This Day in Weather History

Today is a special longer-length episode where we will look back at how this all came to be and what goes into the production of a podcast.  Especially one that deals with only weather and "weather adjacencies." and I'll explain whatever the hell that even means as well. Let's celebrate!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 It was originally known as the Barrie Tornado given that they took by far the hardest hit and suffered the highest casualty numbers and they were the biggest city affected when compared to Grand Valley and Tottenham who also were beaten to a pulp by an F4 and suffered deaths as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I will caution you up front that many of the details in today's story are very troubling and therefore listener discretion is advised.  "Vanport" is not a painful trigger word for so many because of any ghost story, or any calamitous disaster—that will be our primary story to come later; this town will forever have a dark cloud over its memory because of raw, unabashed racism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This shipwreck didn't happen at sea, It was also not even on the sometimes deadly waters of  Great Lakes and it also didn't even happen in stormy weather. May 29, 1914 the passenger ship The Empress of Ireland was traveling in the St. Lawrence river, off Rimouski, in the province of Quebec.  However, at the same time and In the same waters was a Norwegian ship named the Storsdad. I think you can see where this is going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Among the excited skywatchers were teams of scientists and volunteers who stood ready to document a variety of atmospheric conditions with the hope of advancing meteorological science. They not only had a perfect location but they forecast an area with ideal weather conditions for viewing the eclipse along much of its incredible over 1500KM track!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The City of Toronto deployed more than 45,000 sandbags, 1,000 metre bags, and more than a dozen industrial pumps to try to control and in any way lessen the effects of the rising water. But now there were reports surfacing of water coming up through the ground inland from any shoreline.  Land liquefaction!! This was getting real bad, real fast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The plane pitched and rolled violently as it ran into this severe inter-cloud turbulence with huge hailstones pounding the exterior.  One passenger said that it felt like a showering of bullets and then came a mighty thump. What hit this plane? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of those hit by a bolt at this picnic was Florida high school student Ernie Perez.  He was thankful to be alive after being struck down by a lightning bolt during a family picnic, leaving him with those tell-tale fascinating burn marks on his neck and shoulder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was the first tornado widely documented by science as part of a storm chasing field research. You heard me right, this started the Storm Chasers!! This was out of Norman, Oklahoma where they placed teams of storm chasers around it to capture its life cycle on film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Timmins 9  grew to 39,524 hectares, resulting in the evacuations of areas around both Timmins and Gogama.  Evacuations had also been underway in Kirkland Lake as well.  This was the largest wildfire this area had experienced in decades.   But again, it was closing in on city centres so it was now national headlines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tornadoes are fierce and unpredictable.  Chasers know this all too well.  Especially those who came back with research and images from the EF5 that crushed Joplin Missouri in 2001 and those 200 MPH winds literally picked up the air-lift helicopter and blew it away on this day in weather history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rain had started light in the early evening but much heavier bands set in fast and downtown had a storm of walnut sized hail unleashed on them. But then at 5:45 p.m. an F4 rated Tornado hit Sarnia straight on! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's story is as shocking for the sheer devastation of property as it is because of its toll on human life. This was to be a storm that would prove to be bigger than anyone could have feared; from the moment of that first alert, there was a watch or warning of some type in effect somewhere in the NWS Norman county warning area for what would go on to be nearly 30 hours straight!!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dark Day, as it is known, happened on May 19, way back in the year 1780 in New England...as well as the eastern parts of an English territory that would one day come to be known as Canada.  Midway through the morning of this day in weather history, the sky turned a creepy jaundice-yellow. Animals began to run for cover and the darkness started to overtake the land. By noon, it was night. What Happened? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was on the morning of May 18, this day in weather history, when Mount St. Helens was shaken by an earthquake of about 5.0 magnitude, and the entire north side of the summit began to slide down the mountain. The giant landslide of rock and ice, one of the largest recorded in history, was followed by and then actually overtaken by an enormous explosion of steam and volcanic gases, which surged northward along the ground at high speed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Faraz Qeshm Airlines Yak-40, suddenly found itself flying through what had become rapidly deteriorating weather conditions.  The rain got real heavy real fast, but then it was struck by a bolt of lightning that was suspected to have possibly knocked out its navigational equipment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It came from three scientists from the British Antarctic Survey who made the chilling announcement of what they had found. This discovery became a look into the mirror for all humans of its ability to damage the Earth's atmosphere. But in the decades that have followed, this near extinction level event, became one of the most famous success stories in the history of climate activism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The season overall was already awake as we had already registered one tropical cyclone but this was the first hurricane of 1951, and seeing as how the letter A opens up the alphabet, we had a storm named Able.  