This Day in National/World Weather History ...
22 May 1893 → Farms near Darlington, WI vanished as an F5 (estimated) tornado swept them away. Three people were killed.
22 May 1933 → A multi-vortex tornado that was nearly a mile wide and probably an F5 killed 8 people near Tyron, NE, six of whom were from the same family.
22 May 1948 → A rare early season hurricane struck Hispanola, killing an estimated 80 people.
22 May 1995 → Cantaloupe sized hail was reported in Preston, KS.
22 May 1996 → Collapsing nighttime thunderstorms in Oklahoma caused a large heat burst that made temperatures rise to over 100 degrees at midnight.
22 May 2004 → The world's widest tornado, with a maximum width of two and a half miles, struck Hallam, NE with F4 strength.
22 May 2011 → Joplin, MO was struck by a devastating EF5 tornado that took 159 lives, making it the deadliest tornado since the Woodward Tornado in 1947. The tornado was half a mile wide and stayed on the ground for 7 miles, destroying a hospital.

This Day in Weather History Archive

On This Day In

                   Weather History...


January 17, 1996:

Two to as much as fifteen inches of snow, high winds from 40 to 60 mph, and cold arctic air resulted in blizzard conditions and extreme wind chills from 40 below to 70 below for central, north central, and northeast South Dakota as well as west central Minnesota from the middle morning of the 17th to the early evening of the 18th. Most schools, federal, state, and county offices were closed. Also, various activities were canceled. Travel was extremely difficult due to the near zero visibility with some vehicles stranded. Highway 12 from Webster to the Minnesota border and Interstate-29 was closed on the 18th. Hundreds of people were stranded with some people stranded in their vehicles. Some pheasants and wildlife were lost due to the snow packed so hard they could not dig out. Some snowfall amounts included, 2 inches at Highmore, 3 inches at Pierre and 9NE Reliance, 5 inches at Mobridge, Presho, Roscoe, 10SE Stephan, and Ree Heights, 6 inches at Tulare, 7 inches 12W Tulare and 5E 3S Faulkton, 8 inches 11E 2S Hosmer and at Doland, 9 inches at Mellette, Aberdeen, and Redfield. and 10 inches at Eureka and Britton, and 12 inches at Wilmot, Rosholt, and Ortonville, Minnesota. Fifteen inches occurred at Wheaton, Clinton, and Graceville. The extreme wind chills along with some blowing snow continued across central and north central South Dakota into the early evening of the 18th.


Record Highs: Record Lows:
Aberdeen: 48 (1947) Aberdeen: -32 (1997)
Kennebec: 62 (1923) Kennebec: -26 (1930)
Mobridge: 51 (1951) Mobridge: -37 (1943)
Pierre: 56 (1934) Pierre: -22 (1943)
Sisseton: 47 (1973) Sisseton: -27 (1943)
Timber Lake: 56 (1974) Timber Lake: -39 (1943)
Watertown: 46 (1913) Watertown: -33 (1943)
Wheaton: 44 (1988) Wheaton: -27 (1954)

Record Precipitation: Record Snowfall:
Aberdeen: 0.60" (1897) Aberdeen: 6.4" (1996)
Kennebec: 0.27" (1936) Kennebec: 9.0" (1996)
Mobridge: 0.35" (1913) Mobridge: 4.1" (1969)
Pierre: 0.31" (1996) Pierre: 3.5" (1936)
Sisseton: 0.50" (1932) Sisseton: 5.0" (1932)
Timber Lake: 0.62" (1996) Timber Lake: 7.0" (1996)
Watertown: 0.28" (1995) Watertown: 4.0" (1939)
Wheaton: 0.41" (1995) Wheaton: 5.0" (1995)

USA.gov is the U.S. government's official web portal to all federal, state and local government web resources and services.