21-25 June 2004

Water in the Earth System will return for Fall 2004 with new Water News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 30 August 2004. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Lightning Safety Awareness Week-- The National Weather Service is observing Lightning Awareness Week during this upcoming week of 20-26 June 2004 [NOAA News]. For more information, go to http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/, a site that includes a variety of informational and teacher resource materials.
• Deadly typhoon hit Japan -- Typhoon Dianmu took aim on southern Japan, accompanied by strong winds, high wind-driven waves and heavy rains early Sunday. At least three people were killed by this typhoon (the western Pacific counterpart of a hurricane in the North Atlantic basin). [USA Today]
• How bad is the western drought? Scientists with the US Geological Survey released a report last week that indicated that the current drought across the Colorado Basin may be the worst in 500 years, worse than during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. [USA Today]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes-- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 21 June 1791...A hurricane, called El Temporal de Barreto - the storm of Barreto, generated a monster ocean wave that carried off the coffin of a rich, but hated, count as he lay in state in his mansion near Havana, Cuba. (The Weather Doctor)
• 21 June 1886...A destructive hurricane hit the Apalachicola-Tallahassee area of Florida on the summer solstice. Extensive damage was done in Florida and throughout the southeast by this storm, which was the first hurricane of the year. Damage was due mainly to extremely high tides. (Intellicast)
• 22 June 1915...A hailstorm struck the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The hailstones were pear-shaped and occasionally contained small pebbles. (Flora, Hailstorms of the United States, 1956)
• 22 June 1947...Twelve inches of rain fell in forty-two minutes at Holt, MO establishing a world rainfall intensity record. That record was tied on 24-25 January 1956, at the Kilauea Sugar Plantation in Hawaii, as their state record was established with 38.00 inches of rain in 24 hours. (The Weather Channel)
• 22 June 1997...Thunderstorms caused flash flooding in parts of Michigan's Allegan and Ottawa Counties. Unofficially, 12 inches of rain fell on Zeeland, where 20 percent of the streets were flooded. More than 200 roads were either partially or totally washed out, with some washouts up to 8 feet deep. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 22 June 2003...The largest recorded hailstone in the United States fell on Aurora, NE. The diameter of this hailstone was 7 inches, and its circumference was 18.75 inches. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 23 June 1969...More than nine inches of rain soaked Salt Lick Creek watershed in the morning. In Red Boiling Springs, TN, a wall of water as much as seven feet high tumbled, swirled and crushed houses, vehicles, street pavement and small buildings as though they were "children's toys in a drainage ditch." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 23 June 1983...Excessive rainfall from the wetter than normal previous fall and winter, followed by a record wet March, led the DMAD Dam near Delta, UT to fill to twice its capacity before failing. Oasis and Deseret were flooded by water 3 to 5 feet deep. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24 June 1897...Hailstones six inches in diameter fractured a boy's skull in Topeka, Kansas. (Flora, Hailstorms of the United States, 1956)
• 24 June 1946...Mellen, WI received 11.72 inches of rain, setting a 24-hour maximum precipitation record for the Badger State. (NCDC)
• 24 June 1972...Rainier Park Ranger Station in Washington State had 4.4 inches of snow on this day. This turned out to be the last snowfall for the 1971-72 season and brought the seasonal total to 1122 inches -- a new single season snowfall record for the U.S. (Intellicast)
• 25 June 1749...A general fast was called on account of drought in Massachusetts. It was the year of the famous dry spring in which fields and villages burned. (David Ludlum)
• 25 June 1989...Tropical Depression Allison, the remnants of what was earlier Cosme (a hurricane over the Pacific Ocean that dissipated as it crossed northern Mexico), began to spread heavy rain into southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. (The National Weather Summary)
• 26 June 1933...A hailstorm swept a path of destruction 12 miles wide and 40 miles long across eastern Saskatchewan. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 26 June 1954...Eight fishermen were swept off the breakwater of the Montrose Harbor in Chicago, IL by a seiche on Lake Michigan. At the time, this killer wave rose suddenly from a serene Lake Michigan, sunny skies and calm wind conditions were reported. The seiche, produced by an earlier squall on the lake, caused the lake water to rise ten feet. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 26 June 1985...A spectacular early morning waterspout developed at 5:20 AM (MST) from a stationary thunderstorm over the south end of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It was visible 20 miles away, and lasted four minutes. (The Weather Channel)
• 26 June 1986...Hurricane Bonnie made landfall on the upper Texas coast. A wind gust to 98 mph occurred at Sea Rim State Park. The town of Ace recorded 13 inches of rain. (Intellicast)

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Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
©Copyright, 2004, The American Meteorological Society.