1964 was 60 years ago. The 1960s was revolutionary in the field of Meteorology. Weather Satellites were invented and used for the first time. The Satellites could detect tropical cyclones, low pressure systems, and what was going on in the ENSO region every year since then the satellites have gotten more advanced. While they were not as good as they are today weather models also got better.

There was several historic weather events 60 years ago. 1964 was influenced by a La Nina. La Nina is a weather pattern that occurs in the ENSO region of the Equatorial Pacific Waters. La Nina occurs when water temperatures in the ENSO region are -0.5°C below average for at least 5 months. The 1964 La Nina would last until the early spring of 1965. I decided to look back at some of 64's historic weather events.

January 14th 1964- A strong Nor'Easter system produced wind guest over 50 mph, heavy rain, and heavy snow to Upstate New York and the New England region of the United States. Some locations received more than 20 inches of snow. Coastal areas had flooding.

March 4th 1964- A tornado outbreak occurred in Mississippi and Tennessee a total of 4 people were killed by long tracked tornadoes. A lot of the tornadoes were EF2 or higher.

March 9th 1964- A squall line event impacts Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Widespread wind damage was produced by the storms. The Squall line produced 9 tornadoes.

April 2nd-8th 1964 A series of multi severe weather events occurred in 7 days. These tornadoes impacted the US states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. One of the tornadoes was an EF5 the highest rating. Overall 7 people perished.

April 12th-14th 1964 Another deadly tornado outbreak occurred in Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. This outbreak killed 7

May 4th-8th 1964- One of the years largest outbreak sequence occurred in the Midwest and Southeast part of the United States. These outbreaks produced a lot of violent tornadoes. Overall, 73 tornadoes occurred with a lot of them being EF2 or higher, 15 people died, and millions done in damage.

Late August 1964-Hurricane Cleo peaks as a 150 mph category 4 hurricane. Cleo would make landfall in Haiti, Cuba, South Florida, and Georgia. Overall Cleo killed over 200 people and caused $190 million in damages.

September 11th-13th 1964- After Forming in Late August and peaking as a 135 mph category 4 hurricane. Dora made landfall near Jacksonville Florida as a high end category 2 hurricane. Dora was destructive causing $280 million in damages and a tornado outbreak in the Carolinas

Early October 1964- Hurricane Hilda had peaked as a 140 mph category 4 hurricane. The hurricane made landfall in Louisiana as a high end category 2 hurricane. Hilda also caused a tornado outbreak producing 12 tornadoes with one being an EF4. Overall Hilda caused $140 million in damages, and 38 deaths.

Middle October 1964- Hurricane Isbell makes landfalls in Cuba and Florida as a category 2 hurricane. Isbell had peaked as a 115 category 3 hurricane Overall Isbell caused 7 deaths and $30 million in damages.

Middle to Late December Oregon Floods- An active storm track caused several storm systems to slam into Oregon. Several feet of rain water fell in Oregon. By this time the event was over, other 20 people were dead and hundreds of millions of dollars done in damage. It was considered a historic flood event.

Christmas Day 1964- A tornado outbreak impacts the Southeast causing 14 tornadoes and 2 deaths and several injuries.

December 31st 1964- An unusual snowstorm impacts the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Huntsville Alabama has 17 inches of snow, a lot of locations in Middle Tennessee had 10-16 inches of snow, East Tennessee had 4-9 inches of snow, North Georgia had 3-7 inches of snow, and most of Kentucky had 4-9 inches of snow.

This concludes the weather events of 1964. 1964 had a lot of weather events from two significant snowstorms, several tornado outbreaks, an active hurricane season with a lot of impacts, and historic flooding.

Wow, that is a lot to say about weather in 1964! A Category 4 Hurricane? Wasn't Hurricane Ian like a 4 or 5? Yeah, Arkansas gets a lot of tornados, I've always wondered why, like why does that happen?

Interesting. I often does a La Niña occur? Is it like a yearly thing, or only once in a while when there’s a perfect storm.

La Nina usually occurs ever 2-5 years just like El Nino. Neutral is when neither are present.

Ian was a category 5 hurricane but made landfall in Southwest Florida as a high end category 4 hurricane with winds 150-155 mph.

Arkansas gets a lot of tornadoes due to its location. In the Spring and Late Fall you have cold fronts trying to pull cold air down from the Northwest. Then you have warm air coming from the Gulf. Often you have wind energy blasting out from the Rockies or a powerful Jet (wave of energy in the atmosphere) Add a low pressure system and you have the ingredients for severe weather. This is the same reason other states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and sometimes Southern Illinois, Indiana and OHio get tornadoes in the spring or late fall

In Summer, these ingredients start to go northward and that is why we see a lot of tornadoes in Colorado, Wyoming, even Montana and the upper Midwest as well as Ohio Valley in June.