Wind

On the surface of the Earth, the wind is the lateral movement of its atmosphere.

By W.carter - Own work, 

Although modified by features such as land and water, there is a basic worldwide wind system. A belt of low pressure (the doldrums) lies along the Equator. The trade winds blow towards this from the horse latitudes (high pressure areas about 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south of the Equator), blowing from the north east in the northern hemisphere, and from the south east in the southern hemisphere.

Short bursts of fast winds are called gusts. Strong winds that go on for about one minute are called squalls. Winds that go on for a long time are called many different things, such as breeze, gale, hurricane, and typhoon.

A gale force wind is a wind blowing between 39 to 54 miles per hour. A wind blowing from 4 to 31mph is a breeze.

FAMOUS WINDS

The trade winds are the prevailing pattern of easterly surface winds found in the tropics, within the lower portion of the Earth's atmosphere. They occur in the lower section of the troposphere near the Earth's equator. The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere. They blow from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. They are stronger during the winter and when the Arctic oscillation is in its warm phase.

The monsoon is a seasonal wind of South Asia, blowing from the southwest between April and October to bring the rain on which crops depends, and from the northeast in winter.

Ratangrad, India monsoon

A föhn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. Central Europe enjoys a warmer climate due to the Föhn, as moist winds off the Mediterranean Sea blow over the Alps.

Chinook winds are dry warm föhn winds in the interior West of North America, where the Canadian Prairies and Great Plains meet various mountain ranges. After blowing in from the Pacific and being forced to rise over the mountains, the moisture in the air is condensed and falls out as precipitation. After losing its moisture, the dried air then descends on the leeward side of the mountains, warming at the dry adiabatic rate of 10 °C / 1000 m (5.5 °F / 1000 ft).

The Santa Anna is a periodic warm wind from the inland deserts that strikes the California coast.

The dry northerly mistral, which strikes the Mediterranean area of France, is an unpleasantly cold wind.

The doldrums is a wind-free area around the Equator where sailing ships used to get stuck for weeks. Hence the phrase 'in the doldrums'.

In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or particles from the sun through space.

HISTORY

Today you only really need to remember four names (North, East, South, West) to get around, but ancient Greeks and Romans had to memorize twelve different wind names to orient themselves.

On November 26, 1703, high winds and torrential rain swept across eastern England. The 80 mph hurricane decimated villages, killing between 8,000 and 15,000 people. Ships were blown hundreds of miles off-course, and over 1,000 seamen died on the Goodwin Sands alone. Homes were destroyed and animals drowned in flood water, News bulletins of casualties and damage were sold all over England – a novelty at that time.

When Sir Francis Beaufort designed his scale of wind strength in 1805, it was based on the effect of wind on the sails of a frigate. His 13 categories of wind strength ranged from "just sufficient to give steerage" to "that which no canvas sails could withstand".

The wind scale is now: 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane), with five more levels for tropical cyclones.

The first house in the world to have its electricity supplied by wind power was in Kincardineshire, Scotland in 1887.

Wind farm

RECORDS

The strongest surface wind gust ever recorded not in a tornado was 408 km/h; 253 mph on April 10 1996 on Barrow Island, Australia during the passage of Tropical Cyclone Olivia. The winds were over three times as fast as those in most hurricanes.

The strongest ever surface wind gust in the Northern Hemisphere not in a tornado was measured at 231 mph on the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, United States, on April 12, 1934.

A Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth (301 ±20 mph, or 484 ±32 km/h) in a tornado near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma on May 3, 1999.

The highest verified gust of wind in the United Kingdom was 173mph, on March 20, 1986, in the Cairngorms.

The strongest winds found on any planet in our solar system are found on Neptune. Wind speeds there reach up to 1,500 miles per hour (2,400 kilometers per hour).

FUN WIND FACTS 

A device to measure wind speed is called an anemometer (from 'anemos' the Greek for wind). In Greek mythology, the anemoi were four wind gods, causing wind from the four compass points.

Chill temperature is an index that indicates how cold the air feels to the human body, taking into account both the air temperature and wind speed. The current formula for Wind Chill, implemented in 2001, is based on the assumption of a person walking into a wind at a speed of 5.0 km/h (3.1 mph) with a bare face, facing the wind in an open field. This formula corrects the officially measured wind speed to the wind speed at face height. 

Wind is not normally colder than the air around you. Your body heats a thin film of air around you that keeps you warm. Wind moves it and cools you down.

Weathervanes point to where the wind is coming FROM, not the direction it’s blowing.

Over four per cent of the world's energy production now comes from wind power.

