December 15 Weather History

...1839... The first of triple storms hit Massachusetts Bay. The storm produced whole gales, and more than 20 inches of snow in interior New England. There was great loss of life at Gloucester MA.

...1893... 7.1 inches of snow fell at Newport, Rhode Island, setting the record high for the date.

...1901... An intense cold front swept across the eastern U.S. The cold front produced heavy rain in Louisiana, and heavy snow in the northeastern U.S.

...1945... A record December snowstorm buried Buffalo NY under 36.6 inches of snow, with unofficial totals south of the city ranging up to 70 inches. Travel was brought to a halt by the storm. (14th-17th)

...1953... A wind gust of 53 miles per hour was recorded at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 42 miles per hour set in 1951.

 ...1987... A major winter storm hit the Great Lakes Region, intensifying explosively as it crossed northern Illinois. High winds and heavy snow created blizzard conditions in southeastern Wisconsin. Winds gusted to 73 mph, and snowfall totals ranged up to 17 inches at LaFarge. The barometric pressure at Chicago IL dropped three quarters of an inch in six hours to 28.96 inches, a record low reading for December. Up to a foot of snow blanketed northern Illinois, and winds in the Chicago area gusted to 75 mph. O'Hare Airport in Chicago was closed for several hours, for only the fourth time in twenty years. High winds derailed train cars at Avon IN. Light winds and partly sunny skies were reported near the center of the storm, a feature typical of tropical storms.

...1988... High pressure in the Pacific Northwest and low pressure in the southwestern U.S. combined to produced high winds from Utah to California. Winds gusting to 70 mph in the San Francisco area left nearly 300,000 residents without electricity. Winds in Utah gusted to 105 mph at Centerville.

...1989... A couple of low pressure systems spread heavy snow across the northeastern U.S. Up to two feet of snow was reported along Lake Erie in northeastern Ohio, and up to ten inches was reported in Connecticut. Heavy snow squalls developed over Michigan for the third day in a row. Three Oaks MI reported 25 inches of snow in two days. Twenty-six cities in the north central U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. The low of 10 degrees below zero at Wichita KS was a December record for that location.

...1991... Snow squalls unloaded heavy snow over the Tug Hill Plateau in New York east of Lake Ontario. 44 inches fell at High market and 30 inches piled up at Boonville. Snowfall rates of 6 to 8 inches per hour were reported at Boonville.

...2005... Freezing rain and ice pellets fell throughout portions of the southeast U.S. The accumulation of ice caused about 683,000 utilities customers to lose power from northern Georgia northward through the western Carolinas. The power outages were the result of ice accretions of up to three-quarter inch in thickness. The ice storm was blamed for at least four deaths

...2009... Valdez, Alaska was buried under 38.7 inches of snow on this day for its greatest 24 hour December snowfall on record. The three day storm dumped 68.2 inches of snow for its second greatest snowstorm on record.

...2010... A winter storm swept across parts of the Southeast U.S., bringing a mixed bag of snow, sleet, and freezing rain, making for treacherous travel conditions. At least eight people were killed in Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina in weather-related traffic fatalities. Schools were forced to close and thousands of residents lost power in North Carolina and Virginia. The winter storm also impacted Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington D.C.

...2015... Another daily high temperature record was set in December 2015 at Newport, Rhode Island with a temperature of 61 degrees. This broke the record of 58 degrees that was set back in 2008 and 2001.

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