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On June 12, 2014 a hail storm that hit Abilene produced more than $400 million in insured losses to vehicles, homes and commercial property. "This is the worst storm damage I've seen in my 41 years in the insurance business," Leroy Perkins of the Perkins Insurance Agency in Abilene, told the largest state insurance trade association in the United States. the storm, packing baseball-sized hail, moved directly south across Abilene pounding the city's north side and downtown area. Commercial buildings downtown received millions of dollars in damage to roofs, windows and structures. Total uninsured losses are also expected to be high, Perkins adds. "Downtown looks like autumn because all of the trees have been stripped of their leaves and many limbs down in the street," Karla Martin with the Taylor County Sheriff's Office said the day after the storm. Hundreds of vehicles, many of them new cars, were declared totaled from the beating they took. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) notes that hail causes approximately 1$ billion in damage to crops and property each year.
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The tornado outbreak of 9 June 1984 is among the most important tornado events in Russia’s history because it was associated with substantial loss of life with 400 deaths, and contained one of two F4 tornadoes ever recorded for in that country. Very little information is available on a violent tornado outbreak that swept through areas north of Moscow in the summer of 1984. The Soviet Union had not yet disbanded and few details were leaked to the international media. The outbreak was the result of a series of violent supercell thunderstorms that travelled north-northeast at speeds greater than 50mph. Local newspapers reported that massive hailstones, some over 2lbs in weight, fell over the affected areas. 400 people were killed, with most of the fatalities likely the result of a single tornado that tore through the town of Ivanovo. A French research article describes how the tornado threw cars long distances, lifted a 350-ton operating crane and leveled “steel-reinforced” buildings. According to the same article, the Russians unofficially awarded the tornado an F4 rating, although some of the damage was indicative of F5 strength. Reports describe how the tornado scoured pavement from a highway and hurled a 120,000lb water tank several blocks. Satellite images at the time showed an strong severe weather set up reminiscent of large outbreaks in tornado alley in the US. If the reports are all true, then the outbreak was an unprecedented event and astoundingly violent for an area generally accustomed to tornadoes only capable of inflicting F1 and F2 damage.
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The 1953 Flint–Worcester tornado outbreak was a devastating tornado outbreak sequence spanning three days, two that featured tornadoes each causing at least 90 deaths—an F5 occurring in Flint, Michigan on June 8, 1953, and an F4 in Worcester, Massachusetts the next day. The Worcester storm stayed on the ground for nearly 90 minutes, traveling 48 miles across Central Massachusetts. In total, 94 people were killed, making it the 21st deadliest tornado in the history of the US. In addition to the fatalities, over 1,000 people were injured and 4,000 buildings were damaged. The tornado caused $52 million in damage, which translates to more than $350 million in today’s dollars. These tornadoes are among the deadliest in U S history and were caused by the same storm system that moved eastward across the nation. The tornadoes are also related together in the public mind because, for a brief period following the Worchester tornado, it was debated in the U.S. Congress whether recent atomic bomb testing in the upper atmosphere had caused the tornadoes. Congressman James Van Zandt (R-Penn.) was among several members of Congress who expressed their belief that the June 4th bomb testing created the tornadoes, which occurred far outside the traditional tornado alley. They demanded a response from the government. Meteorologists quickly dispelled such an assertion, and Congressman Van Zandt later retracted his statement.
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On June 7 1984, nine people died and 200 were injured when a tornado slammed into the Iowa County, Wisconsin community of Barneveld. The F5 twister destroyed 90% of the town of 580 residents. What made Barneveld’s tornado rare is it hit overnight. A majority of tornadoes occur between 3 and 9 p.m., and violent tornadoes almost never happen late at night. Many tornadoes show a telltale “hook” shape on radar, but Barneveld’s tornado did not. Meteorologists could see fast-moving storms on radar heading northeast through Grant and Lafayette counties but without the hook, they did not know a tornado was forming. Most people in Barneveld were in bed and didn’t know about the warning unless they happened to be watching television and saw the scrawl on their TV screens. Because power went out a few minutes before the twister hit, Barneveld’s tornado siren never sounded. Lightning flashed so often — more than 200 strikes per minute — that the sky looked like a strobe light, according to the National Weather Service in Madison. The tornado traveled 36 miles for 59 minutes. At its peak, it was nearly a quarter-mile wide. Destroyed were all three of Barneveld’s churches, 93 homes, 17 of the community’s 18 businesses including the library, fire station, bank, post office and municipal building. Barneveld’s water tower was marked by blue paint about halfway up, possibly from a twirling car. A couple sleeping on the upper floor of their house ended up in the basement with their truck on top; they survived. Paper debris including checks, letters, bills and invoices in an area 23 miles wide and 110 miles away.