Wind is essential for trees to reach maturity. The stress from wind allows trees to grow stronger, and without wind, a tree will eventually collapse under its own weight.

Wellington boot

The Wellington boot is a waterproof rubber boot that loosely covers the calves. They are commonly used for a range of agricultural and outdoors pursuits.

Sailing boot. By Helmardine

The Wellington boot is associated with Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, (the Iron Duke). In 1817, the Duke of Wellington instructed his shoemaker, Hoby of St James Street, London to modify his Hessian 18th century boots so that they fitted more closely around the leg. He also instructed that they be hard-wearing for riding, yet smart enough for informal evening wear. The result was a boot made in calfskin leather with the trim removed and cut to fit more closely around the leg. The heels were low cut and the boot stopped at mid-calf.

Wellingtons first appeared in 1817 and proved popular with the British troops because they were hard wearing for battle yet comfortable for evening wear.

The boot leather was treated with wax to make them softer and more waterproof.

The new boots became a very popular fashion accessory for British gentlemen such as the renowned dandy George "Beau" Brummell. Considered fashionable and foppish in the best circles, they remained the main fashion for men throughout the 1840's

Wellington is one of the two British Prime Ministers to have given his name to an item of clothing, the other being Sir Anthony Eden after whom the Anthony Eden hat is named.

On a sea voyage the vessel in which Wellington was in encountered a violent storm and seemed about to sink. The captain came to Wellington's cabin at dusk and said, "It will soon be all over with us." Wellington about to go to bed said, "Very well, then I shall not take off my boots."

The Duke of Wellington at Waterloo. By James Lonsdale portrayed wearing tasselled Hessian boots

In 1844 American chemist Charles Goodyear invented the modern chemical process to create and manufacture pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber, which was to be of great importance for vehicle tires. Eight years later American industrialist Hiram Hutchinson met Charles Goodyear and acquired patent rights to the vulcanisation of rubber from him.

Hutchinson moved to France where he applied the new rubber vulcanisation process to the production of Wellington boots. In a country where 95% of the population were working on fields with wooden clogs, the introduction of the wholly waterproof, Wellington-type rubber boot was an instant success: farmers would be able to come back home with clean, dry feet. The name Wellington boot subsequently became associated with these waterproof rubber footwear rather than the leather boots.

In 1856, the Scotland-based North British Rubber Company (known today by the brand name Hunter Boots) began manufacturing rubber Wellington rain boots. Production of their waterproof boot was dramatically boosted with the advent of World War I and a requirement for footwear suitable for the conditions in Europe's flooded and muddy trenches. The North British Rubber Company produced a total of 1,185,036 pairs of Wellington boots to meet the British Army's demands.

Wellingtons were originally only available in one color: black. Other colors didn’t appear until 1955, the year Hunter Boots introduced green boots. In 1980, sales of their green wellies skyrocketed after Lady Diana Spencer (future Princess Diana) was pictured wearing a pair on the Balmoral estate during her courtship with Prince Charles.

In Australia and New Zealand wellies are called “gumboots” is a nod to the natural rubber that rain boots are made from. Natural rubber, which is obtained from trees, is called "gum rubber."

In North America, Wellingtons are usually called rubber boots, but sometimes galoshes, mud boots, rain boots, mucking boots, billy boots, or gum-boots.

A pair of Hunter 'Original Tall' Wellington boots.By Jan

Sources Historyofboots, Farmersalmanac

Weather forecasting

A weather forecast is a prediction of what the weather will be in the future.

In the mid 19th Century, the belief persisted that weather was completely unpredictable. When one MP suggested in the House of Commons in 1854 that recent advances in scientific theory might soon allow them to know the weather in London "twenty-four hours beforehand", the House roared with laughter.

Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (July 5, 1805 – April 30, 1865) is best known as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous 1831-36 voyage to the Pacific. However, he is also the man who invented the weather forecast. Fitzroy's second career started in 1854  when he was appointed chief of a new department within the UK Board of Trade to deal with the collection of weather data at sea as a service to mariners.

Between 1855 and 1860, 7,402 ships were wrecked off the UK coasts with a total of 7,201 lost lives. FitzRoy believed that with forewarning, many of these could have been saved.

A storm in 1859 that caused the loss of the Royal Charter gold ship off Anglesey inspired FitzRoy to develop charts to allow predictions to be made, which he called "forecasting the weather", thus coining the term "weather forecast".

The Royal Charter sank in an 1859 storm, stimulating the establishment of modern weather forecasting

Fitzroy established fifteen land stations to use the telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times leading to the first gale warning service. His warning service for shipping was initiated in February 1861.

