Portal:Weather/On this day list/May

May 1

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2010: Record flooding began in Tennessee, eventually killing 16 people.

May 2

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2009: An avalanche killed six hikers in Sölden, Austria.

1986: The GOES-G weather satellite, intended to replace the GOES 5 whose main imaging instrument had failed, was destroyed when the Delta 3914 rocket intended to deliver it failed to reach orbit due to an electrical fault.

May 4

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2007: A three-day tornado outbreak featuring more than 100 tornadoes began across a large area of the Central United States. One tornado destroyed 95% of the town of Greensburg, Kansas, and was the first tornado ever rated EF5.

May 5

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1950: Known locally as "Black Friday", heavy precipitation caused the already swollen Red River to breach several dikes, causing disastrous flooding in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

May 6

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1975: An F4 tornado struck Omaha, Nebraska, causing more than $1 billion (1975 USD) in damage.

May 7

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1840: The Great Natchez Tornado struck Natchez, Mississippi, killing at least 317 people.

May 8

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1995: More than 20 inches (510 mm) of rain in just 12 hours caused major flooding in southern Louisiana, causing more than $1 billion in damage.

May 9

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2007: Subtropical Storm Andrea formed off the coast of Florida, causing high winds which contributed to major brush fires.

May 10

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1996: The film Twister was released.

May 11

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1953: An F5 tornado destroyed areas of downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114 people.

May 12

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1948: A Douglas DC-4 crashed while flying into a thunderstorm near Libenge, Congo, killing 31 of the 32 aboard.

May 13

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1980: A strong tornado devastated downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan.

May 14

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1991: The NOAA-12 weather satellite was launched into a polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

1896: The first tornado of a deadly sequence of tornado outbreaks killed 73 people in North-Central Texas.

May 16

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2004: Typhoon Nida reached category 5 intensity just east of the Philippines.

May 17

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1896: A tornado outbreak killed dozens in Kansas and Nebraska.

May 18

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1986: Cyclone Namu, the worst tropical cyclone ever to affect the Solomon Islands, killed 150 people as it passed through the island nation.

May 19

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2018: Cyclone Sagar struck northwestern Somalia, killing 56 people in three countries. It was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to strike Somalia.

May 20

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2010: Cyclone Laila made landfall in Andhra Pradesh, India, killing 65 people.

May 21

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1953: A deadly tornado killed 2 people in Port Huron, Michigan, and crossed the St. Clair River into Canada where it killed 4 more people in Sarnia, Ontario.

May 22

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1981: The GOES 5 weather satellite was launched. Part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program, GOES 5 would provide weather forecasting data to the United States until its main imaging instrument failed in 1984.

May 23

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1917: Edward Lorenz, meteorologist and original founder of the field of chaos theory, was born in West Hartford, Connecticut.

May 24

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2001: A tropical cyclone reached peak intensity in the northern Indian Ocean with a central pressure of 932 millibars (27.52 inHg). At the time it was the strongest tropical cyclone on record in that region, and would eventually kill hundreds upon landfall in the Saurashtra region of India.

May 25

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2004: A week of flooding and landslides on Hispaniola came to an end, leaving around 2,000 people dead.

May 26

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1972: Subtropical Storm Alpha reached peak intensity east of Savannah, Georgia, where it would make landfall the next day.

May 27

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1997: The Jarrell tornado completely wiped out the Double Creek Estates, killing 27 of 131 residents.

May 28

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1941: After searching for several hours, the German weather ship Sachsenwald recovered two survivors from the sinking of the battleship Bismarck

May 29

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2008: Tropical Storm Alma formed just off the coast of Costa Rica at 86.5º W, the easternmost Pacific tropical cyclone on record. Alma was also the only known tropical cyclone to strike the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

May 30

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1959: Tropical Storm Arlene made landfall near Lafayette, Louisiana, bringing more than 10 inches (25 cm) of rain to parts of the northern Gulf Coast of the United States.

May 31

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2013: The widest tornado ever recorded struck the area near El Reno, Oklahoma, killing 8 people, including renowned tornado researcher Tim Samaras.