...1778... A Rhode Island hurricane prevented an impending British-French sea battle, and caused extensive damage over southeast New England.

...1812... A tornado ripped a path from White Plains, New York to Greenwich, Connecticut. A description of it read: "it looked black as smoke of a furnace, having a circular motion."

...1933... The temperature at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley CA hit 127 degrees to establish a U.S. record for the month of August.

...1936... The temperature at Seymour TX hit 120 degrees to establish a state record.

...1944... The high temperature at Newport, Rhode Island soared to 92 degrees, breaking the old record of 90 degrees that was set back in 1896.

...1955... During the second week of August hurricanes Connie and Diane produced as much as 19 inches of rain in the northeastern U.S. forcing rivers from Virginia to Massachusetts into a high flood. Westfield MA was deluged with 18.15 inches of rain in 24 hours, Newport, Rhode Island recorded 2.97 inches of rain and at Woonsocket RI the Blackstone River swelled from seventy feet in width to a mile and a half. Connecticut and the Delaware Valley were hardest hit. Total damage in New England was 800 million dollars, and flooding claimed 187 lives.

...1968... The low temperature dipped to 51 degrees at Newport, Rhode Island on this day, breaking the previous record of 53 degrees set in 1954.

...1983... Two rainfall records were broken on this date at Newport, Rhode Island. The day total was 2.30 inches of rain, breaking the old record of 2.25 inches set in 1955 and .92 inches of rain fell in one hour, breaking that record of .60 set in 1980.

...1987... Early afternoon thunderstorms in Arizona produced 3.90 inches of rain in ninety minutes at Walnut National Monument (located east of Flagstaff), along with three inches of pea size hail, which had to be plowed off the roads.

...1988... Fifteen cities in the northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Youngstown OH reported twenty-six days of 90 degree weather for the year, a total equal to that for the entire decade of the 1970s.

...1989... Thunderstorms were scattered across nearly every state in the Union by late in the day. Thunderstorms produced wind gusts to 75 mph at Fergus Falls MN, and golf ball size hail and wind gusts to 60 mph at Black Creek WI. In the Chicago area, seven persons at a forest preserve in North Riverside were injured by lightning.

...2005... An F2 tornado stuck Wright, Wyoming, killing 2 and injuring 13.