For years the British public had read quack weather prognostications in almanacs, but this was the first time that predictions had been sanctioned by government. These first official daily weather forecasts were originally published in The Times in 1861. They were syndicated in titles across Britain and soon became hugely popular.

Weather map of Europe, December 10, 1887.

In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) made its first official meteorological forecast in 1870.

From 1887 up until 1948, U.S. weather forecasters were forbidden from attempting to predict tornadoes due to hysteria.

In 1948, meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City issued the world's first tornado forecast after noticing conditions similar to another tornado that had struck five days earlier.

During World War II, weather reports were censored to prevent enemy submarines from learning about conditions. A football game in Chicago was so covered in fog that the radio announcer couldn't see the field, but afterwards he was officially thanked for never using the word "fog" or mentioning the weather.

Several days of bad weather had made aircraft reconnaissance impossible for the Allies planned landing in Normandy on June 5, 1944. Capt. James Martin Stag, President Eisenhower's Chief Meteorologist forecast a break in the weather for June 6th when the seas were calmer. Stag's defiant decision to delay D-Day from June 5th to June 6th was dubbed "The most important weather forecast of all time".

RAF weather forecaster George Cowling was the BBC's first television weatherman. He gave the first televised weather broadcast from the BBC's Lime Grove Studios, at 7.55pm on January 11, 1954. Cowling stood in front of the weather map and informed the viewing public that "tomorrow would be rather windy, a good day to hang out the washing".

Cowling continued to present televised weather broadcasts for the BBC until 1957 when he rejoined the RAF. His main tools were pencils - and an eraser - for analysing the charts and a pair of dividers for measuring isobar spacing to give wind speeds.

American television meteorologist Dick Goddard joined the weather team at WJW-TV, the Fox Broadcasting Company-affiliated television station in Cleveland, Ohio in 1965. He gave his first televised weather forecast on September 13, 1965 and would spend the rest of his career there. On September 19, 2016 Goddard was certified by The Guinness Book of World Records as having had the longest career of any weather forecaster.

A woman in Haifa sued Israel's Channel 2, along with weather forecaster Danny Rup, in small claims court. He predicted a sunny day, causing her to go out lightly dressed - and when it turned stormy, she caught the flu, missed four days’ work, spent $38 on medication, and suffered stress. The case was settled out of cоurt for $1000, and the weatherman apologized to her.

Moscow weathermen can be fined for inaccurate weather forecasting.

Source BBC

Weather

Weather is the day-to-day variations of metrological and climatic conditions at a particular place.

Pixabay

HISTORY

Thales of Miletus, a Greek philosopher over 200 years before Aristotle, thought that weather was caused by the movement of stars and planets.

The first treatise on meteorology was written by Aristotle in 340BC.

A mini ice age gripped Europe between the mid-1400s and the mid-1800s. The coldest years were between 1645 and 1715.

Winter landscape with iceskaters, c. 1608, Hendrick Avercamp

On May 19, 1780 a combination of thick smoke, fog, and heavy cloud cover caused darkness to fall on parts of Canada and the New England area of the United States by noon.

US president Ulysses S. Grant signed on February 9, 1870 a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service).

Abbott Lawrence Rotch established the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in 1885, which maintains the longest-running meteorological record of any observation site in the United States.

The first use of the term “heatwave” for a period of hot weather was in New York in 1913.

Soviet meteorologist Pavel Molchanov launched in 1930 one of the world's first radiosondes, a device attached to weather balloons to measure various atmospheric parameters.

RECORDS 

For 90 years, the highest temperature ever recorded in the shade was 57.8C (136F) in Al-ʿAzīzīyah, Libya, on September 13, 1922.  In January 2012, the WMO decertified the 1922 record, citing persuasive evidence that it was a faulty reading recorded in error by an inexperienced observer.

With the 1913 record decertified, the highest established recorded temperature on Earth is 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) on July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California on July 10, 2013.

The highest temperature ever recorded in the United Kingdom –  40.3 °C (104.5 °F) - was recorded at Coningsby, Lincolnshire on July 19, 2022. The record-breaking heat wave in the UK was caused by a combination of factors, including a high-pressure system that brought hot air from the Sahara Desert and a lack of cloud cover that allowed the sun to beat down on the ground. 

The world's lowest temperature was recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica on July 21, 1983 at -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F).

