|
E. Linacre |
5/'00 |
The following are the officially accepted weather record in the USA (1).
|
variable |
extreme |
date |
location |
|
maximum temp |
56.7 ° C |
10 July 1913 |
Greenland Ranch, California |
|
minimum temp |
- 62.2 ° C |
23 January 1971 |
Prospect Creek, Alaska |
|
max change in 24 hrs |
55.6 K |
23-24 January 1916 |
Browning, Montana |
|
max 24-hr snowfall |
1.93 m |
14-15 April 1921 |
Silver Lake, Colorado |
|
max seasonal snowfall |
28.5 m |
1971-2 |
Paradise WS, Washington |
|
max actual snow depth |
11.4 m |
11 March 1911 |
Tamarack, California |
|
max rain in 24 hrs |
1.09 m |
25-6 July 1979 |
Alvin, Texas |
|
min annual rain |
zero |
1929 |
Death Valley, California |
|
max annual rain |
17.9 m |
1982 |
Kukui, Hawaii |
|
longest dry period |
767 days |
from 3 October 1912 |
Bagdad, California |
|
max wind gust |
103 m/s |
12 April 1934 |
Mt Washington, New Hampshire |
|
min pressure |
892.3 hPa |
2 September 1935 |
Matecumbe Key, Florida |
|
max pressure |
1078.6 hPa |
31 January 1969 |
Northway, Alaska |
There have been changes in the frequency of extreme values of temperature since the late 1940's at least (2). Throughout the USA on average the number of days with minima below freezing has fallen by almost 2 days per decade. Larger falls were observed in the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes regions, especially in spring. The warming accords with the extension of the frost-free period by almost 11 days each year in the northeastern states (3).
References
(1) Horvitz, A., M. Changery and A. Dutcher, 1999. The National Climate Extremes Committee. Preprints to the 11th Conf. on Appl. Climatol., Dallas, Texas (Amer. Meteor. Soc.), 185-6.
(2) Easterling, D.R., 1999. Variations and trends in extreme temperature events in the USA. Preprints to the 11th Conf. on Appl. Climatol., Dallas, Texas (Amer. Meteor. Soc.), 201.
(3) Cooter, E.J. and S.K. LeDuc, 1995. Recent frost date trends in the northeastern United States. Internat. J. Climatol., 15, 65-75.