Arizona, commonly thought of as being “desert country”, occasionally registers the daily low temperature for the U.S.  (A good portion of northern Arizona is high country and it does get cold there…)  Arizona has also occasionally simultaneously registered both the high and low daily temperatures for the U.S.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

Apparently the stormiest county in the United States – at least from 2001 – 2005 – was Pima County (Tucson area), Arizona.  It recorded a high of 404 storm warnings from the National Weather Service.  San Bernardino County in California came in second with a measly 320 warnings.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

Even though Florida is billed as “The Sunshine State”, Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas actually have more sunny days.  By the way, the “sunniest city” in the U.S. is Yuma, Arizona.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

The highest wind speed ever recorded in a hurricane was 234 mph.  This was measured at 4,500 feet altitude in Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

The coldest place in the U.S. with a yearly average temperature of 9 degrees F is Barrow, Alaska.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

The single coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States was minus 79.8 degrees F at Prospect Creek, Alaska on January 23, 1971.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-weather-extremes.htm

The driest place on earth would have to be Arica, Chile with a 59 year average yearly rainfall of less than .03 inches.  There was one 14 year period when it didn’t rain at all.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001431.html

Marble Bar in Western Australia holds the world record for the longest period of temperatures of 100 degrees F or greater – 162 days recorded in the summer of 1923 – 24.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001431.html

Alaska has seen one 100 degree temperature day.  That was June 27, 1915 in Fort Yukon.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001416.html

It did dip below zero once in Florida.  It dropped to a freeze-the-bones minus 2 degrees F in Tallahassee on February 13, 1899.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0113527.html

Hawaii’s coldest temperature was reached May 17, 1979 on top of Mount Kea.  It hit 12 degrees F – yes, that’s above zero.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0113527.html

The worst avalanche in U.S. history occurred on March 1, 1910 in the Cascade Range near Wellington, Washington.  It swept two trains off the tracks and killed 96 people.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001440.html

The United States began naming hurricanes after women in 1953.  Men’s names were included in the official lists in 1979.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml

In case you hadn’t noticed, men’s and women’s names alternate on the hurricane names lists.  Since there are six lists of names, these lists repeat (with an occasional modification) every six years.  (Sorry Fiona, you’re not scheduled again until 2010.)

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

Names of very deadly or costly hurricanes are retired.  In 2005, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma were retired.  2005 was a tough year…

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/retirednames.shtml

Virga is streaks of rain falling from a cloud but not reaching the ground.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ddc/?n=glossary

Pouch looking clouds – or “biscuits” – hanging under a thunderstorm cloud are known as “mammatus”.  I think that means they look like boobies.  They don’t produce bad weather.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ddc/?n=glossary

“Scuds” or scud clouds are ragged-looking cloud fragments that have been torn or blown away from the main thunderstorm cloud.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ddc/?n=glossary

The largest hailstone recorded in the U.S. measured 7 inches in diameter and fell in Aurora, NE on June 23, 2003.  The heaviest hailstone weighed 1.65 pounds and fell in Coffeyville, KS on September 3, 1970.

http://www.ucar.edu/research/storms/hail.shtml

World-wide, there are more than 3 million lightening flashes every day (a combination of both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes).  That’s more than 30 flashes every second!

http://www.ucar.edu/research/storms/lightning.shtml

The U.S. records an average of 20 million cloud-to-ground lightening flashes each year.

http://www.ucar.edu/research/storms/lightning.shtml

The United States leads the world in the production of tornadoes with more than 1,000 touching down every year.

http://www.ucar.edu/research/storms/tornadoes.shtml

The most snowfall ever recorded in the US was at Mt. Baker, WA during the 1998-99 season with a total of 1,140 inches.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s253.htm

Contrary to what you might have read, Niagara Falls – and specifically, Horseshoe Falls - has never frozen completely solid – there is just too much water flowing to permit that to happen.  Apparently the only natural reduction in flow (March 29, 1848) was caused by a major ice jam at the mouth of the Niagara River at Lake Erie.

However… because of the normally lower water flow combined with ice jams, the American Falls have frozen 6 times since folks began recording these types of things.

http://www.iaw.com/~falls/faq.html

The highest temperature ever recorded was 135.9 degrees F in El Azizia, Libya on September 13, 1922.  Death Valley, California comes in second with 134 degrees.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001375.html

The lowest temperature ever recorded was minus 129 degrees F in Vostok, Antarctica on July 21, 1983.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001375.html

The highest peak wind gust ever recorded was 231mph on Mt. Washington in April of 1934.

http://www.mountwashington.org/bigwind/

Cherrapunji, India has received as much as 87 feet of rain in one year.  Stateside – Holt, Missouri once got bombarded with 12 inches of rain in just 42 minutes.  Whew…

http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/has/notables.shtml#top

Tornados have occurred in the US in all 50 states.

http://www.anticyclone.com/tornados/tornados.html

Additional info on tornados…

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/

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