The lowest ever temperature in North America is −63.0 °C (−81.4 °F). It was measured at Snag, Yukon, Canada on February 3, 1947. This small village is located near the Alaska border, and it is known for its harsh climate.  Local accounts from that day describe the air as so dry and cold that a person's breath would hiss as it froze, and a dog's bark could be heard from several miles away due to the increased density of the frigid air.

A record high barometric pressure of 1094.3 hPa (32.31 inHg) was recorded at Tsetsen-Uul, Mongolia on was recorded at December 29, 2020. This broke the previous record of 1089.1 hPa set in Tosontsengel, Mongolia, in 2004. For comparison, the average atmospheric pressure at sea level is around 1,013 hPa (29.92 inHg). 

The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure of 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip on October 12, 1979.

Yuma, Arizona is the sunniest place in the world. It experiences an average of 4,015 hours of sunshine per year.

On May 3, 1999 the Bridge Creek–Moore tornado devastated southern portions of Oklahoma City. It was an extraordinarily powerful F5 tornado during which a Doppler on Wheels team measured the fastest winds recorded on Earth (301 ± 20 mph, or 484 ± 32 km/h) near Bridge Creek, Oklahoma.

Bridge Creek Tornado By Erin D. Maxwell

The strongest planetary winds discovered so far are on the extrasolar planet HD 189733 b, which is thought to have easterly winds moving at more than 9,600 kilometres per hour (6,000 mph).

1 kilogram (2.2 lb) hailstones fell on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh on April 14, 1986, killing 92. These are the heaviest hailstones ever recorded.

FUN WEATHER FACTS

The patron saint against bad weather is St Medard who according to legend was once sheltered from the rain by a hovering eagle.

The patron saints for good weather are St Clare of Assisi and St Agricola of Avignon.

Changing another country's weather is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention of 1976.

Every two to five years the sea water temperature rises in surface waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The event is called El Niño meaning "The Christ Child". Fishermen in South America named the unique weather after observing that it came around Christmas time.

Here is a list of songs with weather conditions in the title.

Umbrella

An umbrella is a portable hand canopy that is used by people as protection against rain. When used to make shade and protect a person from sunlight it usually is called a parasol or sunshade.

Pixabay

HISTORY

The umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. Named after the Latin umbra, meaning shade, the umbrella started life in Mesopotamia as a sunshade.

Rain-proof umbrellas made of treated paper popped up in China about 1,700 years ago.

In ancient times, umbrellas were used to denote wealth and rank, with the King of Siam carrying one with multiple tiers each decorated with tassels.

The audience chamber of the king of Siam was furnished with three umbrellas - and nothing else.

Few people could afford an umbrella in ancient times. The kings prided themselves to own one or, luckier still, several, such as the ruler of the Upper Burma-based kingdom Ava. who signed himself as "The King of the White Elephants and Lord of 24 Umbrellas."

Umbrellas were held by bearers in ancient times to protect important persons. They were not only costly, but heavy, and special servants, mostly slaves, carried them. For some of these umbrella-carriers, their only duty was to shelter their master from the sun.

There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Assyria, China and Egypt. Ancient pictorial representation shows dignitaries, kings and priests, being accompanied by their umbrella-carriers.

The oldest reference to a collapsible umbrella in written records dates to the year 21 AD, when Wang Mang had one designed for a ceremonial four-wheeled carriage.

A Terracotta Army carriage with an umbrella from Qin Shihuang's tomb, c. 210 BC

In ancient Greece and Rome, the umbrella was regarded as effeminate. Men rarely used one.

Europe eventually adopted the umbrella in late medieval times, though for a considerable period it remained a guard against the sun only, and was reserved for the rich and noble. That is how Papal Rome came to use it, and even horsemen in the Italy of the Renaissance. By the late 16th century, the use of umbrellas were a mark of distinction for pope and clergy in Italy.

It appears that people in medieval and renaissance depended on cloaks, not umbrellas, for protection against storms.

A French merchant debuted Europe's first lightweight folding umbrella in 1710. Jean Marius, whose shop was located near the barrier of Saint-Honoré in Paris, received from King Louis XIV the exclusive right to produce folding umbrellas for five years on January 1, 1710. A model was purchased by the Princess Palatine in 1712, and she enthused about it to her aristocratic friends, making it an essential fashion item for Parisiennes.

Parisians in the rain with umbrellas, by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1803)

By the mid-18th century, Technical advance and the invention of cheaper material in the 17th century made the umbrella available to everybody. The traditional leather was replaced by lighter cloths, of which silk became most popular. Whalebone was used for the ribs and the umbrella became so light that the owner could carry it himself.

