February 5 Weather History

...1788... E. Stiles wrote "one of the coldest days in New England in 70 years".

...1887... San Francisco experienced its greatest snowstorm of record. Nearly four inches was reported in downtown San Francisco, and the western hills of the city received seven inches. Excited crowds went on a snowball throwing rampage.

...1918... The all time coldest day was tied on this date at Newport, Rhode Island (tied with December 30, 1917)  The day high temperature only rose to 5 degrees, the low temperature dipped to 6 degrees below zero and the mean temperature was only 2 degrees below zero. 

...1920... 14.9 inches of snow fell at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 6.6 inches set in 1907.

...1961... The snow depth of 28 inches was recorded at Newport Rhode Island, breaking the record of 26 inches set back in 1898.

...1976... Sacramento, California had a rare accumulating snowfall. 2 inches fell.

...1986... A super cell thunderstorm tracked through the Tomball area northwest of Houston, Texas and produced 4 tornadoes along with damaging microburst winds and up to tennis ball size hail. An F3 tornado killed 2 people, injured 80, and devastated a mobile home park and the David Wayne Hooks Airport. 300 aircraft were either damaged or destroyed. Much of the larger hail was propelled by 60 to 80 mph winds, resulting in widespread moderate damage. Total damage from this storm was about 80 million dollars.

...1987... Thunderstorms in the Southern Plains Region caused flooding in parts of south central Texas. Del Rio TX was soaked with two inches of rain in two hours prior to sunrise.

...1988... Cold and snow invaded the southern U.S. Roswell NM was buried under 16.5 inches of snow in 24 hours, an all-time record for that location. Parts of the Central Gulf Coast Region reported their first significant snow in fifteen years. Strong winds in Minnesota and the Dakotas produced wind chill readings as cold as 75 degrees below zero.

...1989... Severe cold gripped much of the nation. Thirty cities reported new record low temperatures for the date. Morning lows of 9 above at Astoria OR and 27 below zero at Ely NV were records for February. In Alaska, Point Barrow warmed to 24 degrees above zero, and Nome reached 30 degrees.

...1990... For the second time in two days, and the third time in a week, high winds plagued the northwestern U.S. Winds in Oregon gusted to 60 mph at Cape Disappointment, and wind gusts in Washington State reached 67 mph at Bellingham. The first in a series of cold fronts began to produce heavy snow in the mountains of Washington and Oregon. Ten inches of snow fell at Timberline OR.

...1995... The barometric pressure fell to 28.82 inches at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 29.10 inches, set in 1977.

...1996... The Great Arctic Outbreak of '96 began to wind down, but not before one more frigid morning. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina dropped to zero degrees for its coldest February temperature on record. Lakeland and Orlando, Florida recorded subfreezing temperatures with 24 and 26 degrees, respectively. 10 below zero at Lynchburg, Virginia tied its all-time record low. Some of the coldest temperatures in 20 years for southern New England were experienced. Shrewsbury, Massachusetts recorded 23 below and Willimantic, Connecticut fell to 22 below. Rhode Island set its state low temperature record with a 25 below reading at Greene. From January 30th to February 6th, 375 daily record low temperatures were set across the U.S.

...1997... A wind gust of 55 miles per hour was recorded at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 54 miles per hour that was set back in 1907.

...1998... Louisville, Kentucky was in the middle of a three day snowstorm over which time 22.4 inches of snow fell on the city -- its greatest snowstorm ever. The same record was set at Cincinnati, Ohio with 18.3 inches falling.

...2006... The deadliest round of tornadoes in nearly a quarter century kill 58 people in the south. The storms kill 32 people in Tennessee, 14 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and five in Alabama. Damage is likely to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

...2008... The "Super Tuesday" outbreak of tornadoes occurred over the lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. 87 tornadoes occurred with five EF4 tornadoes. There were 57 fatalities, making this the deadliest U.S. tornado outbreak in nearly 23 years. An EF4 tornado tracked 122 miles through Yell, Pope, Conway, Van Buren, Stone, Izard, and Sharp Counties in Arkansas, killing 12, injuring 140, and $119 million in damages. An EF3 tornado tracked 51 miles through Sumner, Trousdale, and Macon Counties in Tennessee, Monroe and Cumberland, Kentucky, killing 22 and injuring 63. Union University in Jackson, Tennessee took a direct hit from another EF4 tornado with $40 million in damages done to the campus.

...2010... A mega-snowstorm, which President Obama dubbed Snowmageddon, buried the Washington D.C. area with more than 30 inches of snow in some areas. At American University in Washington the official snowfall was 27.5 inches. Snowfall totals in the Washington DC area range from a low of 17.9 inches at Ronald Reagan National Airport to 40 inches in the northern suburb of Colesville, MD. Dulles Airport reported 32.4 inches, which established a new two-day snowfall record. The Baltimore-Washington International Airport, MD, measured 24.8 inches from the storm breaking the record for the largest two day snowfall there. It is one of the worst blizzards in the city's history.

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