HISTORICAL WEATHER EVENTS - 11 January

From the files of the Aviation Weather Center, Kansas City, MO and Intellicast

• ...1898...Fort Smith, AR was hit by an F4 tornado. Fifty-five people were killed and 113 were injured. A Fort Smith street sign was carried for 22 miles. (Intellicast)
• ...1918...A tremendous blizzard completely immobilized the Midwest, stopping mail service for two weeks. The vast storm then moved through the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Valley. Winds reached 60 mph at Toledo, OH, and the temperature plunged from 28 degrees above to 15 degrees below zero during passage of the cold front. (David Ludlum)
• ...1942...Rhode Island's record low temperature of 23 degrees below zero was set at Kingston. (Intellicast)
• ...1951...An F2 tornado struck Los Gatos and Sunnyvale, CA, causing $1.5 million in damage. Another F2 tornado moved through San Jose, CA with $50,000 in damage. (Intellicast)
• ...1972...Downslope winds hit the eastern slopes of the Rockies in northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. Boulder, CO reported wind gusts to 143 mph and twenty-five million dollars property damage. (David Ludlum)
• ...1980...Warm Chinook winds developed along the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains causing the temperature at Great Falls, MT to rise from 32 degrees below zero to 15 degrees above zero in just 7 minutes. (Intellicast)
• ...1982...A frigid high was centered over Oklahoma and Texas. The zero degree line was all the way to central Alabama and Georgia. Atlanta, GA recorded 5 degrees below zero and Birmingham, AL shivered at 2 degrees below zero. The freezing line was all the way into central Florida. Pensacola was 8 degrees and Orlando recorded 32 degrees. Thirty-four stations recorded new record lows. As the nation shivered in record cold, Buffalo, NY was buried under 28 inches of snow from snow squalls -- 25.3 inches in 24 hours set new 24-hour record. (Intellicast)
• ...1987...A storm in the northeastern U.S. buried the mountains of central Vermont with up to 26 inches of snow, and snowfall totals in Maine ranged up to 27 inches at Telos Lake. Winds gusted to 45 mph at Newark, NJ and Albany, NY. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• ...1988...Snow and high winds in Utah resulted in a fifty-car pile-up along Interstate 15. Winds in Wyoming gusted to 115 mph at Rendezvous Peak. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• ...1989...A cold front, which the previous day produced 21 inches of snow at Stampede Pass, WA and wind gusts to 75 mph at Mammoth Lakes, CA, spread snow across Colorado. Totals in Colorado ranged up to 17 inches at Steamboat Springs. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• ...1990...Strong northwesterly winds associated with a deep low-pressure system crossing the Upper Great Lakes Region ushered cold air into the central U.S. Winds gusted to 72 mph at Fort Dodge, IA, and wind gusts reached 75 mph at Yankton, SD. Snow and high winds created blizzard conditions in northwestern Minnesota. Squalls produced heavy snow in parts of Upper Michigan and northern Lower Michigan, with 16 inches reported at Wakefield. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)