September 12 Weather History

...1882... Hot and dry winds caused tree foliage in eastern Kansas to wither and crumble.

...1952... The high temperature at Newport, Rhode Island peaked at 87 degrees, setting the record high temperature for the date. It was later tied in 1961.

...1960... Hurricane Donna made landfall on central Long Island and tracked through New England. Wind gusts reached 140 mph at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, Massachusetts and 130 mph at Block Island, island. A wind gust of 81 miles per hour was observed at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the old record of 45 miles per hour set in 1950, with 1.19 inches of rain and the barometric pressure bottomed out at 28.66 inches, breaking the previous record of 29.54 inches set in 1900.  A record tide of 6.1 feet above normal was recorded at Battery in New York City. Macdowell Dam in New Hampshire recorded 7.25 inches of rain from the storm. Fortunately, the landfall did not correspond with the time of high tides. This was the first hurricane ever to affect every point along the Eastern Seaboard from Key West, Florida to Caribou, Maine.

...1967... At Newport, Rhode Island the low temperated dipped to 45 degrees, setting the record low temperature for the date. It was later tied in 1985.

...1977... Thunderstorms deluged the Kansas City area with torrential rains in the early morning hours, and then again that evening. Some places were deluged with more than six inches of rain twice that day, with up to 18 inches of rain reported at Independence MO. Flooding claimed the lives of 25 persons. The Country Club Plaza area was hardest hit. 2000 vehicles had to be towed following the storm, 150 of which had to be pulled out of Brush Creek, which runs through the Plaza area.

...1979... Hurricane Frederick smashed into the Mobile Bay area of Alabama packing 132 mph winds. Winds gusts to 145 mph were reported as the eye of the hurricane moved over Dauphin Island AL, just west of Mobile. Frederick produced a fifteen foot storm surge near the mouth of Mobile Bay. The hurricane was the costliest in U.S. history causing 2.3 billion dollars damage.

...1987... Showers and thunderstorms produced heavy rain which caused flooding in North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Parts of Virginia received 3 to 4 inches of rain in just two hours early in the day. Later in the day, three to five inch rains deluged Cumberland County of south central Pennsylvania. Evening thunderstorms produced seven inches of rain at Marysville PA, most of which fell in three hours time.

...1988... An afternoon tornado spawned a tornado which skipped across northern sections of Indianapolis IN damaging roofs and automobiles. It was the first tornado in central Indiana in September in nearly forty years of records. Hurricane Gilbert plowed across the island of Jamaica, and by the end of the day was headed for the Cayman Islands, packing winds of 125 mph.

...1989... Snow whitened the mountains and foothills of northeastern Colorado, with eight inches reported at Buckhorn Mountain, west of Fort Collins. Two to three inches fell around Denver, causing great havoc during the evening rush hour. Thunderstorms produced severe weather in the Southern Plains Region between mid afternoon and early the next morning. Thunderstorms produced hail three inches in diameter at Roswell NM, and wind gusts greater than 98 mph at Henryetta OK. Thunderstorms also produced torrential rains, with more than seven inches at Scotland TX, and more than six inches at Yukon OK.

...2004... The low humidity was a very dry 23 percent at Newport, Rhode Island, breaking the record of 34 percent set in 1984.

...2008... 10.31 inches of rain fell on Wichita, Kansas on this day for its greatest daily rainfall on record.

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