Extreme USA: the worst weather in every state
Rachel Truman
06 December 2017
Wild weather
We look at some of the most extreme weather events that have happened in each state in recent years. From huge hail storms and record-breaking lightning strikes to deadly tornadoes and unbelievable snow dumps, the US experiences some of the world’s most diverse and powerful weather. Behold the power of Mother Nature…
Alabama
A three-day "super outbreak" of 62 tornadoes erupted across Alabama in April 2011, wreaking utter havoc and destruction in Tuscaloosa and other parts of the state as well as in Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. The National Weather Service confirmed that there were 362 tornadoes during the historic outbreak, which killed nearly 350 people. It was the costliest and deadliest tornado outbreak ever recorded.
Alaska
Alaska faced some of the US’s most extensive and intense wildfires in 2015. Over five million acres burned within the state, the second largest in Alaska since records began. Wildfires are a common occurrence in summer for the enormous but sparsely populated state, with many fires erupting and spreading rapidly due to lightning strikes taking hold in the dry interior.
Arizona
There were reports of buckling roads, people driving wearing oven gloves and even cacti wilting when Arizona and other parts of the US’s south west were hit with record high temperatures in the summer of 2017. The deadly heatwave saw Phoenix reach 120°F (nearly 49°C), the highest temperature in more than two decades. It was so hot in the city that planes were cancelled.
Arkansas
A state-wide state of emergency was declared in April 2017 when heavy winds and rain battered Arkansas, causing power outages and flash floods. Ten people died, mostly due to the catastrophic flooding which reached historic levels.
California
This summer has seen one of the worst fire seasons in a decade in the US with California coming off pretty badly. The hotter and drier weather has made fires incredibly destructive as forests and other vegetation become more flammable. It’s yet to be fully assessed how 2017 will compare but the 2015 wildfire season was the deadliest since 2011.
Colorado
Hailstones the size of baseballs pummelled buildings and cars in Colorado’s capital of Denver on May 8 2017, wreaking a huge amount of damage. The deluge of freakishly large ice balls was the state’s costliest catastrophe, with a damage bill of $1.4 billion.
Connecticut
When superstorm Sandy slammed into the east coast in October 2012, Connecticut’s coastline was first in line to receive a brutal battering. Waves estimated at 10-12 feet pummeled the coast, houses in towns such as Fairfield were flooded (some were even washed out to sea) and trees were toppled by the strong winds.
Delaware
Residents readied themselves for one of the coldest winters they’d faced for a long time in 2014/2015 with exceptionally chilly temperatures and high levels of snowfall – 56.1 inches in Wilmington. This was the second highest seasonal snowfall since 1979. The largest was in the 2009-2010 season, which measured 72.7 inches.
Florida
Hurricane Irma made landfall on the Florida Keys and southwest Florida in September as a Category 4 storm. It left six people dead in Florida and led to torrential rains and devastating flash floods as it moved up the centre of the state to the northeast. The powerful storm caused historic levels of destruction to the Sunshine State.
Georgia
Sinister long-track tornados tore a path through southern Georgia in January 2017, wreaking catastrophic damage and causing 14 fatalities. The intense and fast-moving storms saw a state of emergency declared in several counties. Tornadoes in January are rare but not totally unprecedented.
Hawaii
Tropical Storm Iselle lashed the Big Island and Maui with heavy rain, high winds and huge waves in August 2014. Iselle was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm when it made landfall on the state, although it did force thousands of people to seek shelter, knocked power out and closed ports. Hurricanes are pretty rare in the Island State although August is the peak month for tropical cyclones in the central Pacific basin.
Idaho
Residents of Boise suffered a historic winter in 2017 – the coldest and snowiest one for more than 30 years. Snowfall in December 2016 and January 2017 totalled 35.5 inches, which beat the previous record of 30.5 inches in 1983-84. The thaw in February led to severe flooding near the Oregon border.
Illinois
Numerous tornadoes struck the state in June 2015 – a total of 12 occurred across the northern part of the state, 10 of which were spawned from a cyclic supercell storm. According to the National Weather Service, this weather phenomenon is a thunderstorm that undergoes cycles of intensification and weakening (pulses) while maintaining its individuality. It’s capable of producing multiple tornadoes.
Indiana
The residents of Indiana are no strangers to extreme weather with devastating tornadoes not unusual. But on November 17 2013 a staggering 30 tornadoes hit the state – it was the second highest number of tornadoes to happen in one day in its history. In August 2016 three tornadoes touched down in the state, causing injury and destruction. This Starbucks in Kokomo was one of many buildings flattened.
Iowa
Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit the state of Iowa frequently, unleashing destructive winds, large hailstones and lightning strikes. In June 2015 a derecho – a line of especially powerful winds that can hit anything that comes in its path for at least 240 miles – caused widespread damage to homes and downed trees.