The use of the umbrella or parasol (though not unknown) was uncommon in England during the first part of the eighteenth century, It was reasoned that only those who could not afford a carriage needed umbrellas. Thus, to carry one immediately stamped its owner as a man of little means.

It was philanthropist Jonas Hanway ( August 12, 1712 – September 5, 1786)), the founder of the Magdalen Hospital, who became the first Englishman to display an umbrella as part of a city "uniform" in around 1750. He had to suffer ridicule by carrying one habitually in London, suitably fortified against the inclement English climate. Worse still, he angered sedan-chair men and hackney coachmen, who deemed it their monopoly to protect people from rain. They saw a threat to their livelihood in the new contraption. But in spite of all their abuse, Hanway continued to carry his "guard from chilly showers." A memorial to the merchant can be found in Westminster Abbey.

Portrait of Jonas Hanway by James Northcote, circa 1785.

Only when Hanway's example was followed by one of Britain's famous dandies, Beau Macdonald, did the umbrella at last catch on in England. Though he, too, at first was subjected to ignominy. He relates that in 1770, he used to be addressed as, "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you call a coach?" whenever he went out with his umbrella. Macdonald's own sister refused to be seen with him in public.

Improvements reduced the umbrella's weight and added to the efficiency of its mechanism. Metal replaced the whalebone and in 1851 British industrialist Samuel Fox and his company Fox Umbrella Frames Ltd developed the "Paragon" umbrella frame, a U section of string steel, The new design gave the umbrella even less weight and more strength and Samuel Fox large profits. By the mid-19th people in the 19th century were commonly carrying umbrellas for personal use.

People used the umbrella as a sunshade as well. To protect the skin from sunburn was then presumed to be essential for health, and a pale face was looked upon as dignified and attractive.

A parasol depicted in Morning Walk, by John Singer Sargent (1888)

The word umbrella was first seen in English in 1611. The abbreviation “brolly” arrived in 1873.

By the 1920s as a protection against rain, the umbrella had resumed its initial role of a status symbol in England. To carry it over one's arm, neatly rolled, came to symbolize the English gentleman.

The story is told that when Adolf Hitler saw Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain alight from his airplane fortified in Munich with an umbrella in September 1938, he sneered loudly. A nation whose leader was so much concerned with protecting himself from rain, at a time when the existence of whole countries was in the balance, must lack power of resistance, he reasoned.

During the 1944 Battle Of Arnhem Bridge, Major Digby Tatham-Warter, a British major who brought an umbrella into battle, used it to stop an armored vehicle by poking the driver's eye and saving a chaplain. When a fellow soldier complained about it, he answered "oh my goodness, but what if it rains?"

Up until November 2019,  male Marines in the U.S. were prohibited from using umbrellas while in uniform. It was a long-standing tradition  that often left them getting soaked in the rain. This policy sparked some amusement as female Marines were always allowed to carry umbrellas with them. In November 2019, that finally changed. Commandant General David Berger announced a series of uniform regulation updates, including allowing male Marines to carry small black umbrellas with their service or dress uniforms during bad weather.

FUN UMBRELLA FACTS

National Umbrella Day is held on February 10th each year around the world. While the origins of the utilitarian holiday remain a mystery, it’s been celebrated since at least 2004.

The average life span of an umbrella is one-and-a-half years.

80,000 umbrellas are lost each year on the London Underground.

The Umbrella Cover Museum at Peaks Island, Maine, USA has over 2,000 umbrella covers from 66 countries. And there is an Umbrella and Parasol Museum with more than 1,000 exhibits in Gignese, Italy.

The ‘beerbrella’, comprising a small umbrella designed to shield a glass of beer from the sun, was patented in the US in 2003.

The slang term “gamp” for umbrella came from Mrs Sarah Gamp in Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit.

Sources Daily Express, The Independent, Europress Encyclopedia

Tornado

A tornado is an extremely violent revolving storm, caused by a rising column of warm air propelled by strong wind.

Pixiebay

The United States is the global epicenter of tornado formation with an average of 1,200 each year. It’s the result of a unique geography that allows hot, dry air from the Southwest to flow atop moist, warm, unstable surface air east of the Rocky Mountains, with cold air at the jet-stream level overtopping it all.

Tornadoes moving at speeds of up to 400 kilometers per hour/250 mph are common in the Mississippi basin of the USA and cause great destruction.

FAMOUS TORNADOES IN HISTORY

On October 17, 1091 a tornado hit London, demolishing 600 houses and William the Conqueror's newly built bridge. The tornado is mentioned in chronicles by Florence of Worcester and William of Malmesbury, the latter describing it as "a great spectacle for those watching from afar, but a terrifying experience for those standing near". Wind speeds of up to 240 mph are thought to have hit the city, causing widespread damage.

