today in 1943, the community of Spearfish, South Dakota had some serious ups and downs in the weather.
It set an all-time record for the fastest temperature change ever documented.
It’s important to note that Spearfish is in the western part of South Dakota, near the Black Hills.
Temperature changes aren’t unusual there because of a phenomenon known as Chinook winds.
In the western United States, air that moves over a mountain cools as it climbs and then warms as it descends on the other side.
Native Americans have called these winds “snow eaters,” and that name certainly fit in this case.
The temperature at sunrise was 4 degrees below zero.
Then, the Chinook wind started blowing, and in just two minutes, thermometers showed temperatures of 45 degrees above zero – a 49 degree shift!
It was so quick that it fogged up windows in nearby cars and houses; a few even cracked.
The temperature climbed even a bit more that morning, so that in Rapid City it got to about 60 degrees.
But eventually the winds died back down, and when they did, the temperatures fell right back to where they’d been at sunrise.
The Rapid City Journal got a little poetic when it summed up the historic weather.
“Spring, like a playful lover,” the paper wrote, “repeatedly kissed the cheeks of Winter here today to break a week-long cold wave.”
Today in 1997, Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma was out for a walk at a local park when she saw a flash of light in the sky.
Then, she got hit with a piece of metal, likely a piece of a Delta rocket that was in the process of falling to Earth at the time.
Good thing she wasn’t in Texas, which is where most of the wreckage came down.
History of Spearfish’s World Record Temperature Change (South Dakota Public Broadcasting)
Jan. 22, 1997: Heads Up, Lottie! It’s Space Junk! (WIRED)
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