The weather around the nation recently has been breaking records. From winter tornados to very little or too much, snowfall, it looks as though we’re in for a tough year.
The month of January alone has broken records for snowfall as well as high and low temperatures. Along with that, there have been 70 tornados across the United States. That has made for the third most active January for tornadoes on record.
In Sunnyside Nevada, they had reported a record low of 14 degrees Fahrenheit. This broke their previous record of 18 degrees Fahrenheit set in 1971. The temperatures reported from the Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska have been the lowest since 1972. Fairbanks had averaged a temperature of 24.5 degrees Fahrenheit below zero during January.
Lewis County in Washington reported 11.5 inches of snow this year, breaking their past record of only 2 inches. Midland County in Texas reported 10.6 inches of snow breaking the previous record set in 1955 of 5.9 inches.
The 112 year record of the highest winter temperature in Beadle County in South Dakota was 64 degrees Fahrenheit. That was broken in this past January at 65 degrees Fahrenheit. One degree difference may not seem like a lot, but the fact that it took 112 years to get to that one degree difference makes it seem a little more substantial.
Alexandria, Louisiana set a new record of 93 degree Fahrenheit, beating their previous record of 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Phillips County in Montana also broke a record high temperature by 10°F. The record of 60°F from 1992 was broken this month with a record of 70°F.
Although the temperature and snowfall records are startling, the tornadoes this spring has been the talk of the nation. Already 40 people have been killed by the tornadoes and that death toll is expected to rise as many more remain missing. On March 4th, the death toll stood at 18 in Kentucky and 14 people in Indiana. Unbelievably, one night’s warnings in March exceeded all warnings in February. On a Friday in March, 269 tornado warnings had been issued when there had only been 189 issued in the previous month. Nights like these still seem to continue.
Many towns in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and many other surrounding states are completely demolished. The tornadoes took out everything in their path leaving families devastated and people dead and missing. Families search through the rubble of their torn apart homes in search of anything that managed to survive. Many are broken hearted as they find that everything they owned, the entire future they saw in their home, has now completely vanished, leaving them to start all over.
Many people have helped out these families though. Shelters are being congregated to give people a shelter and food while they work to find ways to regain what they had lost.
Although there has been a great deal of relief from the aftermath, we have only begun tornado season. Spring has just started and chances are these tornadoes will continue to strike all through-out summer. This summer is also predicted to be the muggiest and hottest summer in a while which is perfect weather for tornadoes to occur. The chances of this new-born tornado alley moving slightly more Midwest is also a serious possibility.
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