The highest temperature reliably recorded on Earth was 134�F (56.7�C) at Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley, California, on July 10, 1913. The location is aptly named as it consistently ranks among the hottest places on Earth.
The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is ?128.6�F (?89.2�C), at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. A later satellite measurement showed a temperature of ?136�F (?93.2�C) in East Antarctica in 2010, but this was not a direct ground measurement.
The deadliest tropical cyclone on record was the 1970 Bhola Cyclone, which struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) on November 12, 1970. The storm, along with its storm surge, killed an estimated 300,000-500,000 people, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history.
Hurricane Patricia (2015) holds the record for the highest sustained wind speeds in a tropical cyclone, reaching 215 mph (345 km/h). It formed in the eastern Pacific and intensified at one of the fastest rates ever observed before making landfall in Mexico.
Between August 1860 and July 1861, the village of Cherrapunji in India recorded 1,041.8 inches (26,461 mm) of rainfall, the most ever measured in a 12-month period. Cherrapunji and nearby Mawsynram regularly compete for the title of wettest place on Earth.
In just 24 hours, Cilaos, a town on Reunion Island (a French department in the Indian Ocean), received 73.6 inches (1,870 mm) of rainfall during Tropical Cyclone Denise in January 1966. This remains the world record for most rainfall in a single day.
In 1816, known as "The Year Without a Summer," abnormally cold temperatures affected much of Europe and North America. This climate anomaly was caused by the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, which spewed enormous amounts of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, blocking sunlight.
On November 11, 1911, many cities in the central United States experienced drastic temperature drops of up to 60�F in just a few hours. In Oklahoma City, the temperature was 83�F at noon and had plunged to 17�F by midnight. Many places recorded their record high and record low temperatures on the same day.
The Catatumbo lightning is an atmospheric phenomenon occurring over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The lightning occurs during 140 to 160 nights per year, for 10 hours per day, and up to 280 times per hour. It's so reliable that sailors have used it for navigation for centuries.
In 1859, a massive solar storm known as the Carrington Event caused spectacular auroras visible throughout the world and severely disrupted telegraph systems. If such an event occurred today, it could cause widespread power outages and severely damage our electrical infrastructure.