Kansas
Located within the heart of Tornado Alley, Kansas has suffered numerous deadly and powerful tornadoes, one of the most violent meteorological events known. According to the Tornado Project, however, it’s ranked fourth behind Texas, Oklahoma and Florida when it comes to the amount of tornadoes. February 2013 saw a weather extreme of another kind occur in Kansas: a rare thundersnow storm dumped several inches of snow on Wichita. A total of 14.2 inches were recorded, the deepest snowfall since 1962.
Kentucky
Deadly floods caused by flash flooding saw the eastern part of Kentucky awash in July 2015. The severe storms and torrential rain led to homes and vehicles being washed away and several deaths. According to the National Weather Service, Kentucky accounted for over 4% of the total flood deaths across the US between 1996 and 2016 with 77, even though it accounts for just over 1% of the population.
Louisiana
Devastating floods hit Louisiana in 2016 in what was then the country’s worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy. Thousands of people sadly lost their homes in the flood-ravaged region.
Maine
A classic nor'easter, the large coastal storms responsible for the east coast's biggest snowfalls, caused Maine to experience higher-than-average snowfall in February 2017. Record amounts of the white stuff were dumped onto the freezing ground. According to the National Weather Service, 79-inch-deep snow was recorded in Andover – the second deepest snowfall in the state’s history.
Maryland
The winter storm Jonas blew in a record-breaking snowstorm for Baltimore in Maryland in 2017, which left parts of the city buried under 29.2 inches of snow. The state also experienced thundersnow, the phenomenon when a snowstorm produces thunder and lightning too.
Massachusetts
A staggering 108.6 inches of snow in the winter of 2014/15 saw Boston beat its previous record snowfall in the winter of 1995/6. Due to several winter storms many roads were impassable, cars and landmarks were smothered in snow, and temperatures were positively bone chilling in what was the city’s most dramatic winter for decades.
Michigan
Heavy rain and lashing winds were the result of a tornado hitting the north part of the state in August 2017. The state is not known for these weather systems but has suffered a few devastating storms, including the Southeast Michigan Tornado Outbreak in July 1997 when 13 tornadoes swept through Detroit.
Minnesota
Winter 2016 saw temperatures in Minnesota plummet so low that they were even colder than recordings from Mars: it sank to -37°F in Embarrass. Deep snow and a dangerously high wind chill led to some schools closing. The mid-west state is often gripped in a deep freeze during its notoriously harsh winters.
Mississippi
The intense and fast-moving storms that swept south eastern parts of the US in January of this year hit Mississippi hard too with forceful tornadoes, damaging winds of up to 136mph and large hail. Four people were killed in the state and over 1,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Missouri
The tornado that tore through Joplin on May 22 2011 was to be the most deadly storm to strike Missouri since 1947. The EF5 tornado, the category reserved for the very strongest, measured up to a mile in width and left a six-mile-long scar through the city. Winds whipped up to 200mph and wreaked immense damage. It claimed 161 lives, making it the seventh deadliest in US history.
Montana
A flash drought struck Montana’s northern border this summer, defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as "relatively short periods of warm surface temperature and anomalously low and rapid decreasing soil moisture”. According to the US Drought Monitor, all of Montana is classified as in some stage of drought, with 65% of the state in “extreme” or “exceptional” drought. The drought and heatwave has led to one of its worst wildfire seasons on record.
Nebraska
Thunderstorms, heavy rain, large hail and winds reaching nearly 90mph marched across eastern Nebraska in June of this year, leading to damage of property and power outages. Being in Tornado Alley, the state is prone to violent storms.
Nevada
Dust storms can wreak havoc in this largely desert state, including one in March 2017 following a powerful windstorm that ripped through Las Vegas. Telephone poles and trees were toppled, roofs ripped off and a severe dust storm reduced visibility to zero. It was the worst storm to hit the city in five years.
New Hampshire
The east coast state is home to Mount Washington in the White Mountains, known as the “home of the world’s worst weather” as its winter conditions rival those of Mount Everest and the polar regions. Winds at the top of the highest peak can reach up to a hurricane-force 110 miles per hour in winter. Want to experience extreme winter conditions? You can sign up for the Extreme Mount Washington experience at the Mount Washington Observatory.
New Jersey
The 2012 superstorm known as Sandy battered the New Jersey coastline, flattening houses, ripping piers to pieces and flooding streets. It affected 24 US states in total but New Jersey and New York suffered the most severe damage.
New Mexico
An unrelenting wildfire raged through New Mexico's arid wilderness in 2012 in what was the state’s largest outbreak. Caused by lightning, the rampant inferno covered an area bigger than New York city and was classified as a "megafire" by Climate Central – a supersized and highly destructive blaze that burns more than 100,000 acres.
