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The Year Without A Summer
The eruption of mount Tambora on Sumbawa island in the Indian Ocean spewed massive amounts of volcanic ash and aersols into the atmosphere. 60,000 people on the immediate islands were killed. The event gets its name from the following year. A shroud of the ash settled across the Earth, partially blocking the sun. This and cold winds from the north allowed frost to form in the United States during the summer. Many countries suffered crop loss and famine including parts of Europe and eastern U.S. -
Peshtigo Wisconsin Fire
A forest fire spread by a firestorm in Wisconsin. There were 2,500 estimated deaths making it the deadliest fire in United States history. The fire burned 1.2 million acres of land and destroyed 12 communities. There were also reports of a fire whirl that threw railcars and picked up houses. -
Galveston Texas Hurricane
The 1900 Galveston hurricane was rated a cagegory 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It is the deadliest and costliest hurricane to affect the United States and the overall deadliest disaster in the U.S. An estimated 8,000 - 12,000 people were killed (20% of the Galveston population) and 30.000 were left homeless. -
China Floods
The deadliest natural disaster ever recorded occured in 1931 in various areas of China. China suffered a heavy winter in 1930 followed by a spring thaw of the enormous snow fall. The already high river levels were increased by torrential rainfall from 9 cyclones. The resulting floods killed an estimated 4,000,000 people in the Yangtze and Huai river areas with the rivers high water mark 53 feet above normal levels. -
Iran Blizzard
A week of low temperatures and high snowfall led to a total of 10 feet of snow. This combined with prior snowfall to a total of 26 feet of snow. Over 4000 people were buried alive and died. The snow covered entire villages and towns making the area look like one large snowdrift from above. This is the deadliest blizzard in recorded history. -
Wheatland Pennsylvania Tornado
An F5 tornado crossed the Ohio border into Wheatland Pennsylvania. The half mile wide tornado continued into Hermitage and then Greenfield before dissipating. The tornado destroyed 86 homes, an airfield and 2 steel plants. 65 people were killed. This tornado was the deadliest and only F5 rated tornado in Pennsylvania to this day. -
Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption
Lake Nyos in Cameroon sits atop an extinct volcano that still has magma far below the surface. The magma release gases into the lake such as C02, hydrogen and sulfur. Though normally stable an undtermined event set off an eruption of over 300,000 tons of the gas in 1986. The poisonous gases settled down in low laying surrounding villages asphyxiating 1,700 people and forcing another 4,000 to flee. -
San Francisco Earthquake
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit San Francisco California just before a Giants game. 63 people were killed and over 3.000 were injured. Most of the casualties were caused by the collapse of a busy freeway. Because of the World Series this became the first major U.S. earthquake to get wide spread coverage. -
Tri-state Hail Storm
A super cell thunder storm moved from southwest Kansas City, into Missouri and then Illinois. The storm created golfball to baseball sized hail that was being windblown at up to 70 mph. The storm was large and long lived, in combination with being over a populated area, it became the most expensive hail storm in the U.S. with 2 billion dollars in insured loses. -
Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake/ Tsunami
Underwater earthquakes caused by tectonic movement generated massive tsunami waves, some even 100 feet tall impacting many countries in the Indian Ocean. The actual earthquake was a magnitude 9.1 making it the third largest on record. 230,000 people were killed over all making it one of the worst recorded natural disasters.
