...1898... Fort Smith, Arkansas was hit by an F4 tornado. 55 people were killed and 113 were injured. A Fort Smith street sign was carried for 22 miles.
...1918... A tremendous blizzard completely immobilized the Midwest, stopping mail service for two weeks. The vast storm then moved through the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Valley. Winds reached 60 mph at Toledo OH, and the temperature plunged from 28 above to 15 below zero during passage of the cold front.
...1927... 7.8 inches of snow fell at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the old record of 0.7 inches set in 1894.
...1942... Rhode Island's record low temperature of 23 degrees below zero was set at Kingston.
...1951... An F2 tornado struck Los Gatos and Sunnyvale, California, causing $1.5 million in damage. Another F2 tornado moved through San Jose, California and did $50,000 in damage
...1972... Down slope winds hit the eastern slopes of the Rockies in northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. Boulder CO reported wind gusts to 143 mph and twenty-five million dollars property damage.
...1980... Warm Chinook winds developed along the east slopes of the Rocky Mountains causing the temperature at Great Falls, Montana to rise from 32 degrees below zero to 15 degrees above zero in just 7 minutes.
...1982... A frigid high was centered over Oklahoma and Texas. The zero degree line was all the way to central Alabama and Georgia. Atlanta, Georgia recorded 5 degrees below zero and Birmingham, Alabama shivered at 2 below. The freezing line was all the way into central Florida. Pensacola was 8 degrees and Orlando recorded 32 degrees. 34 stations recorded new record lows and Buffalo, New York was buried under 28 inches of snow from snow squalls -- 25.3 inches in 24 hours set new 24 hour record (until 1995).
...1982... It was a super cold day at Newport, Rhode Island as the daytime maximum temperature only climbed to 11 degrees, breaking the record of 13 degrees set in 1899; the low temperature dipped to 1 degree that day.
...1987... The low barometric pressure fell to 28.80 inches at Newport, Rhode Island setting the record for the date; the previous record was 29.01 inches et in 1983. A storm in the northeastern U.S. buried the mountains of central Vermont with up to 26 inches of snow, and snowfall totals in Maine ranged up to 27 inches at Telos Lake. Winds gusted to 45 mph at Newark NJ and Albany NY. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
...1988... Snow and high winds in Utah resulted in a fifty car pile-up along Interstate 15. Winds in Wyoming gusted to 115 mph at Rendezvous Peak.
...1989... A cold front which the previous day produced 21 inches of snow at Stampede Pass WA and wind gusts to 75 mph at Mammoth Lakes CA, spread snow across Colorado. Totals in Colorado ranged up to 17 inches at Steamboat Springs.
...1990... Strong northwesterly winds associated with a deep low pressure system crossing the Upper Great Lakes Region ushered cold air into the central U.S. Winds gusted to 72 mph at Fort Dodge IA, and wind gusts reached 75 mph at Yankton SD. Snow and high winds created blizzard conditions in northwestern Minnesota. Squalls produced heavy snow in parts of Upper Michigan and northern Lower Michigan, with 16 inches reported at Wakefield.
...1991... The high barometric reading reached 30.93 inches at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 30.81 set back in 1930.
...2005... Big snows occurred in the Sierra Nevada area. Farewell Gap, California recorded 152.5 inches of snow in a five day period starting on the 7th. For the 15 day period starting back on December 28th, Reno, Nevada checked in with 81.0 inches. -Opid's Camp, California measured 31.25 inches of rain in an 108 hour period. Since December 26th, the site picked up an amazing 51.77 inches of rain.