This Day in National/World Weather History ...
20 June 1928 → A farmer from Greensburg, KS looked up into the heart of a tornado. He described it as "rotating clouds lit with constant flashes of lightning and a strong gassy odor with a screaming, hissing sound."
20 June 1957 → An F5 tornado in North Dakota caused great destruction in Fargo. Over 1300 homes were destroyed or damaged over a 9 mile path. There were 10 fatalities and 103 injuries.
20 June 1972 → From the 20th to the 25th former Hurricane Agnes, in combination with a mid-latitude low pressure area, deluged Pennsylvania and New York with torrential rains resulting in one of the most costly floods in U.S. history. In the Middle Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, rainfall amounts were generally 8 to 12 inches, with up to 19 inches in Schuylkill County. At Wilkes-Barre, the dike was breached, destroying much of the town. Flooding resulted in 117 deaths and $3.1 billion in damage.

This Day in Weather History Archive

On This Day In

                   Weather History...


October 21, 1987:

Cold arctic air continued to invade the central U.S. Eleven record lows were reported in the Great Plains Region, including lows of 12 degrees at Valentine, Nebraska, and 9 degrees at Aberdeen, South Dakota. Temperatures warmed rapidly during the day in the Southern and Central Plains Region. Goodland, Kansas warmed from a morning low of 24 degrees to an afternoon high of 75 degrees.

October 21, 1989:

Unseasonably cold weather continued to grip the south central and southeastern U.S. Twenty cities reported record low temperatures for the date, including Calico, Arkansas with a reading of 26 degrees, and Daytona Beach, Florida with a low of 41 degrees. Squalls in the Great Lakes Region finally came to an end, but not before leaving Marquette, Michigan buried under 12.7 inches of snow, a record 24 hour total for October.


Record Highs: Record Lows:
Aberdeen: 86 (1947) Aberdeen: 9 (1987)
Kennebec: 95 (1947) Kennebec: 13 (1910)
Mobridge: 89 (1947) Mobridge: 10 (1930)
Pierre: 93 (1947) Pierre: 14 (1987)
Sisseton: 82 (1947) Sisseton: 14 (1936)
Timber Lake: 88 (1947) Timber Lake: 12 (1936)
Watertown: 83 (1947) Watertown: 7 (1930)
Wheaton: 83 (1927) Wheaton: 8 (1930)

Record Precipitation:
Aberdeen: 1.60" (1906) Aberdeen: 16.0" (1906)
Kennebec: 0.54" (1953) Kennebec: 2.0" (1906)
Mobridge: 0.32" (2008) Mobridge: 1.3" (2002)
Pierre: 0.65" (1953) Pierre: 0.4" (1898)
Sisseton: 0.51" (2009)
Timber Lake: 1.07" (1953) Timber Lake: 0.5" (1996)
Watertown: 0.52" (1959) Watertown: 2.3" (1951)
Wheaton: 0.68" (2009) Wheaton: 2.5" (2002)

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