Portal:Weather/On this day list/April

April 1

[edit]

1945: The Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai, India, was formed.

April 2

[edit]

2000: Cyclone Hudah made landfall near Antalaha, Madagascar, killing 111 people.

April 3

[edit]

1974: The Super Outbreak, one of the most severe tornado outbreaks in world history, spawned 148 tornadoes, including 30 violent tornadoes, in the east-central United States and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. More than 300 people were killed, and $3.5 billion (2005 USD) in damage was reported.

April 4

[edit]

1929: Severe floods began in parts of Tasmania, eventually killing 22 people.

April 5

[edit]

1972: An unusual tornado tracked from Oregon to Washington, killing 6 people.

April 6

[edit]

2020: Cyclone Harold, one of the strongest tropical cyclones in history to strike Vanuatu, made landfall on Espiritu Santo with 10-minute maximum sustained winds of 115 knots (215 km/h; 130 mph).

April 7

[edit]

1922: The first mid-air collision of airliners in history occurred over Picardie, France, due to thick fog.

April 8

[edit]

1984: Cyclone Kamisy, the worst tropical cyclone to affect northern Madagascar since 1911, reached peak intensity as it approached the island, with wind gusts as high as 250 kilometres per hour (160 mph).

April 9

[edit]

1947: A tornado or series of tornadoes plowed through several towns in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, killing 181 people.

April 10

[edit]

1996: A wind gust of 408 kilometres per hour (254 mph) was measured by a weather station on Barrow Island, Western Australia, as Cyclone Olivia made landfall. As of 2020 this remains the highest wind gust ever reliably measured.

April 11

[edit]

1965: The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak, one of the worst in history, produced 78 tornadoes and killed almost 300 people in the American Midwest.

April 12

[edit]

1934: A wind gust of 231 miles per hour (372 km/h) was measured at the Mount Washington Observatory atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire. At the time, this was the fastest wind speed ever recorded, and it remains the fastest surface wind speed ever measured outside of a tropical cyclone.

April 13

[edit]

1994: The GOES 8 weather satellite was launched. Part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program, GOES 8 would provide weather forecasting data to the United States until its retirement in 2004.

April 14

[edit]

1999: A severe hailstorm, the costliest disaster in Australian history, dropped hail stones 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter across the Sydney area. The storm caused more than A$ 2 billion in damage and injured 50 people.

April 15

[edit]

1927: In New Orleans, 15 inches (380 mm) of rain fell in 18 hours, worsening an already historic flood and leading to the fateful (and ultimately unnecessary) decision to intentionally breach a levee south of the city.

April 16

[edit]

2011: The final day of a three-day tornado outbreak brought dozens of tornadoes to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States, killing 26 people.

April 17

[edit]

1979: Flooding along the Pearl River in Jackson, Mississippi crested at 43.28 feet (13.19 m), exceeding the previous record by more than 5 feet (1.5 m).

April 18

[edit]

2014: An avalanche killed 16 Sherpa guides working on Mount Everest.

April 19

[edit]

2000: Cyclone Rosita, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever to strike the Kimberley region of Western Australia, reached Category 5 intensity (Australian scale), making landfall just after midnight near Broome.

April 20

[edit]

1967: The ESSA-5 weather satellite was launched.

April 21

[edit]

1965: A devastating tornado outbreak killed 58 people near Chicago.

April 22: Earth Day

[edit]

2011: A nighttime tornado, caused major damage in parts of St. Louis, Missouri, including Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, but amazingly caused no deaths and few injuries.

April 23

[edit]

1792: John Thomas Romney Robinson, inventor of the cup-anemometer, was born in Dublin, Ireland.

April 24

[edit]

1908: One of the deadliest tornadoes in US history killed at least 143 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.

April 25

[edit]

2014: An outbreak of 11 tornadoes struck North Carolina, damaging more than 300 homes and killing one person.

April 26

[edit]

1998: Cyclone Alan which had been impacting French Polynesia with several days of strong winds and heavy rain that killed 10 people, dissipated west of Tahiti.

April 27

[edit]

2011: The deadliest American tornado outbreak in 76 years killed more than 300 people in the Southern United States.

April 28

[edit]

1983: The GOES 6 weather satellite was launched. Part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program, GOES 6 would provide weather forecasting data to the United States until its main imaging instrument failed in 1989.

April 29

[edit]

1991: The second-deadliest tropical cyclone in world history struck the Chittagong area of Bangladesh, killing at least 138,000 people.

1924: Dozens of deadly tornadoes killed 111 people across the Southeastern United States, including one F4 tornado which killed 53 people in South Carolina over a 105-mile (169 km) path.