Relationship between pressure belts and precipitation.
In climate zones with low atmospheric pressure, precipitation in large quantities prevails. And, on the contrary, in climatic zones with high air pressure, precipitation is observed to a lesser extent. Why is that? Because the process of condensation of water vapor into liquid droplets occurs when warm air masses rise into the troposphere. This physical phenomenon is typical for climatic zones with low atmospheric pressure - equatorial and temperate zones.
Relationship between atmospheric pressure belts and precipitation
Igor Kibalchich (Kharkov) Published: 10/20/2013
1. AIR TEMPERATURE 1.1 Absolute maximum air temperatures by continent
1.2 Absolute minimum air temperatures by continent
1.3 Other temperature records
• The lowest atmospheric temperature (-143 °C) was recorded at an altitude of 80 – 96 km during a night observation of clouds over Kronogard, Sweden, from July 27 to August 7, 1963[15];
• The lowest average annual temperature was recorded in 1958 in Antarctica, near the South Pole (-57.8 °C) [16];
• The highest average annual air temperature (for the period: October 1960 - November 1966) is +34.4 °C in Dallol, Ethiopia [17];
• The lowest average monthly air temperature (-75.3 °C) was recorded at Vostok station, Antarctica in August 1987 [18];
• The largest average annual temperature amplitude is observed in Verkhoyansk, Russia and is 61.9 °C, the absolute amplitude in this place is 107.1 °C [19];
• The most equable climate is observed in the town of Garapan on the island of Saipan (Mariana Islands), Pacific Ocean. For 9 years from 1927 to 1935. the lowest temperature here was +19.6 °C on January 30, 1934, and the highest was on September 9, 1931 (+31.4 °C), which gives a difference of only 11.8 °C [20]. According to other data, the record holder for the minimum temperature amplitude is the Fernando de Noronha islands off the coast of Brazil. There from 1911 to 1966. the lowest temperature was recorded on November 17, 1913 (+18.6 °C), and the highest was on March 2, 1965 (+32 °C), which is a temperature difference of only 13.4 °C;
The most dramatic warmings:
• In 2 minutes at 27.2 °C. In Spearfish, South Dakota, on January 22, 1943 at 7:30 am the temperature was -20 °C, and just 2 minutes later the temperature rose to +7.2 °C! Such a sharp warming was caused by a sudden warm wind - Chinook [21]; • In 12 hours at 46.1 °C. In the town of Granville, North Dakota (USA) on February 21, 1918, during the day the air temperature rose from -36.1 °C to +10 °C [22];
The most intense cold snaps:
• In 27 minutes at 32.2 °C. In Spearfish, South Dakota, on January 22, 1943, at 9 a.m., the air temperature was +12.2 °C, and at 9:27 it dropped to -20.0 °C [23]; • During the day at 55.6 °C. In the town of Browning, Montana (USA), during January 23-24, 1916, the temperature dropped from +6.7 °C to -48.9 °C [24];
• In Marble Bar, Western Australia, temperatures exceeded 100 °F (+37.8 °C) for 160 days from October 31, 1923 to April 7, 1924 [25];
• The highest dew point (+35 °C) was recorded at 15:00 on July 8, 2003 in the town of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The air temperature at this time was +42.2 °C. With a wind of 1 m/s, the effective temperature reached +115 °C![28]
1.4 Water temperature
• On August 8, 1920, the USS Titat recorded a temperature of 100 °F (+37.8 °C) in the Red Sea. The water temperature in the Persian Gulf in July-August usually stays around +31 °C, and on August 5, 1924 it reached a value of +35.6 °C (according to measurements from the Frankenfels ship)[26];
• The hottest river is a tributary of the Amu Darya, Tairsu. Once on this river the temperature of the surface layer of water was recorded at +45.2 °C [27]. On the Tiligul River in the Odessa region, which flows into the Tiligulsky estuary, a temperature of 39.4°C was recorded near the village of Novo-Ukrainka [27]. And the Caspian Sea can be considered the hottest lake. On Biryucha Spit the water temperature was recorded at +37.2 °C.
