Across the U.S. in 2012, we saw the hottest July on record. For some locations in the nation’s heartland, July was the hottest month since regular weather records began in 1880. Over the entire year, there were an astounding 70,000 local heat records established in 356 places in 34 states. Overall, 2012 was the 8th hottest year on record in the U.S. July averaged 77.7 degrees.
The worst drought since the infamous ‘Dust Bowl Days’ of the 1930s destroyed approximately 25 percent of the 2012 corn crop in the U.S. Crop losses in wheat and soybeans were less, but still were extensive, especially west of the Mississippi River in the torrid Great Plains.
As far as tornadoes were concerned in 2012, a record number occurred during the first three months between January and March. Oddly, by extreme comparison, the April through December nine-month period saw the fewest ‘twisters’ nationwide in recorded history. There were a record 35 ‘rare’ Christmas tornadoes, this week in the Carolinas.
Speaking of ‘wild extremes,’ the Mississippi River at New Madrid, Missouri crested at an all-time record high level of 62 feet on May 6, 2011 causing extensive Midwest flooding in the lowlands.
Less than 16 months later, however, on August 30, 2012 during the parching drought, the river at the same New Madrid location dropped to just 9 feet, the all-time lowest level since at least he 1880s, an enormous drop of 53 feet from one year to the next. Barges had to travel single-file this past autumn from St. Louis to New Orleans greatly reducing the shipments of corn, soybeans and other various crops.
A violent summer windstorm called a ‘derecho’ left millions without power in the Mid-Atlantic states. Later in late November just after Thanksgiving, more than two feet of rain in 48 hours caused extensive flooding in parts of Northern California as the Russian, the Napa and the Truckee Rivers went over their banks. One station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains gauged a whopping ten feet of snow in late November and early December. Big snows also crippled the Upper Midwest shortly before Christmas. Little Rock, Arkansas picked up 9 inches of snow on Christmas Day, a new record. This storm also brought freezing temperatures on December 28 to northern Florida.
The year’s biggest U.S. weather story during 2012 was HURRICANE SANDY along the Atlantic Coastline. This killer storm flooded nearly 1,000 miles and took the lives of hundreds of people, most of the victims in hard-hit New York and New Jersey. Images of New Jersey’s devastated shoreline captivated the nation’s headlines for weeks after Superstorm Sandy.
Briefly, as far as the rest of the world was concerned weatherwise in 2012, the year began with an extremely harsh winter season in Europe that killed more than 800 people. Rare snows closed schools in Rome, Italy. The canals in Venice to the north froze for the first time in more than 200 years.
The snowcover in the Northern Hemisphere on January 24, 2012 from China and Japan across Alaska, which ad its snowiest winter in 50 years, through Europe and western Asia was the most extensive on record.
In late December, just before Christmas, parts of Russia dipped to -55 to -60 degrees setting all-time record low readings. Elephants were given Vodka to keep from freezing at the zoo in Moscow.
As far as summer ice was concerned in the northern Arctic regions, including Greenland, the total area of ice shrank in early September to its lowest level on record since at least 1979.
Ironically, near the South Pole in Antarctica, the total icepack increased to its highest mark since 1979, one wide ‘extreme’ to the other in early September.
Widespread drought and record heat destroyed at least 20 percent of Russia’s 2012 wheat crop. Corn, wheat and other crops were hard-hit by extreme dryness in eastern Europe, the Ukraine and parts of the Former Soviet Union during the blistering summer of 2012.
Again by extreme comparison, record floods swamped parts of Africa, Columbia, China, Pakistan and Australia in 2012. More than 36 inches of rain in less than 48 hours killed hundreds of people in late November in the Philippines. The rare late autumn Super Typhoon named ‘Bopha’ had winds exceeding 200 miles per hour and caused billions of dollars in damage.
The year 2012 will go into the record books as the most catastrophic single 12-month period globally in recent history. The property loss total in the U.S. alone in 2012 may exceed $50 billion, far greater than the $14 billion in losses in 2011.
Remember, folks, the current period weatherwise is the most EXTREME worldwide in at least 1,000 years, since the days of Leif Ericsson. And, the worst is yet to come.
