Tornadoes, hurricanes, bomb cyclones: Wild Thanksgiving weather through the years

Foul weather around Thanksgiving at times has had worse effects than merely disrupting travel, marring the Macy’s parade or prompting the guests bringing mashed potatoes to cancel.

The unpredictable late-fall weather can become treacherous and bring anywhere from major snowstorms to hurricanes and tornadoes at a time when wildfires still present a threat.

While Thanksgiving marks the start of holiday season gatherings with family and friends, all that good cheer can be spoiled when Mother Nature turns nasty.

Here’s a look at some noteworthy severe-weather events around Thanksgiving in the last several decades:

Major tornado outbreak of 1992

From Nov. 21-23 of 1992, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, 94 tornadoes spun out across a wide swath of the U.S. from Texas east to the Carolinas and north to the Ohio Valley, killing 26 people and injuring 641, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The number of U.S. tornadoes spiked in the 1990s and since then has remained much higher than in previous decades, but the average in November was only eight from 1950 to 2018, the fourth fewest of any month.

The 1992 outbreak was as stunning as it was destructive, claiming most of its victims in Mississippi and destroying large parts of Texas and Georgia as the twisters ripped through 13 states.

“To view the devastation after the fact is distressing and difficult,’’ a NOAA report said. “To experience such a tragedy must be the ultimate nightmare.’’

The Great Appalachian Snowstorm of 1950

Powerful enough to earn an uppercase name, the frigid Thanksgiving weekend storm dumped up to 57 inches of snow in the Appalachians and sank temperatures to record lows for the month across the Ohio Valley and Upper Midwest.

Chicago checked in at minus-2 degrees the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the Kentucky cities of Bowling Green (minus-7), Lexington (minus-3) and Louisville (minus-1) were also below zero.

NOAA said 160 people were killed in the brutal weather conditions – low temperatures, winds, blizzards, heavy precipitation in some areas – though AccuWeather puts the figure at 353, also saying the cyclone caused $66.7 million in damage (in 1950 dollars) across 22 states.

It was “one of the most damaging and meteorologically unique winter storms to strike the eastern United States,’’ NOAA said, noting wind gusts of 94 mph in New York City and 160 mph in Mt. Washington, New Hampshire.

The bomb cyclone of 2019

The term bomb cyclone’ – a powerful winter storm that intensifies rapidly – was not as well established among the general public when a large cold front struck the California-Oregon border two days before Thanksgiving in 2019.

The phrase is much better known now, in part because of that system’s wide impact: It dropped at least 4 inches of snow on 30 states, all the way to Maine. California’s Cedar Grove in Kings Canyon National Park and Big Bear Lake in the mountains east of Los Angeles led the way with 48-plus inches of snow each.

The heavy snow and rain made a mess out of driving conditions up and down California, where it brought blizzards and gusty winds for several days. San Francisco and Los Angeles were hit by hail. Some San Diego roads were swamped under two feet of water.

In warning travelers about the hazardous road conditions, the National Weather Service office in Reno, Nevada, said on social media: “Instead of telling you the whole spiel of when not to drive, we think it’s easier to give the advice of just staying home this weekend.’’

Hawaii’s Hurricane Iwa in 1982

A rare hurricane for that late in the season, Category 1 Iwa impacted the Hawaiian islands Nov. 23, 1982, two days before Thanksgiving. At the time it was the strongest storm to hit Hawaii since it became a state in 1959, causing extensive damage in Kauai, Oahu and Niihau.

Iwa, which carried sustained winds of up to 86 mph, caused one direct death and three indirect ones. Despite striking only a glancing blow – passing within 25 miles of Kauai – the hurricane produced storm surge of up to 8 feet and left $234 million in damage, according to the University of Hawaii.

Ten years later, the state would endure what remains its most damaging storm on record. Hurricane Iniki, whose top sustained winds of 130 mph left it just short of Category 4 status, slammed Hawaii and especially Kauai in September 1992. The damage it caused was estimated at $2.3 billion to nearly $3 billion.

The big New York City freeze of 2018

It’s common for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City to take place under temperatures in the 40s, as are expected Thursday, though with plenty of rain in the forecast.

The weather events six years ago were much more rare, as a cold front blasted not just New York but also cities down to the Mid-Atlantic, dropping the mercury to near records.

Participants and attendants bundled up as the iconic parade through Manhattan streets was held with temperatures in the 20s. The 19 degrees registered at Central Park earlier in the day made it the second coldest Thanksgiving in the city’s recorded history, only below the mark set more than a century earlier.

At least the winds did not kick up to 23 mph or above, which would have prompted the grounding of parade balloons for safety reasons.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thanksgiving weather through the years: Check out these nasty storms