After the British set fire to Washington D.C. during the War Of 1812, a tornado appeared out of nowhere and put out the fire our saving the city.

The Tri-State Tornado of Wednesday, March 18, 1925 was the deadliest tornado in United States history inflicting 695 fatalities. The 151 to 235 mi (243 to 378 km) track left by the tornado was the longest ever recorded in the world as it crossed from southeastern Missouri, through southern Illinois, then into southwestern Indiana. 

Track of the Tri-state tornado

When the deadliest tornado touched down in Missouri, people were taken by surprise. This was because the word 'tornado' had been banned from US weather forecasts since the late 19th century due to hysteria. This mentality shifted after the tornado killed 695 ill-prepared residents.

In 1948, meteorologists at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City issued the world's first tornado forecast after noticing conditions similar to another tornado that had struck five days earlier.

One of the worst recorded tornado outbreaks in U.S. history was the April 3–4, 1974 Super Outbreak. It produced 148 tornadoes in 13 states and Canada, including 30 "violent" tornadoes, rated F5 on the Fujita scale. The outbreak killed 315 people and injured 5,484. The most destructive tornado was an F5 that struck Xenia, Ohio, killing 34 people and injuring 1,150. The outbreak also caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage.

During the tornado outbreak of 1974, forecasters in Indiana, frustrated because they could not keep up with all of the simultaneous tornado activity, put the entire state under a blanket tornado warning. This was the only time in U.S. history that an entire state was under a tornado warning. 

The 1974 Super Outbreak was the result of a combination of factors, including a strong jet stream, warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, and cold air from Canada. 

The deadliest tornado in world history struck the Manikganj district in Central Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. The tornado was estimated to be an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of up to 200 mph. 

The tornado touched down near Daulatpur and traveled east, eventually striking the town of Saturia. It caused widespread destruction, killing an estimated 1,300 people and injuring more than 12,000. The tornado also destroyed or damaged more than 100,000 homes and left an estimated 80,000 people homeless. 

The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City was devastated by an F5 tornado on May 3, 1999, killing 36 people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado was one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. This tornado also produced the highest wind speed ever recorded, measured at 301 +/- 20 mph (484 +/- 32 km/h). 

A tornado near Anadarko, Oklahoma, on May 3

Britain's costliest tornado struck Birmingham on July 28, 2005, injuring 39 people and causing £40 million of damage across the city.

American Matt Suter holds the record for surviving the longest distance in a tornado. Knocked unconscious by a twister in 2006, he came to 1,307ft (398m) away — the length of four football pitches — with only minor injuries.

The 2011 Super Outbreak was the worst recorded tornado outbreak in U.S. history. Between April 25–28, 2011 a record 208 tornadoes touched down in the Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern United States killing 346 people and leaving catastrophic destruction in its wake. 

On April 27, 2011, a powerful storm system swept across the southeastern United States, spawning a massive outbreak of tornadoes that caused widespread destruction. In total, 317 people were killed in the storms, making it the deadliest single day for tornadoes in U.S. history since the "Tri-State" outbreak in 1925, which killed at least 747 people. 

The official record for the widest tornado is 2.6 miles (4.2 km), which was set by the El Reno tornado on May 31, 2013, in Oklahoma. For perspective, a tornado 2.6 miles wide is roughly the distance of 46 football fields placed side by side. The tornado was part of a larger supercell thunderstorm that produced several other tornadoes, including one that was rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. The El Reno tornado was responsible for the deaths of 10 people, including three storm chasers.

FUN TORNADO FACTS

If you see a tornado and it is not moving side to side, this is a strong indication that it is moving directly towards you.

The inside of a tornado is filled with blue lightning, and many little tornadoes. The air is smooth, not turbulent, but hard to breath.

An hour-long, 8-mile-high tornado could produce nearly enough electricity from wind to power 20 American households for a year.

Three out of every four tornadoes in the world happen in the United States. It averaged 1,274 per year in the last decade while Canada reports nearly 100 annually.

The Netherlands has the highest average number of recorded tornadoes per area of any country (more than 20 annually), but most are small and cause minor damage.

Superheated plasma tornadoes near the sun's surface hit speeds of up to 190.000 miles per hour.

Thunderstorm

Thunder is the sound we hear from the sonic wave caused by the expansion of air that has been rapidly heated by lightning.

Pixiebay New York

The Norse God of Thunder, Thor, was also god of strength, agriculture, farmers, free men, rain and fertility. Thunder was supposedly created by the rolling wheels of his chariot, which was drawn by two goats called Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder.