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The story of how weather forecasting impacted the Allies invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944.
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The World Health Organization reports that nation of Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to tropical cyclones, known as hurricanes near the United States, because of its location at the triangular shaped head of the Bay of Bengal, the sea-level geography of its coastal area, its high population density and the lack of coastal protection systems. During the pre-monsoon season in April and May or post-monsoon season in October and November, cyclones frequently hit the coastal regions of Bangladesh. About 40% of the total global storm surges are recorded in Bangladesh, and the deadliest cyclones in the past 50 years, in terms of deaths and casualties, are those that have struck Bangladesh. In 1965, just as the pre-monsoon season was winding down disaster struck the region. A tropical cyclone blasted northward and pushed a wall of water storm surge across the flat low lands of the region. Because the land only rises a few feet above sea levels for scores of miles inland, flood waters quickly inundate the region, sweeping away everything in their path and giving no quarter for people to escape, the result can be and has been a massive loss of life. On June 1, 1965 such a tropical system struck the region with a death toll estimated near 30,000.
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From 1900 until 1914 almost 100,000 passengers in ocean liners, crossed the Atlantic to Canada, mainly from Great Britain. The main port of entry and embarkation to and from Canada was Quebec City, on the St Lawrence River. Many of the ocean-going passenger ship were huge, not quite rivaling the Titanic, but able to transport almost 1,500 passengers back and forth across the Atlantic. On the morning of May 29, 1914, a thick river fog formed quickly on the surface of the St Lawrence and extending almost 100 feet in the air. River fog can form when the sun heats the air just above the surface of the river all day long. The air near the river becomes much cooler on clear nights especially in the spring because the water is still rather chilly from the winter season, so it condenses into a fog cloud. That happened on the morning of May 29 just as the Ocean Liner, Empress of Ireland steamed on the river. Visibility had rapidly decreased and it was hard to see other river traffic as it headed for the open sea. In short order it was struck another ship The Storstad. In this horrific maritime disaster, over a thousand passengers on route from Quebec to Liverpool were lost in just fifteen minutes—the length of time it took for the ocean liner to sink to the bottom of the Saint Lawrence River. There was a misunderstanding between the two captains about their respective ships’ positioning and direction, leading to the fatal collision. The Storstad hit The Empress of Ireland broadside, tearing a 350 square foot hole in her hull. With water pouring in at 60 gallons per second, the ship sank rapidly. Hundreds of sleeping passengers were trapped, and the second- and third-class passengers had much less of a chance at survival than the first-class passengers, as first class was higher up on the ship. Out of 1,477 passengers, only 465 survived. And out of 138 children that were on board, only four survived. Overshadowed by the breakout of World War I two months later, known as Canada’s Titanic, the tragedy of The Empress was almost swept under the rug. Today, The Empress of Ireland is accessible to divers, at only 130 feet below the surface. It has been visited by those experienced enough to dive in such cold temperatures hundreds of times since the ship’s rediscovery in the mid-1980s.
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The number of people killed by lightning in recent years is a far cry from annual lightning deaths decades ago. In the 1940s, for instance, hundreds of people were killed each year by lightning. In 1943 alone, 432 people died. The sharp drop in lightning deaths over the past 75 years " coincides with a shift in population from rural to urban regions," wrote meteorologist Ronald Holle in an article in the Journal of Applied Meteorology. In the 1940s, "there were many, many more small farmers who were out working in fields," which meant many more chances to be struck by lightning. In addition to better lightning safety awareness and medical advances, all phones were corded decades ago, leading to quite a few deaths due to people speaking on the phone. Additionally, there has been better lightning protection, suppression and grounding in electrical and phone lines. But on May 25, 1987 as a line of heavy thunderstorms crossed Louisiana a group of men fishing in Lake struggled to get to shore out of harm’s way as they approached the shore a man standing in a ski boat was struck and killed by lightning. News reports claim the man had said, "Here I am, come get me" when he was suddenly struck. 4 companions were not injured.
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