2. PRECIPITATION 2.1 Highest average annual precipitation by continent [29]
2.2 Lowest average annual precipitation by continent [30]
2.3 Maximum precipitation for different periods of time [33]
• On Mount Waialeale on the Hawaiian Islands, there are on average 330 - 360 rainy days a year [34];
• In Arica (Chile) for 14 years - from October 1903 to January 1918, not a single rain was recorded [33];
• The driest uninhabited place on Earth is located in Antarctica - the Dry Valleys. As calculations show, in this place there has been no precipitation at all over the past 2 million years [35]
2.4 Hail
• Large hail fell in Coffeyville, Kansas, USA on September 3, 1970. The diameter of the hailstones reached 14 cm and weighed 750 g. By calculation, it was established that the hailstones crashed into the ground at a speed of about 47 m/s [37];
• Officially, the heaviest hailstone in the world fell in Gopalganj, Bangladesh on April 14, 1986. Its mass was 1.02 kg [38];
• On April 30, 1888, the deadliest hailstorm in human history occurred in the Indian regions of Moradabad and Beheri. Then 246 people died [38];
• In Europe, the heaviest hailstone is considered to be the one that fell during a thunderstorm in Strasbourg, France on August 11, 1958, weighing 971 grams [38];
• A hailstone with a maximum diameter of 20 cm was discovered in Vivian, South Dakota, USA on July 23, 2010 [96];
• There is information that on May 30, 1879, in Kansas, USA, during the passage of a tornado, hailstones up to 38 cm in diameter were observed. As they fell to the ground, holes were formed measuring 43 x 51 cm [39];
• According to eyewitnesses, in April 1981, hailstones weighing 7 kg were observed in Guangdong Province (China). As a result of this hailstorm, 5 people. about 10,500 buildings were killed and destroyed [40];
• On May 11, 1894, in the town of Bovina, Mississippi, USA, a hailstone was discovered, inside of which there was... a turtle measuring 15 x 20 cm [41];
• In the city of Sheki, Azerbaijan, the largest hail was observed in 1850: individual hailstones weighed about 10 kg. This event was recorded in the journal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, published in Tbilisi [42];
• In western Kenya, in the Kericho region (where extensive tea plantations are located), there are an average of 132 hail days per year [43];
• In 1965, hail fell in the Kislovodsk region, covering the surface of the earth in some places with a layer of 75 centimeters [44];
• On July 6, 1958, hailstones weighing up to 2 kilograms 200 grams fell in the village of Achikulak, Stavropol Territory. Houses and trees were damaged by the hail, and 90 lambs were killed in the field [44];
• On August 9, 1843, a hailstorm of incredible force and size hit eastern England (from Oxford to Norfolk). Ice blocks up to 25 cm in diameter were recorded, and the layer of hail on the ground in some places reached 1.5 meters [45];
• In 1961, a hailstone weighing 3 kg killed an elephant in northern India [57];
• In October 1985, in the state of Sergipe (Brazil), hailstones killed 20 people and left more than 4,000 homeless. In some places, the thickness of the hail layer exceeded 1.5 meters [57].