New York
Severe winter storm Jonas dumped 26.8 inches of snow onto Central Park in 2016, making it one of the city’s heaviest snowstorms. It brought the city to a complete standstill with heavy snow and high winds, but it was the blizzard of February 11 2006 that brought New York City's biggest snowfall on record with 26.9 inches falling.
North Carolina
Devastating flooding, high winds and power outages were unleashed on eastern North Carolina in October 2016 by Hurricane Matthew. It suffered the highest river flood levels since Hurricane Floyd in 1999, which caused millions of dollars of damage and multiple deaths.
North Dakota
Capital Bismarck broke its record for snow in the winter of 2016/17 with a total snow accumulation of 53.1 inches, the most snowfall ever accumulated in the city to date. The state is prone to long and extreme winters with heavy snowfall and blizzards common.
Ohio
Toledo in the state’s north west was named as having had the worst winter of 2013/14 of any major US city, according to The Weather Channel, with extreme snowfall and record low temperatures. It clocked 86.3 inches of snow in total.
Oklahoma
A lightning flash seen over Oklahoma in 2007 was the longest one ever recorded, measuring a horizontal distance of 199.4 miles. The record-breaking bolt was recorded just south of Tulsa during a long line of thunderstorms on the afternoon of June 20 2007.
Oregon
A firm favourite with storm watchers, Oregon’s coast is renowned for its howling winds and crashing waves. On October 14, however, an unprecedented number of tornado warnings, 10 in total, were issued by the National Weather Service across the state. Two did amount to something, including an EF2 tornado that tore through the coastal town of Manzanita.
Pennsylvania
Historic snowfall caused by winter storm Jonas also struck Pennsylvania, leaving around 500 vehicles stranded on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for up to 24 hours during its height. The entire state was blanketed in record amounts of snow – 30-plus inches were recorded in some areas.
Rhode Island
The New England state experienced the worst floods it has known in over 100 years in 2010 after three days of torrential downpours and a month of high rainfall drenched its towns and countryside. An emergency declaration was issued as roads buckled, bridges collapsed and sewage systems flooded.
South Carolina
Historic levels of flooding hit South Carolina in 2015, causing widespread damage to the state’s buildings and infrastructure. The record-breaking deluge was indirectly linked to Hurricane Joaquin and saw dams overflow, bridges collapse and hundreds of roads submerged by floodwaters.
South Dakota
Meanwhile, neighbouring state South Dakota lays claim to having had the largest hailstone recorded in the US. The record-breaking ball of ice had a diameter of 7.9 inches and fell in the prairie town of Vivian on July 23 2010.
Tennessee
Wild winds brought on the back of a severe weather outbreak in 2016 in the south helped fan fires in Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains into a devastating wildfire. Nearly 1,700 buildings were damaged or destroyed in what was the state’s largest wildfire for 100 years.
Texas
Unprecedented flooding in Texas saw Houston submerged in August 2017 as former hurricane-turned-tropical storm Harvey battered the south-eastern part of the state and dumped record amounts of rain on the city. Storms and torrential rain are fairly common in this state; in fact Texas has the most tornadoes in the whole of the US with an average of 139 a year.
Utah
Some of America’s biggest dust storms or haboobs, where vicious winds whip up desert dust, can be found in the arid state of Utah. One such storm blew into western Utah, outside Salt Lake City, in April 2015. Tropical storm force winds combined with dust meant visibility on its roads was severely hampered.
Vermont
A big chill besieged the mountainous state of New England in February 2015 with some seriously frosty temperatures recorded. The cities of Burlington and Montpelier plummeted to -19°F (-28.3°C).
Virginia
Dramatic flooding struck Virginia in June 2016 and the River Jackson reached record levels. The storms also caused several house fires due to lightning strikes.
Washington
A ferocious wildfire, one of Washington State’s largest, saw Okanagan County aglow and smoke billowing out of the region along its border with Canada in the summer of 2015. A total of five intense and fast-moving fires were caused by lightning strikes.
West Virginia
The same deadly thunderstorms claimed at least 24 lives in West Virginia as floods devastated several towns. Around 8-10 inches of rain fell in 12 hours in parts of the state.
Wisconsin
It’s been wet, wet, wet in Wisconsin this year with the state experiencing its wettest year on record, according to the National Weather Service, from January through to July. The average precipitation in the state was 25.25 inches, 7.14 inches above average. Records date back 123 years.
Wyoming
Frigid temperatures saw residents warned of frostbite and hypothermia in January this year as Wyoming faced one of its bitterest-ever winters. In parts of the state, temperatures sank as low as -44°F in the early hours of the morning, with even lower wind chill.
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