| Weather History for December 16 |
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1835 In New York City hundreds of blocks burned during a fire. The frozen fire hydrants and gale-force winds only made the fire worse when the mercury dropped to 0.
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1869 A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives, 41st Congress, calling for the taking [of] meteorological observations...and for giving notice on the northern lakes and Atlantic seaboard of the approach and force of storms. This would be signed in to law February 9, 1870, by President Grant, establishing what would come to be called the National Weather Service. You can see the actual bill on-line at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llhb&fileName=041/llhb041.db&recNum=2246 .
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1997 Typhoon Paka deluged Guam with nearly 21 inches of rain at Tiyan before instrumentation failed. The equipment failed 2 hours before the eye of Paka passed to the south. Damage estimates were in the range of $400 million.
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1997 It was dark and the airport was shrouded in fog when an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Fredericton approached the slippery runway. It skidded, bounced across a field, then slid up a snowy embankment before slamming into trees. It took rescuers 30 minutes to find the plane. The deep snowpack likely saved the lives of the passengers and crew.
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1979 In Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers prepared to play the Kansas City Chiefs as rain began to pour on what was about to become the 1979 Monsoon Game. Buccaneers picked up a win with the score of 3 to 0.
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Data courtesy of the National Weather Service
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