2.5 Snow
• On the slopes of Mount Rainier in Washington state, a total of 16.6 m of snow falls on average per year [46]. And in one year from February 19, 1971 to February 18, 1972, 31.11 m of snow fell in the Paradise region (altitude 1646 m above sea level), which is an absolute record for the height of snow cover [47];
• A record snow depth of 11.46 m was recorded in March 1911 in Tamarac, pcs. California, USA [47];
• On February 14, 1927, on Mount Ibuki in Japan (Honshu Island), a snow depth of 11.8 meters was measured! [47];
• In just 19 hours on April 5-6, 1959, 1.7 m of snow fell at the Bessans station in the French Alps [50];
• The heaviest one-day snowfall was recorded in Silver Lake, PC. Colorado, April 14-15, 1921, when 1.93 m of snow fell in one day [48];
• Over 2 days (December 29-30), 1955, 3.1 meters of snow fell in the area of Mile Camp 47 (Alaska) [48];
• The largest snowflake was recorded during a snowfall in the town of Fort Keogh. Montana (USA) January 28, 1887. Its diameter was 38 cm, and its thickness reached 20 cm [49];
3. THUNDERSTORMS Top 5 most thunderstorm places on Earth[52]
• The small village of Kifuka in DR Congo (Africa) is the place with the maximum thunderstorm activity in the entire World. Here, every year there are an average of 158 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes per 1 km2 of territory [53];
• On average, about 2000 thunderstorms thunder on Earth every second and about 100 lightning flashes every second; per day this figure is about 8.6 million flashes, and per year it reaches 3.14 x 109 lightnings [54];
• The lightning recorded by instruments on July 31, 1947 at the University of Pittsburgh, USA is considered the most powerful. The current reached 345,000 A [55];
• The longest lightning strike occurred on October 13, 2001, between Dallas and Fort Worth (Texas). Its length was 193 km (120 mi) [56];
• According to unofficial data, during satellite observations of a strong thunderstorm in the area of the Japanese Islands, the instruments recorded a lightning flash with a power of 1013 W. Such super-powerful discharges are called “superlightning” [57];
• The deadliest strike of all time was a lightning strike on June 26, 1807 in the town of Kirchberg, Luxembourg. On that day, due to a lightning strike, a powerful explosion occurred in a small gunpowder factory, resulting in the death of 300 people [58];
4. WIND 4.1 Tropical cyclones
• The greatest distance – 13,280 km – was covered during the existence of Typhoon “John” in 1994 in the Pacific Ocean [59]. This typhoon also holds the world record for duration of existence - 31 days (from August 10 to September 10) [60];
• The highest horizontal pressure gradient recorded in tropical cyclone Tracy (near Darwin, Australia) on December 24, 1974 was 5.5 hPa/1 km. Also, a gradient of 5 hPa/1 km was observed in Hurricane Inez in the North Atlantic on September 28, 1966 [61];
• Typhoon “Tip” is considered the largest in the northwest Pacific Ocean. On October 12, 1979, a storm wind with a speed of more than 17 m/s was observed within a radius of 1110 km from the center [62];
• The smallest tropical cyclone is considered to be Tropical Storm Marco on October 7, 2008 in the Gulf of Mexico. The zone of storm winds (more than 17 m/s) extended only 16 km from the center [63]. Thus, it is 69 times smaller than Typhoon Type!
• The highest surge wave was observed during the passage of cyclone “Mahina” off the coast of Australia (Queensland) in March 1899. Its height was 13 meters [64];
• The largest “eye of the storm”—90 km in diameter—was observed near tropical cyclone “Kerry” (Coral Sea, February 21, 1979), and the smallest—6.7 km—was recorded near cyclone “Tracy” on December 24, 1974 [65] ;
• The fastest intensification was observed for Typhoon Forest in September 1983 in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Then, within 24 hours, the pressure in the center of the typhoon dropped by 100 hPa from 976 to 876 hPa, i.e. at a rate of 4.2 hPa/hour [66];
• The highest surface wind speeds were observed in Cyclone Olivia on April 10, 1996 on Barrow Island, Australia. Then, for 3 seconds, the wind blew at a speed of 113.2 m/s (407 km/h) [65];
• According to unofficial data, the sustained maximum wind speed for 1 minute in super typhoon Nancy on September 12, 1961 was 345 km/h (96 m/s) [72];
• The deadliest was tropical cyclone Bhola, which hit Bangladesh on November 12, 1970. According to various estimates, it claimed the lives of 300 to 500 thousand people [67];
• The warmest “eye of the storm” was observed during Typhoon Nora (October 1973) in the western Pacific Ocean. The air temperature at 700 hPa (altitude about 3 km) reached 30 °C [68];
• The most costly was Hurricane Katrina, which struck the United States in August 2005 as a Category 3 hurricane. The damage from it amounted to 108 billion dollars [69];
• Typhoon Nancy (west Pacific) for 5.5 days from September 9 to 14, 1961 was continuously at the stage of maximum category 5 in accordance with the Saffir-Simpson scale [70];
• On December 26, 2001, Tropical Storm Vamei (South China Sea) formed at just 1.4°N latitude. from the equator [71].
