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The
Heat Wave during the summer of 2011
was record-breaking across the United States. At
it's height during the
second half of July, 132 million Americans were under a Heat Alert. For
the
month through July 23rd, 1,966 record daily high temperatures were set
across
the country. Due to extremely high humidity levels, overnight
temperatures
didn't drop as normal and as a result an amazing 4,376 highest minimum
temperature records were tied or broken. On July 23rd at the
Minneapolis-St Paul
airport, the temperature reached 95 F degrees and combined with a dew
point of
82 F, the heat index value reached a sweltering 119 F degrees
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On February 12,
2010, 49 of the 50 U.S.
States had snow on the ground, with the lone exception being
Hawaii. Due to
El Nino and a combination of unusual
patterns, over two-thirds of the country had snow on the ground. Warmer
locations such as the Florida Panhandle, Dallas and Atlanta
all received
a rare dose of snow. From February, 6 - February 12, 2010, 1,180 new
snowfall records were set across the country.
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On the morning of February
10, 2011, Oklahoma broke its
all-time record low temperature. Calm winds and clear skies caused the
city of
Nowata in northeastern Oklahoma to drop to an amazingly low temperature
of 31
degrees below zero. The average low temperature for Nowata was 27
degrees,
making this record low temperature 58 degrees below the normal low for
the
date. In contrast, the low temperature at the South Pole on
the same date
was only 23 degrees below zero.
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Through August 2007, the
United States experienced its
hottest year ever. During the month of August, more than 8,000 new heat
maximum and minimum
records were set or tied across the country.
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In Hawaii,
where surface temperatures are
always above 50F, there is snow. Between 1 and 2 feet of snow falls
each year in
the mountains above 5,000
feet.
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Clear skies, summer
humidity as low as 4% and
higher elevations in New Mexico produce a
surprisingly low mean annual
state temperature. Delaware (55.27 F), Maryland
(54.22 F) and Virginia (55.11F) all possess a
warmer average annual
temperature than New Mexico (53.44F)
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The coldest football game
ever played was the
NFL Championship Game on December 31, 1967 in Green Bay,
Wisconsin between the
Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys when the temperature fell to -13F
degrees. The 2007
NFC Championship game in Green Bay between the New York Giants and
Green Bay
Packers was the third coldest game in history with a temperature of -1F
and wind
chill of -23F.
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The temperature in
Tampa Bay and Miami, Florida has never
exceeded 100 degrees, while in Bismarck, North Dakota
the record
temperature for each of the 5 summer months of May through September is
102
degrees or higher. Although North Dakota
is the 2nd coldest state,
Bismarck's all-time high is an amazing 114
degrees, set in July, 1936.
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The greatest United
States cold wave of the 20th
century occurred during January, 1977. Snow was reported in Miami,
Florida
and temperatures across the northern U.S. from Iowa
to Pennsylvania
didn't rise above freezing for the entire month.
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Although Hawaii
is
the wettest state in the U.S., the city of Honolulu
does not receive a
high amount of rainfall, receiving only 18.29" annually. Cities thought
of as
"Dry cities" actually receive more rainfall than Honolulu
- Flagstaff,
Arizona (22.91"), Amarillo, Texas
(19.71") and Fargo,
North Dakota (21.19")
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The longest rain-free
period in the
United
States was 767 days (2 years, 37 days), from October 3, 1912
to November 8, 1914 at
Bagdad, California.
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A world record rainfall
occurred at Holt, Missouri on June 22, 1947 when
it rained 12 inches in just 42 minutes. This averages to over 1/4 of an
inch of rainfall per minute. On July 4th, 1956 In
Unionville, Maryland 1.23 inches of rain fell in 1 minute.
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Phoenix, Arizona is
one of the hottest U.S. summertime cities with an average July high
temperature of 104 degrees. In contrast, Flagstaff, Arizona,
located only 145 miles away, is the eighth snowiest city in the
United States with an average annual snowfall of 99.9
inches.
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The average annual
temperatures of New York, St. Louis and San Francisco
differ by only 1.8F degrees.
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Which is the least rainy
city - Seattle, New York City or Miami? Although
on average Seattle is cloudy 227 days a year, it
only receives 39 inches of rain per year, compared to New
York City (42 inches) and Miami (60
inches)
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Is Chicago
really "The Windy City?" Of the 262 major weather reporting
stations in the United States, 27% or 72 stations
average higher annual wind speeds than Chicago,
which averages 10.3 mph. For example, New York City's
annual wind speed is 12.2 mph. The humorous explanation of the
city's previous politicians being long-winded may be a more appropriate
reason for the nickname.
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Due to Florida's
proximity to the equator, the state receives more than a hundred times
the UV exposure that Maine does.
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Cheyenne, Wyoming
averages the most hail storms in the United States per year with 10 and
Tulsa, Oklahoma experiences the most severe
hail storms annually.
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The United States
leads the world with an average of over 1,000 reported tornadoes each
year. A distant second is Canada with an average
of approximately 100 reported tornadoes.
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Kansas
has received the most F5 tornadoes since 1880. Oklahoma
encounters the highest number of significant and violent tornadoes per
square mile.
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