July 10, 1913, Death Valley earned its name. The temperature soared to 134°. This was the all-time heat record for the Western Hemisphere.
In 1930, five German pilots ejected from their plane in the middle of a thundercloud. Like ice crystals they were bounced around, up and down, and became the center of hailstones. They were coated with layers of ice. When they became heavy enough, they fell to earth. Only one man survived. Lesson to be learned - Don't parachute into a thundercloud!
How big can hail get? The current record is 1.67 pounds and 17 inches in circumference. It fell near Coffeyville, Kansas. Hail can reach the size of grapefruit. It is remarkable that there have been only two recorded deaths from falling hail in the U.S. in this century.
While tornadoes are fairly rare everywhere else in the world, the United States typically experiences 800 to 1,000 or more twisters per year. They have been seen in every state and every month of the year. In 1974 there were 90 in just one day.
Some people are too "attractive". On July 29, 1986, a man was installing drywall in his home in Berne, NY. He was struck and injured by lightning. This was the fourth time in nine years!
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Weather Drama in Real Life
On May 22, 1987, in the small Texas town of Saragosa, 350 Spanish speaking people only had minutes to prepare for a killer tornado. At 8:01 PM warnings were seen on TV screens and someone went through town honking the car horn. The problem was that many in the small town were inside Saragosa Hall, the town community center, proudly watching their kindergartners at a graduation ceremony. They had no idea of the threatening weather outside. Fortunately, a father who was late to the ceremony arrived at the community center around 8:12 and noticed a huge approaching twister in his rear view mirror. He raced inside screaming, "Tornado". Within minutes tables were pushed against the walls and the little children were put under them. Elia Estrada, the sheriff's wife, gave the following description.
"It started to rain real hard, and the windows blew out. Rain and broken glass were flying around. The walls began to break and the
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roof caved in, and the hail was coming down on top of us"
When the sheriff and deputy arrived at the town, they saw what used to be Main Street with the tornado pulling away from it. In a matter of only a few minutes, the multiple-vortex "killer" tornado wielded three funnels, killed 31 people and injured 121 others. There was damage to l87 houses, 23 mobile homes, 7 businesses, a church, and the community center totaling $8.7 million. The half mile wide tornado cut a three mile long path of destruction through Saragosa's middle. Of the 80 people attending the kindergarten graduation, 22 perished. Amazingly none of the children died. It was a miracle when they only had 90 seconds of warning. Many more would have been killed had they not been in the town's most solid structure.
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--Excerpt taken from "Nature on the Rampage" by H.J. DeBlij
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