On this date in 1983, a 149.5 mph wind gust was clocked at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland during a violent thunderstorm microburst. At the time, it was the highest wind speed ever measured by an anemometer.
“Just six minutes before this wind gust was measured, Air Force One had landed at Andrews, with President Ronald Reagan aboard,” I wrote on a retrospective about this incident in 2013. “His timing was extraordinarily fortunate.”
Here are other notables from this day:
- Average high: 89
- Average low: 72
- Record high: 101 (2011)
- Record low: 54 (1895)
- Record rainfall: 2.84 inches (1948)
