World Records of 2022 and Beyond

Zoë Sharp

The year just past seems to have been one of extremes, so I thought I'd compile a few record-breaking facts and figures for your entertainment here.

Temperatures

The coldest temperature during 2022 was recorded at the Vostock Station in Antarctica, which is 3420m or 11,220ft above sea level. Temperatures dropped to -76deg C or -106.2deg F in mid-April.

 

The coldest surface temperature ever recorded on earth was done by remote sensing via satellite, which reported -93deg C (-135.8deg F) between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji in Antarctica in December 2013.

 

Records for the hottest temperature are supposed to be recorded 1.5m (4ft 11in) above ground level, and shielded from direct sunlight. I struggled to find a report for 2022, but in May 2021 an unverified figure of 80.8deg C (177.4deg F) was recorded via satellite in both the Lut Desert in Iran and the Sonoran Desert in Mexico.

 

The hottest temperature ever recorded anywhere on earth was in July 1972, at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California, measuring 93.9deg C or 201deg F.

 

Rainfall – or lack of it

The largest recorded rainfall in 2022 was in Mawsynram, a town in the East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya in northeast India. A series of geographical features mean that Mawsynram has the reputation as the wettest place on earth, and receives the highest rainfall in India. On June 17 2022, 1003.6mm (39.5in) fell in 24 hours.

 

It would seem that the highest rainfall in 24 hours ever recorded was in October 2005, when 1633.98mm (64.33in) fell on Isla Mujeres, an island off the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico.

 

The least rainfall occurs in an area of Antarctica known as the Dry Valleys, which have seen no rain for nearly 2 million years. After that comes the Atacama Desert in Chile and Peru, which can occasionally see an average of 1mm (0.039in) rainfall per year.

 

Wind speed

The highest recorded wind speed in the UK in 2022 was at The Needles, just off the Isle of Wight, where Hurricane Eunice was responsible for winds of 122mph, or 196kph. The highest-ever wind speed recorded was at Barrow Island, Australia, of 253mph (407kph) in 1996 during Tropical Cyclone Olivia.

 

Stormy

The place on earth that receives the most lightning strikes is the area surrounding the Catatumbo river, feeding Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Lightning occurs here up to 300 nights a year, followed by the mountains near Kifuka in the Democratic Republice of the Congo, with over 400 strikes per square mile (230+ per square kilometre).

 

The largest hailstone ever to fall was on Gopalganj district in Bangladesh in April 1986, when a single piece measuring 1.02kg (2.25lb) fell as part of a hailstorm that killed 92 people.

 

Fires

The largest ever wildfire was in eastern Siberia in 2003. It destroyed over 55 million acres (22 million hectares) of the taiga forests. But the longest-burning fire is at Mount Wingen, known as Burning Mountain in New South Wales, Australia, where a coal seam is reckoned to have been smouldering for the last 6000 years.

 

Human Records Broken in 2022
Age

The oldest human still living is a French nun called Sister André, who was born on February 11 1904, and will thus be 119 next month. Sister André took over the twin titles as both the oldest living female and the oldest living person when Japanese citizen Kane Tanaka died in April 2022 at the age of 119. Ms Tanaka was born on January 2 1903. The oldest person ever recorded was another French citizen, Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived from February 1875 until August 1997, reaching 122 years and 164 days.

 

Height
The Tallest Man

Sultan Kösen from Turkey is the tallest living man at 8ft 2.82in (251cm) in height. He also has the largest hands, measuring 11.22in (28.5cm) from wrist to the end of his middle finger. Born in 1982 and originally a farmer, Mr Kösen has now moved to Hollywood. The tallest man ever was American Robert Wardlow, who grew to 8ft 11in (272cm) but lived only 22 years, from 1918 to 1940.

 

The Tallest Woman

The official tallest living woman in 2022 is also from Turkey. She is Rumeysa Gelgi, who not only holds the tallest woman record at 7ft 0.7in (215.16cm), but who also held the tallest teenager record, confirmed in 2014, as well as the largest hands on a living female 9.81in (24.93cm), the longest finger (female) at 4.4in (11.2cm) and the longest back (female) at 23.58in (59.9cm). These latter three world records were confirmed in February 2022.

 

The tallest ever woman was claimed to be a Dutch woman who died aged just 17 in 1633, Trijntje Keever, although her height of 8ft 4.5in (255cm) was unverified. The only female who was verified to have exceeded 8ft tall was Zeng Jinlian from China, at 8ft 1.75in (248cm). She also lived only 17 years, passing away in 1982.

 

Shortest

A new record holder for the title of shortest man living was decided in December 2022. Afshin Esmaeil Ghaderzadeh, from northern Iran, is 2ft 1.6in (65.24cm) tall. He was born in July 2002, and is officially the fourth shortest man ever recorded.

 

The shortest woman still living is an Indian actress, Jyoti Amge, born in 1993. She is 2ft 0.7in (62.8cm) tall.