Later, on May 22, Hurricane Able reached its peak wind speeds for its lifespan when it hit 90 mph (150 km/h) about 70 miles (115 km) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There were only 5 more weeks to go to the first official day of Summer! On Wednesday, May 14, back in 1986, a very late season snowstorm made its way through Calgary that overwhelmed most of southern Alberta. The freak storm caused power lines to fall, there were power outages associated with that, plus the roads were a disaster with poor driving conditions, and it closed schools! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was confirmed by Environment Canada as Ontario's first tornado of the 2014 season! This outbreak was seen long in advance and it was warned by Canada's Governing Body for weather and climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They called it the Great Miami Tornado of 1997, but that was really, a bit of a stretch.  It was an F1 tornado, so people in Oklahoma and Kansas were likely reading about it in the next days paper, thinking “oh how adorable”. It showed up like a proper Miami celebrity.  It made possible some of the most haunting pictures which actually became the subject of worldwide media coverage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That year, a severe drought spread across the region. Crops were scorched and withered and died.  And as that spread like a virus to the entire Great Plains collection of States, wind began to carry dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed lands. The over-plowed and abused land was too weak to recover and there was no rain so it was hopeless. It was so intense and so dangerous that it forced thousands of families from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and New Mexico to uproot and migrate to California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this onslaught, there were over 60 tornadoes! Some of these twisters were large and multi-vortex in nature, meaning they had several centres of rotation within one massive system of rotation.  Think tornadoes within tornadoes!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday May 9th, 2019, this version of their outdoor commencement service got walloped with up to 3 inches of snow, over 7.5 cm of snow on that field, on that day and on those 20,000+ people in Boulder at the University of Colorado. This is one of my favorite episodes of this podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This system caused multiple wind gusts that averaged around 70 mph (over 110kph) with other incidents reported of isolated gusts clocking over 90 mph (145kph) along its destructive path. On the ground, the wind storm produced significant and often fiercely continuous pounding that spread damage over a far reaching stretch that spanned the high plains of western Kansas through the foothills of the Appalachians in eastern Kentucky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 7, 1902, Martinique's Mount Pelée began the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. The complacency of the citizens played a role in the massive loss of life. When It hit, it hit hard.  The following day, the city of Saint Pierre, which I can attest to, lives up to its billing as “the Paris of the Caribbean”, was wiped off the map. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 4, 2017, a massive storm rolled through the valley, bringing so much rain that Mill Creek spilled its banks and nearby homes and businesses were flooded.  As a result of this, on may 6th, a state of emergency was called for Kelowna and West Kelowna. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the Peterborough (England) Chronicle on May 5, 1110: "On the fifth night of the month of May the moon appeared shining brightly in the evening, and afterwards his light waned by little and little, and early in the night he was so wholly gone that neither light, nor circle, nor anything at all of him was to be seen, and thus it continued till near day, and then he appeared shining full and bright ; he was a fortnight old the same day : the sky was very clear all the night, and the stars shone very brightly all over the heavens, and the fruit trees were greatly injured by that night's frost." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 4th, at about 10:45 p.m., part of a town near Saguenay, Quebec dropped 30 metres.  The crater it cut out was 300 metres across and more than 30 metres deep. It created a deep channel through which a river of liquefied clay flowed, and it swallowed 30 homes, 15 cars and a bus!! A total of 31 people were killed, most of whom were trapped in their swallowed homes or cars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 3, the fire swiftly blew through Fort McMurray and that prompted the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history, with upwards of 88,000 people forced from their homes all of a sudden. The scenes were chaotic. There were very well coordinated escape caravans but the fire was swallowing up routes as fast as they were being designated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On May 1, the Ottawa River crested 30 cm above 2017's peak flood levels.  As an immediate response to this, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson issued a State of Emergency on April 25. It was lifted on June 12. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They are Canada's authoritative source for severe-weather alerts and weather, water, ice, and climate data.  As a matter of fact, in times of crises that cause enough of a stir for it to be remembered as a memorable day in weather history their team of meteorologists and hydrologists work around the clock to monitor and predict hazards like the two flooding stories I just presented to you on this podcast yesterday in Manitoba and the day before in Quebec. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The amount of water that this spring unleashed on the areas lining the river in this valley back in the spring of 1997 was enough for it to be labeled “The Flood Of The Century”! This covered over 2 thousand 500 square kilometres of land -- in water -- and that forced the evacuation of a staggering 28,000 people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the next day, April 30th, 2019... 9,070 homes and 273 businesses were flooded, and as a result there were now 12,000 people displaced. In the area affected, we also had 82 landslides linked to the flooding as well as the roads and highways I mentioned in the intro. In total, there were 310 municipalities across Quebec that were affected by the flooding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The hailstones ballooned to 2.75" (7cm) diameter which we term “baseball sized”. THIS system starting pitching baseball sized hail all around, before it crossed the Missouri River into St. Louis County. Meanwhile, about 100 people were injured and one person was killed when a tent collapsed on a crowd that was gathered outside Busch Stadium after a Cardinals game at a nearby sports bar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Sunday, April 27, 2008, residents of Fort Albany, a First Nations community primarily made up of women and children, were forced to flee what were now the worst floods since 1985.  