Hippie $hit or for real? Who cares as long as it snows…
From extreme drought, heat waves and floods to unprecedented tornado outbreaks, hurricanes, wildfires and winter storms. A record 12 weather and climate disasters in 2011 each caused $1 billion or more in damages — and most regrettably, loss of human lives and property. NOAA’s National Weather Service has redoubled its efforts to create a “Weather-Ready Nation”, where vulnerable communities are better prepared for extreme weather and other natural disasters.
Weather by the numbers in 2011:
3 million+: the number of residents who lost power during an unseasonably early nor’easter storm that spanned West Virginia to Maine (Oct 29-31).
-31 degrees F: the record low temperature reported in Nowata, Oklahoma, on February 10, 2011, which is the coldest temperature on record for the state!
343: the largest outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded (April 25-28), which left a deadly path of destruction from Alabama to Virginia.
199: the number of confirmed tornadoes across the Southeast on April 27, the most on record for any single day in the United States!
1 million+: the number of acres burned across just Texas, during a record wildfire season for the Southern Plains states.
3 billion: the potential cost (dollars) to rebuild Joplin, Mo., after it endured the single costliest tornado in U.S. history on May 22. It was the 7th deadliest tornado the U.S. has seen, with 158 lives lost.
-7.97: the value of the Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI) for Texas in September that indicated the most intense drought to affect the state in 117 year period of record.
300 percent: three times the amount of average precipitation (mainly rainfall) in the Ohio Valley that caused historic flooding along the Mississippi river.
19: the number of tropical storms in the Atlantic this year, the 3rd busiest season since record keeping began in 1851.