 

The shortest man ever recorded was Chandra Bahadur Dangi from Nepal, at 21.5in (54.6cm), who was born in 1939 and died in 2015. The shortest woman was Pauline Musters from the Netherlands (1876-1895) who was 2ft (61cm) in height.

 

This week’s Word of the Week is minuscule, which is derived from Latin minusculus, meaning rather small. It is often spelled miniscule, probably in error at first but frequently enough for this to have become a recognised alternative spelling, especially in America. In French, minuscule signifies lower case, as opposed to majuscule (Latin, majusculus, rather large) denoting capital letters.

 

Most Extreme Weather on Record

Zoë Sharp

As climate change starts to move up a gear, so we begin to experience greater extremes of weather. Even in the normally temperate UK, last month’s heatwave has given way to torrential rain, high winds, and flooding. (Yeah, welcome to August.)

I’ve been interested in extreme weather for many years. In fact, one of the things I’ve always wanted to do is go tornado chasing. Just as long as I didn’t have to get too close.

But, with this in mind, I wondered what were the most extreme instances of extreme weather that had ever been recorded. And if you’ve wondered about that, too, read on…

Rain

When it comes to the worst recorded rain, it rather depends on how you choose to measure it. The most rain in one minute, for instance, was 31.2mm/1.23in in July 1956 in Unionville, Maryland. Holt, Missouri had the most in an hour—305mm/12in in June 1947.

When it comes to really being hit by rain, however, you need to go to the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean during cyclone season. During Tropical Cyclone Denise in January 1966, Cilaos on Réunion recorded 1825mm/71.9in of rain in 24 hours. In January 1980, Cyclone Hyacinthe brought Commerson the most rain in a single tropical storm—a whopping 6433mm/253.3in. And Cyclone Gamede hit the same place again in 2007, this time dumping a record 4869mm/191.7mm of rain in four days.

Réunion in the Indian Ocean

Just in case you were wondering, the least rainy place on record is Quillagua in Chile, which receives less than 0.2mm/0.0079in per year.

Snow

The most snow within a twenty-four-hour period was in Capracotta, Italy in March 2015, when 2.56m/100.8in fell. The most in a calendar month was 9.91m/390in in Tamarack, California in January 1911.

The widest area ever covered by a single snowfall was when between 1-76mm/0-30in fell across nine countries in South Africa in August 2012. The deepest snowfall recorded was on Mt Ibuki in Japan in February 1927 when 11.82m/38.8ft was recorded.

Tornado

The deadliest tornado was in Manikganj District in Bangladesh in April 1989, when approximately 1300 people lost their lives as a storm a mile wide hit the region. The longest known tornado track was the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, which cut a path through Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois that was 219 miles long, destroying 15,000 homes in the process and killing almost 700 people.

Tropical Cyclone Tip

The most severe outbreak of tornados was in 2011, when there were 207 confirmed during a 24-hour period, affecting six US states. Four were rated EF5, with winds over 200mph. The most intense tropical cyclone was Tip (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Warling) in 1979, which had sustained wind speeds of 190mph/305kph and a record low sea-level pressure of 870mbar. At its peak, Tip measured 1380 miles/2220km in diameter.

Tsunami

The tallest tsunami recorded occurred at Lituya Bay in Alaska in July 1958. About 40 million cubic yards/30.6 million cubic metres of rock fell about 3000ft/914m into Gilbert Inlet, causing a giant wave that removed all trees and vegetation from elevations up to 1720ft/524m above sea level.

Lituya Bay, Alaska

Temperature

Although there seems to be some debate about the measurement process, the hottest place on earth with the temperature taken at ground level was apparently Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California back in 1972, at 93.9 degC (201 degF). The hottest air temperature recorded was an alleged 86.7 degC/188.1 degF in Abadan, Iran in June 1967.

Death Valley, California

The coldest place ever recorded on earth was at Vostok Station in Antarctica, where it got down to –89.2 degC/–128.6 degF in July 1983. A bit nippy, in other words.

Vostok Station, Antarctica

Lightning

The longest-duration lightning flash was 7.74 seconds in August 2012 in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France. The longest lightning bolt was in Oklahoma in June 2007 at 199 miles/321 km. The most frequent lightning strikes occur where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. It has an average of approximately 150 nights a year, ten hours per day, up to 280 strikes per hour.

Lake Catatumbo lightning
pic by TheChemicalEngineer

Hail

The heaviest hailstone ever recorded was one that weighed 1.02kg/2.25lb, which fell in Gopalganj District in Bangladesh in April 1986. The largest in circumference landed in Aurora, Nebraska in June 2003 and measured 476mm/18.75in. The largest hailstone in diameter was one measuring 20cm/8in. It fell at Vivian, South Dakota in July 2010.

So, remember some of these facts and figures the next time you experience extreme weather of your own. And remember—it could be worse…

This week’s Word of the Week is swullocking, which is an old word from the southeast of England meaning humid or sultry. Usually means there’s a thunderstorm on the way.