Because of the rapid ice breakup on the river they now had mighty ice flows racing down stream at a force that burst through the dikes, thrusting river water up, over and on to the mainland of the reserve where the 900 residents lived.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This outbreak would go on to result in 21 people being killed, 17 of which were from the Andover tornado. But the Wichita-Andover tornado was actually the 3rd in a series of 4 tornadoes that pushed through South Central KS. F5 damage also occurred across the southern part of Andover where large frame homes were demolished. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the avalanche a cascade of snow, ice and rock raced down the mountain, through the populated area known as “base-camp” and in it at least twenty-two people were killed.  This made this event the new deadliest disaster on the mountain. The 7.8 magnitude quake would be blamed for the death of more than 5,000 people, and the injuries suffered by an additional 10,000 people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Floods have been part of recorded history in New Brunswick for over 300 years.  They date back as far as 1696, when the first written record told of a late, very high spring water level that delayed crop planting for the residents of a small French settlement at Jemseg. In 2018, The Saint John river overflowed its banks and water levels crested to over 27 feet (8 ¼ meters) in Fredericton by May 1. The rush of water closed 50 streets in the city and forced hundreds of residents from their homes.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, Apr. 23, 1962, NASA launched the Ranger 4 into space. The Ranger 4 spacecraft, was especially designed to collect data on interplanetary space, but more to the point it was to photograph the moon up close and make a rough landing on the lunar surface, this was for reconnaissance for a future manned mission there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was the brainchild of Wisconsin Senator, Gaylord Nelson who was an unabashed environmentalist whose hope was that by creating a lightning rod of attention he could create a rallying unity to grassroots environmental awareness. We can dream all we want of living on other planets but until we become a totally different species of human, dreaming is as far as we will ever get so let's make sure we make the best of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Legendary Dodger Stadium was built on top of the historic Los Angeles neighbourhood of Chavez Ravine in Solano Canyon. Get this, before the start of their 1976 season, the Dodgers were rained out only once, and that was against the St. Louis Cardinals, on April 21, 1967, ending a streak of 737 consecutive games without a postponement at that time.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the 19th, there were seventeen F2 or greater tornadoes that touched down and that included a jaw-dropping ten in the state of Illinois alone. In Canada, the first tornado that touched down hit the ground running for a staggering 40 kilometres southeast of Owen Sound. A second tornado then touched down farther south and ripped for a 60 kilometre track from Arthur to just southwest of Barrie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was a multi alarm fire involving a total of 17 fire halls, two engine companies and one hose company.  They came from stations as far away as Hamilton, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York, to help save Toronto.  The glow of the fire could be seen for miles in all directions and it took close to nine hours to get under control.  A mystery still surrounds this tale because they never did establish the exact cause of the fire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A twister touched down in a rural area locally and packed powerful 135 to 167 km/h wind speeds. It was now historical as the first to be recorded as an Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale tornado in Canadian history. And it was rated EF1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In some areas, after the full series, there was reported to have been as much as 175 cm of snow. What is that to you and me? That is also known as 5 feet 9 inches of snow!! Because these storms hit while we were getting later into April, many cattle were already out in the pastures.  This was a big problem when you consider over 51/2 feet of snow and the obvious sustained cold that would have accompanied such an event.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The entrance to the CN Tower and to the Rogers Centre were promptly closed and a section of sidewalk out front of the affected buildings was also closed off for all pedestrian traffic. The Rogers Centre was far from the only building to have been damaged in this, however. Damage from the ice was also reported to other surrounding buildings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Denver Post reported that, with a total snowfall of almost a foot, along with around 45mm of mixing, of which it was primarily rain, it was reported that the April 14-15 storm was the second worst April blizzard since 1885. Because of the strong winds, the snow drifted to a depth of 7 feet (over 2 meters) in many parts of the metro.  The storm was the worst in 5 years at Colorado Springs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following a frost alert on April 14, winemakers of Chassagne-Montrachet lit fires and heaters to fight the frost. As temperatures then dropped moderately below that 32 F threshold, with a relatively low humidity, luckily damage was limited.  Yet, winemakers trying to limit frost damage on their vines employ a variety of heating techniques to keep their crops warm. Some got "inventive". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was widespread and it was deadly, the Easter weekend tornado outbreak that brutalized the Southeast US. Several tornadoes were ultimately responsible for triggering tornado emergency declarations, including the very first of its kind to be issued by the National Weather Service in Charleston, South Carolina.  Throughout the two-day outbreak, a total of 140 tornadoes touched down across 10 states, causing  widespread and locally catastrophic damage.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The initial launch date was scheduled for April 10, 1981 and with the first launch of the Space Transportation System (STS), better known as the "space shuttle". The shuttle was humankind's first reusable spacecraft. The orbiter would launch like a rocket and land like a plane.  The STS-1 crew consisted of Commander John W. Young and Pilot Bob Crippen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices