Putting up with a bit of snow or a strong breeze as you go about your day is one thing but weather events that forever change lives are another. From super tornado outbreaks to vast floods and whiteouts, the US is no stranger to mother nature doing her worst. Here, we round up the extreme weather that's left the biggest mark on each state and DC.

More than 350 tornadoes broke out over the central and southern states from 25 to 28 April. Northern Alabama was hardest hit overall and was also the location of the single deadliest tornado, an EF-5 – the highest on the Fujita Scale, used to measure such storms. Nature’s furious outbreak cost £9.5 billion ($11.5bn) worth of damage according to official US Government records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and is thought to have killed more than 70 people. The events left many towns and cities, such as Tuscaloosa (pictured), forever transformed.

State capital Anchorage enjoys a mild climate with summer temperatures often in the low 20°Cs. But, this year, the mercury soared, hitting 32°C (89.6ºF) for the first time on 4 July. But while residents basked in the sun, scientists issued warnings. Not only was it the hottest ever, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), July was the 16th consecutive month in which average temperatures have been above normal. According to experts, this is the likely result of the loss of sea ice and warming in the Arctic Ocean.

A severe drought gripped parts of the Western US in 2015, and Arizona bore the brunt. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland remained fallow and wildfires were a constant concern. Lake Powell (pictured) set a new record low falling to just 45% of its capacity. The drought cost about £4 billion ($4.9bn), according to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Caused by heavy rainfall and levee failures, the April and May floods of 2011 were among the most damaging on record. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), the science agency for the Department of the Interior, stated that streamgages registered record highs, with six showing the highest, second-highest, or third-highest levels since 1915. Reuters also reported that between Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, nearly three million acres of land had been inundated. Here Ruth Pasloy surveys her flood-damaged home near the city of Des Arc, which lies on the White River.

The 2018 wildfires are considered to be the worst in California's history. In fact, the NCEI said the outbreak was the costliest, deadliest and largest wildfire event to date, according to records that stretch back to 1933. More than 7,500 fires burned an area roughly the size of the state of Delaware, more than 100 people were killed and 17,000 homes and 700 businesses were lost. The total 2018 wildfire costs in California are approaching £20 billion ($24.5bn) – a new US record and 97 people, plus six firefighters were killed. 

Baseball-sized hail pummelled Colorado in June 2018. Severe impacts caused damage across several states, but the most costly effects were seen in numerous locations in eastern Colorado. About £822 million ($1bn) worth of damage was caused and several people were hospitalised. Hailstorms are common in Colorado but, during the 2018 season, the percentage of hail greater than two inches in diameter was record-breaking, according to the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

In early March, flooding throughout New England was caused by melting snow and torrential rains. In Hartford, the Connecticut River rose to 38 feet (11.6m), while smaller rivers burst their banks. Thousands of people were evacuated, though luckily, in Connecticut, loss of life was minimal. Property damage, however, was thought to amount to around $20 million at the time (that's about $3bn now).

A huge blizzard hit Delaware from 22 to 24 January, affecting about 103 million people. It was graded as a Category 4 winter storm and has been dubbed the sixth-most severe storm on record for the Northeast. But the storm’s real significance was in the serious coastal flooding and beach erosion it caused: it took a huge bite out of the Delaware coastline, leaving the area vulnerable to future storm surges.

Usually labelled Snowmageddon, this debilitating blizzard hit North America from 5–6 February 2010. It has gone down in history as one of Washington DC’s all-time biggest snowstorms, dumping 17.8 inches of the white stuff on the state. Showing the true scale of the snow, the US Postal Service was interrupted for the first time in three decades.

Michael was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the US mainland since 1992 and only the fourth on record, with a storm surge of more than 15 feet (4.5m) and winds reaching 160mph. The hurricane hit land at Mexico Beach, Florida on 10 October – Mexico Beach was nearly destroyed, while Panama City (pictured) also suffered extensive damage. Overall, it's thought that damages totalled £20.2 billion ($24.6bn) and at least 47 people were killed.

After making landfall in North Carolina on 8 October, Hurricane Matthew devastated Florida’s Panhandle before swooping into south Georgia as a Category 3 hurricane – the most powerful ever recorded in the area – creating severe coastal and inland flooding and leaving more than one million people without power. Hundreds of lives were claimed along Hurricane Matthew's course, most of which were in the Caribbean country of Haiti. Pictured is a downed tree in Savannah.

Causing a huge £4.7 million ($5.7bn) worth of damage, Category 4 Hurricane Iniki made landfall on 5 September and became the costliest and deadliest weather event to hit Hawaii since 1900, and the most powerful strike on the island recorded. According to the NOAA, the hurricane damaged 14,350 homes on the island of Kauai, and left many people without power for weeks.

