It resulted in the deaths of 92 people.

The Lake Nyos Disaster (1986)

In a truly bizarre event, back in 1986, there was a mass die-off of 1,700 people and thousands of heads of livestock in villages surrounding Lake Nyos in Cameroon. After an investigation, it was determined that the cause was a limnic eruption, in which a large cloud of carbon dioxide was released from the lake, suffocating everything in its path.

The Mount Pinatubo Eruption (1991)

Mount Pinatubo, in the Philippines’ Luzon Volcanic Arc, erupted dramatically in April 1991. It was the second-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century (behind only the 1912 eruption of Novarupta in Alaska). The massive release of volcanic ash and aerosols into the atmosphere caused global temperatures to drop by about 1°F for several years.

The Red Rain of Kerala (2001)

Over the course of two months in 2001, a bizarre reddish-colored rain fell down on the Indian state of Kerala. Initially thought to have gotten its color due to desert dust, it was later determined that the real culprit was unidentified microbial activity.

The Bolivian Hailstorm (2002)

Hail is a fairly common (if bizarre) occurrence, but the hailstorm that fell in the tropical Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in 2002 was decidedly off the charts. More than five feet of hail fell on the city, causing widespread damage.

The El Reno Tornado (2013)

A tornado that struck the Oklahoma city of El Reno in 2013 has the distinction of being the widest tornado ever recorded, with a diameter of about 2.6 miles across. Thankfully its path largely avoided populated areas, so it resulted in relatively few fatalities.

Hurricane Patricia (2015)

The strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere and the strongest globally in terms of one-minute maximum sustained winds, Hurricane Patricia grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours (a near-record pace) and had sustained winds of 215 miles per hour. Thankfully, it weakened significantly before making landfall in Mexico. It’s easily up there with the most destructive storms in history .

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