The "Record Hail Is Forecast" Story

It was an ordinary day. 62 degrees today. Doesn't seem unusual until you realize it is the month of January. Our weather this winter has been extremely warm. Checking the TV at night to see what the forecast will be and more days of warm weather are predicted. The older I get, the more I appreciate that. We bought all our grandkids sleds this year for Christmas and it's looking like they may have to wait another winter to use them. Every night on TV they show the record high and low for the day and sometimes the month. One evening I said to Carol, "Wonder what the all time record was for high and low, temperature wise." Well, I checked out Wikipedia and found out that the all-time high in the USA was 134 degrees recorded in Death Valley, California in 1913 on July 10. The record high on earth was 136 degrees recorded in Libya in 1922. A record low was recorded in Prospect Creek, Alaska on January 1, 1971 of -80 degrees. I imagine if you spit or peed it would be frozen in mid-air. The world record was Vostok Station on July 21, 1983 when the thermometer hit -128.6 degrees. Like the .6 really mattered! Then I started looking at some of the other records that were published. Most rain in one minute on earth was in Unionville, Maryland on the 4th of July in 1956. They had 1.23 inches of rain in that one minute. Most rain in one year on earth was 1,042 inches in 1860-1861 in Cherrapunji, India. That was the year that they reportedly had 16 new boat building companies. Most snow in a one year period on earth was in 1971-1972 on Mount Rainier, Washington. That year they had 102 feet. The largest snowflake ever recorded was 15 inches in Fort Keogh, Montana on January 28, 1887. Fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth was 301 mph in a tornado near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on May 3, 1999. Second fastest was across the street from my house coming from west to east towards my garage two years ago when it took a branch off a tree and almost put it through my garage door. The deadliest Tornado in history on earth was in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989 when approximately 1300 people died. Now the next record I find amazing. The largest piece of hail ever recorded on the earth was 8 inches in diameter in South Dakota on July 23, 2010. The record for the heaviest piece was on April 14, 1986 in Bangladesh when they recorded a 2.25 pound hail stone. They do list the length of the longest lightning bolt to be 121 miles, but don't say where and in what year. And, I don't think I would have believed that fact anyway. How do you go about measuring that distance accurately? So, after reading all the weather records I guess 62 degrees recorded today is no big deal, as long as it stays nice and warm. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.