List of the most intense tropical cyclones in various regions of the Earth [95]
4.2 Smerchi (Tornado)
• The maximum officially recorded wind speed of the tornado (about 135 m/s) was remotely measured using a rover Doppler radar on May 3, 1999, near Oklahoma City at an altitude of 32 meters above the ground. This value is the world record for surface wind speed [73];
• The tallest waterspout of which there is reliable information was observed on May 16, 1898 at Eden, PC. New South Wales, Australia. Using a theodolite, its height was determined to be 1528 m [74];
• The widest tornado in the world was an EF5 tornado that occurred near El Reno, Oklahoma (USA) on May 31, 2013. Its width reached 4180 meters [73];
• The largest number of tornadoes per month in the USA – 758 – was recorded in April 2011 [77];
• The largest number of tornadoes per year in the USA (1819) was recorded in 2004 [75];
• The most deadly was the tornado that hit the cities of Saturia and Manikgank Sadar, Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. It took the lives of 1,300 people and injured more than 12,000 [33];
• A record number of tornadoes per day - 148 - swept through the southern and midwestern states of the United States on April 3-4, 1974 [76];
• The most costly tornado was the one that hit Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011. The total damage is estimated at $2.8 billion [78];
• The highest altitude tornado was recorded on July 7, 2004 in a national park in California (USA). The height of the area where it touched the surface is 3658 m [79];
• The highest speed (117 km/h) was recorded in the Tri-State Tornado on March 18, 1925 [80];
4.3 Other wind records
• The strongest gust of wind on record (without the influence of a tornado or tropical cyclone) occurred on April 12, 1934 at Mount Washington (elevation 1917 meters) in New Hampshire. On that day, instruments recorded a wind speed of 103 m/s [81];
• The windiest place in the world is considered to be Port Martin (Antarctica), where the average annual wind speed is 17 m/s [30]. The highest average annual wind speed in this place was recorded in 1995 and amounted to 22.4 m/s [82]. The highest average monthly wind speed was also recorded here - 29.1 m/s (in March 1951) and average daily wind speed - 48.3 m/s (March 21 - 22, 1951) [51].
5. OTHER WEATHER RECORDS 5.1 Atmospheric pressure
• The highest atmospheric pressure at the earth's surface, normalized to sea level, was recorded on December 19, 2001 in Tosontsengel (Mongolia) and amounted to 1084.8 hPa [85]. The height of this point is 1725 m above sea level. On the plain, the highest pressure was recorded in Agata (Russia) on December 31, 1968 - 1083.3 hPa [86];
• The lowest pressure on Earth was recorded in Typhoon “Tip” in the northwest Pacific Ocean on October 12, 1979 - 870 hPa[87]. In an extratropical cyclone, the lowest pressure (914 hPa) was recorded in the storm “Braer” in the north Atlantic on January 10, 1993 [88];
• The sharpest drop in pressure was observed during the passage of an EF4 tornado near Manchester, South Dakota (USA) on June 24, 2003. Using a special setup, a pressure jump of 100 hPa was measured for about 40 seconds (from 950 to 850 hPa) [89]. The value of 850 hPa can be considered the lowest pressure on the Earth's surface during meteorological observations.
5.2 Sunshine
• The sunniest place is considered to be the town of Yuma, Arizona (USA), where the average annual sunshine is 4019 hours out of 4456 possible [90];
• In St. Petersburg, pcs. Florida, USA, from February 9, 1967 to March 17, 1969 there were 768 completely sunny days in a row [30]
5.3 Ice
• A severe ice storm swept through the southeastern regions of Canada and the northeastern United States on January 4–10, 1998. Then 44 people died, almost 1000 towers of high-voltage power lines were toppled. The thickness of ice deposits in some places reached 12 cm! The total damage is estimated at 5-7 billion dollars [93][94].
5.4 Rainbow
• In the city of Sheffield (UK), the most persistent rainbow was observed: on March 14, 1994, a rainbow was visible for 6 hours: from 09:00 in the morning to 15:00 in the afternoon [92].
5.5 Fog
• The region of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic is considered the foggiest place in the World. Another record foggy place is Argentia (Newfoundland, Canada) - 206 days a year with fog [84].
5.6 Dampness
• The Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean are the wettest and cloudiest place on earth. The average annual sunshine here is only 800–1300 hours, and it rains about 320 days a year [91].
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