In France in 1033 there was a mass panic that the one thousandth anniversary of the death and resurrection of Christ would result in the end of the world. Fears were heightened when terrific thunderstorms destroyed the crops in the spring resulting in widespread famine. Many people made public spectacles of repentance and many more embarked on pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

One hot July day in 1505, returning from his parents' home during a thunderstorm, Martin Luther was nearly struck by lightning. Frightened, he cried "help me St Anne and I will become a monk." To the surprise of his friends Luther joined the Augustian Hermits. He went on to study theology and ancient languages before starting the Protestant Reformation.

Benjamin Franklin's groundbreaking explorations of electricity included flying a kite with a metal key tied to the end of the string in a thunderstorm and collecting a charge in a Leyden jar when it was struck by lightning. From this he invented the pointed lightning rod conductor.

Benjamin West, English (born America) - Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity From the Sky

The hymn "Rock of Ages" was written by the Anglican curate, Reverend Augustus Toplady, after taking a walk at Burrington Combe, a steep limestone valley with many caves. A mighty thunderstorm blew up and the curate found an opening in an immense granite rock, in which he sheltered from the storm. This inspired the imagery of Christ in the hymn as a sheltering rock.

On July 26, 1959, Lt. Col William Rankin was on a high-altitude flight along the Carolina Coast with his wingman, Navy Lt. Herbert Nolan when he was forced to eject from his F-8 Crusader at 40,000 feet, into a thunderstorm. Rankin encountered very low temperatures, frostbite, massive wind and lightning, severe decompression, and nearly drowned from breathing in rain water, but survived. Overall, he was in the cloud for more than 40 minutes.

The Canadian city of Montreal was hit by a series of thunderstorms between the noon hour and 2:30 pm on July 14, 1987. Over 100 millimeters (3.9 in) of rain fell during this very short period of time, resulting in The Montreal Flood of 1987.

An average of 44,000 thunderstorms take place every day on our planet — with an around 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere at any one moment.

Pixiebay

The most thundery place on Earth is said to be Tororo, Uganda, where it thunders 251 days a year.

The sound of thunder travels about 1,100 feet per second.

Fear of thunder is called 'brontophobia.' 

Thunderstorms have been known to curdle milk.

Source Daily Express

Thermometer

A thermometer is an instrument used to measure temperature. 

Galilei Galileo built the first thermoscope in the late sixteenth century. A primitive gas thermometer, the thermoscope used a well known principal that air expands as it is heated. He used water in a thin glass tube with a bulb on top with markings etched on to the glass tube.

Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670), devised the first sealed thermometer in 1654 dependent on the expansion of a liquid, and independent of air pressure. It was the forerunner of the common mercury thermometers of today.

These 1600's thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury. Apparently they were accurate enough. 

The picture below shows fifty-degree thermometers from the mid-17th century on exhibit at the Museo Galileo with black dots representing single degrees and white represented 10-degree increments; used to measure atmospheric temperatures. 

By Museo Galileo - Own work

In 1714 Dutch scientist and inventor Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed the first sealed-in-glass thermometer, using mercury instead of alcohol and water mixtures. He discovered a method for cleaning mercury so that it would not stick to a glass tube, which enabled him to use this element rather than alcohol, which gave less accurate results.

Fahrenheit also devised a method for measuring temperature, which is named after him.

On May 19, 1743 French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin published the design of a mercury thermometer with the centigrade scale, with 0 representing the freezing point of water and 100 its boiling point.

Thermometer of Lyon (1743). By Science Museum of London 

English physician Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (1836 – 1925) is generally considered the model for the Middlemarch character Dr Lydgate. Allbutt is best known for reducing the then foot long thermometer to a more manageable size. 

Ethanol, a flammable, colorless chemical compound, is the active fluid in modern (post-mercury) thermometers. It is also one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic drinks, a solvent, an antiseptic and a fuel.

Another type is a digital thermometer, which uses electronics to measure temperature.

The world's smallest thermometer, which is 20,000 times smaller than a hair, is made of DNA, and is used to see temperature changes in cells.

The original purpose of the hood ornament on a car, before they were artistic and ornate, was a visible thermometer for the motor vehicle's coolant.

Temperature

Temperature is a physical quantity expressing how hot or cold something is. To measure temperature more accurately, a thermometer can be used.

Pixabay

HISTORY

In 1714 A Dutch-German-Polish physicist, Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed the mercury thermometer, the first sealed thermometer. Ten years he introduced the first temperature scale.

