lsross Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Any weather historians or detectives here? A friend of mine is looking for weather information for Richmond, VA from 1959. If you could help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! I am trying to find archived information on the weather for Richmond Virginia on August 7 and August 8, 1959. My parents have told me it was flooding that night, and my dad had to push the car several blocks to get to the hospital because of flooded streets. What I'd really love is to get my hands on the Richmond newspapers for those two days - but I'm having a dickens of a time even finding historical weather information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoothillsNC Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Any weather historians or detectives here? A friend of mine is looking for weather information for Richmond, VA from 1959. If you could help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! I am trying to find archived information on the weather for Richmond Virginia on August 7 and August 8, 1959. My parents have told me it was flooding that night, and my dad had to push the car several blocks to get to the hospital because of flooded streets. What I'd really love is to get my hands on the Richmond newspapers for those two days - but I'm having a dickens of a time even finding historical weather information. A lot of newspapers are archived on microfilm (or fiche) at local libraries. I know ours is, and its nowhere near the size of the Richmond paper I'm assuming. Our library has national papers too, but I don't recall seeing Richmond's there, just things like NY Times bigger papers from our state, etc. I've got a lot of info from old papers, hopefully you find your paper in some old format stored somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchnick Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Any weather historians or detectives here? A friend of mine is looking for weather information for Richmond, VA from 1959. If you could help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! I am trying to find archived information on the weather for Richmond Virginia on August 7 and August 8, 1959. My parents have told me it was flooding that night, and my dad had to push the car several blocks to get to the hospital because of flooded streets. What I'd really love is to get my hands on the Richmond newspapers for those two days - but I'm having a dickens of a time even finding historical weather information. They must have the year wrong here is Richmond weather from 8/7/59 from weather underground; you can check any other days from the late 1940's to present http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KRIC/1959/8/7/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyS Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 They must have the year wrong here is Richmond weather from 8/7/59 from weather underground; you can check any other days from the late 1940's to present http://www.wundergro...eq_statename=NA I'm not sure how accurate the historical Weather Underground statistics are -- some don't jibe with my stats for Washington, DC. However, the combined precipitation totals shown for those two days in Richmond are 1.51 inches, and localized amounts could have been much greater, which could have produced flooding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midlo Snow Maker Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 looking at some coop sites 1.5" to 2" fell around the area over 2 days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 You could always try Google http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ByFUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MzoNAAAAIBAJ&dq=richmond%20virginia%20flooding&pg=4732%2C5927577 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MN Transplant Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 You could always try Google http://news.google.c...=4732%2C5927577 Nicely done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I'm not sure how accurate the historical Weather Underground statistics are -- some don't jibe with my stats for Washington, DC. However, the combined precipitation totals shown for those two days in Richmond are 1.51 inches, and localized amounts could have been much greater, which could have produced flooding. some of the wunderground stuff is wrong for sure. im not sure how they calculate the dailies.. i think it might be straight from the raw metars, which apparently misses some things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIC Airport Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 For those that are not familiar with the area, this weather bureau the source mentions, was where the official weather observations took place for the city. It was located at present site RIC Airport on the city's east end and roughly 15-20 miles E/SE of the flooded areas mentioned in the article. Although observations for record continued to take place at the airport, this Richmond weather bureau office closed in 1994 when the NWSFO Wakefield opened and began issuing forecasts for the Richmond and Norfolk areas. Soon after, an ASOS was installed and FAA observers were hired to do the weather recordings meteorologists from the bureau did in the previous years. I haven't found any notable discrepancies with the wunderground data for Richmond. Although it says the data goes back to the early 1940s, much of it for RIC does not appear prior to 1950. Maybe it's an ongoing process to for wunderground to add it. As Ian mentioned, you can also see the hourly observations....very interesting stuff I've found on there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 some of the wunderground stuff is wrong for sure. im not sure how they calculate the dailies.. i think it might be straight from the raw metars, which apparently misses some things. I have not checked much recently but in the past I'd see a few errors, like it listing a daily high as 89 (from the METAR) when the high was actually 90. Perhaps they've corrected it since. Being able to see the hourly (or more frequent) data is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lsross Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 Way to go for that Google link! Thank you, everyone...and for the PMs I have received, too. I hope you all stay safe through the spring and any storms heading your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Google's news archive search is pretty good for looking for nuggets like this. The only issue is most of the articles are pay-per-view so you only get teaser. And for an amusing aside, check out want ad #16 two columns over from the flooding article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 You could always try Google http://news.google.c...=4732%2C5927577 Perusing that newspaper is pretty cool. A few on this board might want to take the "How's Your Mental Outlook" test on p. 29 and apply it to their weather expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amped Posted April 24, 2011 Share Posted April 24, 2011 DonS not needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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