My Top 10: Weather Events of 2011

[CrazyC83]

While a late bloomer could amend this list, it is a LONG one. What a destructive year! Big events don't even make the top 10 and many of these could be #1 in a quieter year! Here are my top 10 for 2011:

1 - April 25-28: Super Outbreak II destroys dozens of communities especially in the South, deadliest tornado outbreak in most of our lifetimes and largest ever recorded

2 - May 22-25: Much of Joplin destroyed by the deadliest single tornado in most of our lifetimes, followed by many other destructive tornadoes in another catastrophic outbreak

3 - Spring to fall: Record drought and wildfires in and around Texas burns communities and leaves agriculture in ruins

4 - April and May: Record flooding on the Mississippi River, fortunately levees hold in the major communities

5 - August 22-29: Hurricane Irene impacts over 75 million people from Puerto Rico to Florida and up to Maine, flooding in Vermont, upstate New York and New Jersey was catastrophic despite sparing the big cities

6 - January 31-February 3: Groundhog Day blizzard slams a large area with snow, ice and water damage and also shuts down Chicago

7 - June and July: More record flooding, this time in the Missouri River basin and especially in Minot, ND which goes under water from the Souris River

8 - October 28-31: Record early season snow from a pre-Halloween Nor'easter causes severe damage in the Northeast, power cut for over a week to some

9 - Early December: Impressive western high wind event causes significant damage in large areas, such as in Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California

10 - September 5-9: Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee drench the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, especially the Susquehanna River basin which sustains record flooding

Also mentionable: the other April tornado outbreaks, the summer heat wave, the rare severe tornadoes in New England on June 1, an impressive long-lived derecho in July

[CrazyC83]

Any thoughts of the list? 1 and 2 were hard to pick which should top it as both were once-in-a-lifetime events...

[vbhoutex]

Having lived through the heat wave here in Texas I know how severe it was. Tough to not include that in the top 10. However, the western wind event you mention doesn't even ring a bell with me. I suspect it may have been overshadowed in our area by coverage of wildfires. Overall a good list. Incidentally I am watching TWC-Weather by the Billions as I am typing this. I think they must have consulted with you based on what they are showing. Again, though with so many Billion+ disasters, it is hard not to have the same list.

[CrazyC83]

Having lived through the heat wave here in Texas I know how severe it was. Tough to not include that in the top 10. However, the western wind event you mention doesn't even ring a bell with me. I suspect it may have been overshadowed in our area by coverage of wildfires. Overall a good list. Incidentally I am watching TWC-Weather by the Billions as I am typing this. I think they must have consulted with you based on what they are showing. Again, though with so many Billion+ disasters, it is hard not to have the same list.

Yeah the drought and fires took that spot - I ranked that #3 (in many years, that would be #1). I tried to avoid duplication as much as possible, hence I left the other tornado outbreaks off the list, but gave the big ones the 1-2 spots (it was tough trying to pick which should be #1 but I felt the sheer size of the Super Outbreak overpowered the devastation of Joplin, and the outbreak killed more - but both were horrendous indeed and generational).

[CrazyC83]

In the end, there will likely be 14 to 16 billion dollar disasters. The 12 listed on TWC, plus the October snowstorm, Lee, a July severe weather event and the December western windstorm are all contenders as well.

[vbhoutex]

Iirc TWC said that there will probably be at least 2 or 3 more added in the final analysis. It sure wouldn't surprise me. 2011 has been a totally out of the box year weatherwise!!!

[AdamFirst]

I'd put Irene at #3 due to the sheer ridiculousness of the event

It's hard to explain but it's unlike any other storm I've remembered, in terms of how people reacted to it.

[angelwing]

Lee hit right after Irene here, it was a mess personally!

As for your list the top 2 would be a tie, both of those tornadoes to me at least were horrific! The flooding in ND was nasty too, the drought...gee the more I think about it they all were nasty

[CrazyC83]

Yeah I had to write an Also Mentionable this year given how nasty everything was! Notice only two months - March and November - are missing.

While severe weather and tornadoes were insane this year, there was a variety on that whole list: winter weather, droughts, heat, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, wind...