In the original Fahrenheit scale, the lower defining point, 0 °F, was established as the temperature of a solution of brine made from equal parts of ice, salt and water. Further limits were established as the melting point of ice (32 °F) and his estimate of the average human body temperature by placing the thermometer under the arm or in the mouth (96 °F, about 2.6 °F less than the modern value).

When Swedish scientist Anders Celsius first proposed the scale of temperatures named after him on December 25, 1741 zero was the boiling point of water and 100 its freezing point.

Celsius' suggestion of the freezing and boiling points of water as thermometer fixed reference points became popular and these fixed points (by now reversed from Celsius' original proposals) were adopted in the UK by a committee of the Royal Society led by Henry Cavendish in 1776.

Side-by-side diagrams of centigrade and fahrenheit thermometers

For scientific use, "Celsius" is the term usually used, with "centigrade" remaining in decreasing use in English-speaking countries. It was not until February 1985 that the weather forecasts issued by the BBC switched from "centigrade" to "Celsius."

By the end of the 20th century, Fahrenheit was used as the official temperature scale only in the United States (including its unincorporated territories), its freely associated states in the Western Pacific, the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands and Liberia. All other countries in the world now use the Celsius scale,

RECORDS

The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F;) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983.

The coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth is the Siberian village of Oymyakon (pop. 4000) in Russia, where Winter temperatures average -58. The temperature reached -68°C (-90°F) in 1933 (the coldest ever recorded outside Antarctica).

Children are still allowed to go school in Oymyakon if it is warmer than −55.0 °C (−67.0 °F).

The coldest temperature ever recorded in North America belongs to Alaska, at a bone-chilling -89.4°F (-67.8°C). This record was set on February 3, 1971, at Prospect Creek, a remote weather station located north of the Brooks Range.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in the contiguous United States (the 48 states excluding Alaska and Hawaii) is a chilling -70°F (-56.6°C). This extreme coldness was measured at Rogers Pass, Montana on January 20, 1954.

The greatest recorded change in temperature within a 24-hour period occurred in Loma, Montana on January 14-15, 1972, when a downslope chinook wind event caused the temperature to rise from -54°F at 9 am on January 14th to 49°F by 8 am the next day. This resulted in a temperature swing of 103°F (57.2°C)."

In Spearfish, South Dakota on January 22, 1943 at 7:30 am, it was -4 °F (−20 °C), then two minutes later, the temperature rose up to 45 °F (7 °C). This is the fastest temperature change ever.

The highest temperature ever recorded on the surface of the Earth is 56.7°C (134.1°F), which was recorded on July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California. This reading is the official record recognized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

However, there is another reading of 58°C (136.4°F) that was recorded on September 13, 1922, at El Azizia, Libya. This reading was not officially recognized by the WMO due to concerns about the accuracy of the measurement methods used.

The hottest place in the universe is a cluster of galaxies called RXJ1347; it was discovered in 2009 by the Japanese telescope Suzaku and has a constant temperature of 300 million Celsius degrees. Theoretically, 150°C (302°F) is the cut-off point for life—proteins fall apart and chemical reactions can't occur at that temperature.

The hottest known thing in the known universe is actually on Earth: the Large Hadron Collider can reach temperatures of 4 trillion Kelvin.

In 2012 scientists at the Hadron Collider formed a quark-gluon plasma and subsequently recorded the hottest temperature created by man, 5.5 trillion degrees celsius. The team smashed together lead ions at 99% light speed to create quark gluon plasma–a state of matter that filled the universe after the Big Bang.

Swedish skier Anna Bagenholm survived the lowest body temperature ever recorded at 56.7 F (13.7 C). She had been skiing in Norway's Kjolen Mountains when she fell through a frozen stream and became stuck for 80 minutes. Despite being clinically dead, she made a full recovery.

FUN TEMPERATURE FACTS 

The temperature in the shade is the actual air temperature. A thermometer in the sun will be inaccurate because the device absorbs the heat.

When he was president, Lyndon B. Johnson constantly asked the flight crew of Air Force One to change the temperature of the cabin. Eventually, they installed a fake control knob for him to 'control' the temperature himself. Johnson stopped complaining.

The temperature on the moon at the Apollo 11 landing site was 200ºF (93ºC).

According to a study in 2011, we are happiest when the temperature is 13.9C (57F).

The average temperature of a bee hive and the human body are the same.

At least one animal can survive cold approaching absolute zero - the tardigrade. Also known as the water bear, this microscopic being has been shown to be able to survive being frozen for several minutes at a mere 1 degree above absolute zero.