Showing posts with label world record. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world record. Show all posts

March 16 - Anniversary of the Greatest Rainfall in 24 Hours

 Posted on March 16, 2021

This is an update of my post published on March 16, 2010:


On this date in 1952, a record was set for the most rainfall in 24 hours.

The “lucky” recipient of such bounty? Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, which received 73.6 inches or 1,869.9 mm of rain in just one day!

Yikes!

Translate that to feet or centimeters/meters to fully grasp just how much rain that is!

Reunion Island is shown here, at left.








Is it raining today?

Here are some activities to do in the rain - you don't want to miss racing Gators in the Gutters, do you?


Learn about rain, courtesy of the Weather Dude.





Make a rain gauge.

Rain is just one part of the Water Cycle. Learn more about the water cycle here.


If you live in the U.S., check out the Precipitation Analysis website. You can see how much rainfall has fallen in the last week, month, and year (see "Time Range") for the whole U.S. or, close-up, just your state, plus see the percentage above or below normal, plus more.



Write a poem about rain.
First, read these poems for inspiration:

Spring Rain
by Matsuo Basho

Spring rain
leaking through the roof
dripping from the wasps' nest.
Morning Rain
by Tu Fu

A slight rain comes,
bathed in dawn light.
I hear it among treetop leaves before mist
Arrives. Soon it sprinkles the soil and,
Windblown, follows clouds away. Deepened

Colors grace thatch homes for a moment.
Flocks and herds of things wild glisten
Faintly. Then the scent of musk opens across
Half a mountain -- and lingers on past noon. 


Puddles
by Brenda Williams

Big puddles,
Small puddles,
Puddles in the lane.
Puddles on the footpath,
Puddles near the drain.

Shiny puddles,
Muddy puddles,
Puddles that grow.
Winter puddles,
Icy puddles,
Puddles of snow.

Spring puddles,
Summer puddles,
Puddles on the grass. 
Squashy puddles,
Sploshy puddles,
Puddles to splash!


 

Rain
by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.


 

Also on this date:
























































No Selfies Day







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September 4 - First Time This! Longest That! Fastest, Highest, Heaviest!

Posted on September 4, 2019

Florence Griffith-Joyner
is sometimes called Flo-Jo.
The world of athletic records, including world records, is filled with -ests. Usain Bolt (Jamaica) and Florence Griffith-Joyner (U.S) have the records for fastest 100-meter sprints. Renauld Lavillenie (France) and Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia) have the records for the highest pole vault. Lasha Talakhadze (Georgia) and Tatiana Kashirina (Russia) have the records for the heaviest weights lifted in the Olympics.

But some athletic records are specific to only one nation or one league, and others are more like "first human to..." Today we celebrate the anniversaries of two such records:

On this date in 1972, American swimmer Mark Spitz became the first competitor - male or female, in any sport, Summer or Winter Olympics - to win seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games. The great thing about being the first person to do something is that world records are always being broken - someday, someone WILL run the 100 meters just a leeeeetle bit faster than Bolt! - but the "first" will always be first.

One thing about Spitz is that he swam at a time when both swimmers were shaving off all their body hair to make their times faster. (Yes, men were shaving it all off, too.) Mark Spitz was told he couldn't grow a beard or mustache, because it would slow him down. But that rule bugged him; I guess just to be contrary, he grew a mustache and beat everyone else anyway!

He was going to shave off the mustache for the Olympics, I read, but everyone was talking about the remarkable fact that such a great swimmer had facial hair - so Spitz decided to keep it. And apparently it wasn't a problem - he entered seven races, and he won them all! And he also set seven world records while doing it!!



The 1972 Olympics was Spitz's second Olympics - even though he was only 22 years old! - and he went ahead and retired from competitive swimming. It took 36 years for someone to beat Spitz's seven-gold-medals-in-one-Olympics - and of course it was another American swimmer, Michael Phelps, who won eight golds in 2008.

But, notice! - Phelps didn't win
WITH A MUSTACHE!

On this date in 2002, the Oakland Athletics (often called the Oakland A's) set an American League Baseball record by winning 20 consecutive games. 

That's amazing - but there has been a new record set, in 2017, by the Cleveland Indians, who won 22 games in a row. Also, the record for the longest winning streak in all of Major League Baseball is 26 - set by the New York Giants of the National League waaaaaaay back in 1916!!





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July 14 - First and Fastest on the Fourteenth!

Posted on July 14, 2019

There are so many world records and so many "firsts" accomplished around the world, probably every single day, that I could probably write a story called "First and Fastest" every day.

Today's story is about human flight:



On this date in 1911, an exhibition pilot landed a plane on the White House lawn. This was less than eight years after the first brief flight performed by the Wright Brothers - and already one of their exhibition pilots, Henry Atwood, was dazzling top D.C. officials!

Later, President Taft awarded Atwood with a Gold Medal.



Flash forward more than half a century...

On this date in 1938, pilot and businessman Howard Hughes set a new world record - by flying around the world in just 91 hours! This beat the old record by - get this! - almost four days!!

Even though Hughes had already become rich and successful in business, including in "show biz" (he was a movie producer)...

Even though Hughes was known among many Hollywood fans because he had dated actors like Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers...

It was this world record that made Hughes really famous, and New York City even threw him a ticker-tape parade.

In case you're wondering, Hughes flew around the world with a Lockheed 14 Super Electra twin-engine plane and a crew of four: in addition to his own role as pilot, Hughes included on this record-breaking flight a co-pilot, a navigator, an engineer, and a mechanic. There was also a man on the ground who worked as a flight operations manager. Hughes' plane was the latest in 1938 aeronautics technology, including a top-notch radio and navigation equipment


Hughes' voyage included legs from New York City to
Paris (France); Moscow, Omsk, and Yakutsk (Russia); Fairbanks (Alaska),
Minneapolis (Minnesota), and then back to NYC.



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