For comparison, last year's #1 (the Nashville flood) would likely be no higher than 4 or 5 this year.

[Cyclenall]

I ditto a lot of CrazyC83's list and the thoughts about how there were so many disasters that notable mentions are definitely needed. I planned to create a thread about the top 10 natural disasters of 2011 which would also include geographic events. Here is my list:

Top 10 Natural Disasters of 2011

As we all know, 2011 has been an insane year for natural disasters in which can only compare to 2005 IMO. There have been so many huge disasters I've almost lost track now that the year is over. There apparently have been over 12 multi-billion dollar disasters in the US alone, what year can boast this? So this thread is each of our top 10 natural disaster lists going from the most incredible (1) to least incredible (10):

1. United States Record Tornado Season 2011 (Includes the Joplin EF5 and the Modern Day Super Outbreak) - This was the most fascinating and absurd season for any weather type since the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season. It basically felt like Armageddon during the worst periods of it and some of the most memorable weather memories, so much amazing footage was captured during it that it encompasses the last 8 years of tornado footage. Just total mayhem and my interest and enthusiasm for tornadoes was completely restored and taken beyond. This tornado season will be studied and scrutinized for decades to come.

2. Tohoku Japan Earthquake and Tsunami - One of the worst natural disasters in modern times, this was mind-blogging in terms of damage and Tsunami aftermath. Japan's strongest recorded earthquake, it is the most expensive natural disaster yet at over $300 billion dollars and killed over 18,000 with thousands still missing (most likely dead)...all in a first world country. It's so bad that it turned Japan's economy in a downward slope for this year and had massive ripple effects. It spurred a nuclear disaster, gave 800+ aftershocks, and blanketed media coverage for at least a week. The footage recorded of the Tsunami is the most astounding ever captured (Even more-so then the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami), and the first time I believe footage of an ongoing tsunami was captured from a helicopter.

3. 2011 Texas Heatwave/Record Drought - Not much needs to be said about this, it pretty much speaks for itself. I can't imagine a summer that hot and having a drought that bad. It triggered the worst wildfires in Texas history as well.

4. Goderich Ontario F3 Tornado - I couldn't include this in the US one but such a surprise and shock...completely out of nowhere! It's like Canada's mini-Joplin this year...strong tornado hits downtown and just out of the blue. Killed 1 person, and the damage total is crazy; 75-100 million dollars!! This would be one of Canada's most damaging tornadoes of all time if it holds.

5. Worldwide Flooding (In Total) - One of the worst years ever that I have seen overall for flooding, start to finish. So many countries experienced catastrophic flooding such as Canada, US, Australia, Thailand, Pakistan (continuing from last year), Brazil, and literately dozens of others.

6. July 2011 North American Heatwave and Summer - Not as long a summer as last year (for me) but just as hot if not even more-so. That signature heatwave in late July was probably the worst one I've ever been through, peaking for me on July 21 as one of the hottest days in many years being compared to 2 others in the last 110 years. As for North America as a whole, a complete heat dome just baked 100s of millions of people and creating insane heat index/humidex values unlike what I have personally seen in tracking weather.

7. Hurricane Irene - While IMO not an absolutely incredible TC, very big and damaging causing around $10 billion in damage and affecting the New England area. It was a monster in terms of size and scope. Caused catastrophic effects in Vermont and caused one of the largest power outages in US weather history (correct me if I'm wrong on that).

8. New Zealand Christchurch February Earthquake - The death toll was the real shocker here. Over 140 dead and a city devastated. I didn't see it coming.

9. New England 5.8M August Earthquake - Another totally out of the blue earthquake and just days before Hurricane Irene's arrival. The strongest in the area in a long time; affected a huge number of people.

10. North American Groundhog Day Blizzard - The worst winter event of the year (in NA), this caused the largest snowfall around my parts of Ontario while creating historic conditions outside of Chicago and states surrounding it. It had pretty much everything and even gave London Ontario an "official" blizzard warning which hasn't happened since the early 90s for anywhere in southern Ontario.

This isn't even all the insane events for the year, there must have been at least 100 more that have been pretty bad.