From December 1983 to January 1984, the town of Salmon experienced extremely cold weather – the Salmon and Lemhi rivers meet in this town, and two ice jams formed in the waters as a result of the cold spell. By mid-January, an ice jam 30 miles long stretched along the Salmon River into the town, according to the Idaho Office of Emergency Management. The flooding that followed left some residents with nearly 3 feet (0.9m) of ice inside their homes and 5 feet (1.5m) of ice outside. It was declared a state disaster. 

The Tri-State Tornado of 18 March was the deadliest in US history. With its quick movement and long track, the huge tornado left thousands injured and killed 625 people as it beat a course from southeastern Missouri through southern Illinois and into southwestern Indiana. It would be classified as an F5 tornado today, with winds over 300mph, a 219-mile path length and ¾-mile average path width, according to statistics from the National Weather Service.

This Easter Sunday flood remains the worst in Indiana, and one of the most devastating US disasters of all time. Some 7% of the state's population was left homeless as waters rose between 23 and 26 March, and hundreds of people lost their lives. Damages were estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars at the time – billions today – with infrastructure left in ruins.

During the summer of 1993, it rained for 130 consecutive days in some parts of Iowa, in what’s considered by many to be the defining natural disaster in the state's history. The flooding caused about £2.2 billion ($2.7bn) in damage at the time, according to the National Weather Service, and each of Iowa’s 99 counties was declared a Federal Disaster Area. When then-president Bill Clinton visited the state on 14 July, he said: “I have never seen anything on this scale before.” Pictured is a two-inch layer of mud being removed from the infield of the Quad City River Bandits baseball stadium during the cleanup. 

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s is one of the most significant events of the century. Extreme heat and drought, especially in 1934 and 1936, changed the whole character of the states on the Great Plains. And none more so than Kansas, where a record high temperature of 45ºC (114ºF) degrees was set on 12 August 1936, in Wichita. Extended periods of high temperatures and low rainfall caused giant clouds of dust to descend across Western Kansas, wrecking crops and killing cattle.

According to NOAA, this was the costliest ice storm on record, devastating an area more than 100 miles wide, with the heaviest accumulations falling in a line from Memphis, Tennessee, and into Lexington, Kentucky. The damage was estimated at £80 million ($100m) at the time with forest, livestock, crops and fruit trees all wiped out. On 2 February, the city of Bowling Green recorded a temperature of -30ºC (-20ºF), the coldest official temperature recorded in February up to that time. (Pictured is a more recent cold snap in 2004). 

This Category 5 hurricane made landfall on 29 August 2005 with winds speeds near 127mph – the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the US. Katrina caused devastation on an unprecedented scale. Most damage centred on New Orleans, where flaws in the flood protection system led to a catastrophic impact. The clean-up costs – £133.97 billion ($167.5bn) and counting – were enormous, but the human cost was much worse. It's estimated that more than 1,800 people were killed, most of them in Louisiana.

The worst windstorm ever to be recorded in Maine hit on 30 October 2017. Trees and power lines were bowled over, and local news outlets reported that almost 500,000 people were left without power for as long as seven days. The windstorm remains the most devastating in the area to date.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall north of the state on 29 October, but its huge size meant its effects were felt all over Maryland. With sustained 60mph winds, heavy rain and storm surge along the beaches, Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest tropical cyclone to affect the state, causing 11 deaths. Clean-up costs came in at a huge £58.79 billion ($73.5bn), according to NCEI.

February and March 2015 saw several snowstorms hit Massachusetts which amounted to the snowiest season in the state since records began in 1872. Some locations were blanketed by more than 6 feet (1.8m) of snow, while more than 2.9 inches fell before by 7pm on a single Sunday in March, according to the National Weather Service.

Also known as the ‘big blow’ or the ‘white hurricane’, among other things, this was one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history. Blowing from 7 to 10 November, the blizzard shook the Great Lakes Basin, with its northerly hurricane-force winds and 35-foot (10.6m) waves. More than 40 ships were devastated and the storm therefore killed more people than all other major Great Lakes maritime disasters combined.

A crippling cold wave moved over Minnesota in January of this year, bringing temperatures lower than Antarctica, and wreaking havoc across the area. The Arctic outbreak lasted around five days and brought with it some of the lowest air temperatures in Minnesota since the 1990s. The coldest temperatures were recorded on the morning of 31 January when the town of Cotton plunged to -49ºC (-56ºF), according to the National Weather Service.

A tornado outbreak from 22 to 25 April 2010 covered a large portion of the Southern US, but nowhere was more severely affected than Mississippi. On April 24, a single supercell plundered the state – the tornado was up to 1.75 miles wide at its largest, the biggest in the state's history. It was rated as an EF-4 – the second-highest classification – causing the most severe damage in Yazoo (pictured) and Holmes Counties. Wind speed were believed to have peaked at 170mph.

Much of the central portion of St Louis was devastated on 27 May 1896, as this tornado ripped through block after block of residential housing, uprooting trees and throwing them several blocks. The tornado was on the ground for less than half an hour, but it remains the third most deadly tornado in US history. It tracked a three-mile-wide path, killing 255 people and injuring 1,000, according to the NCEI.

On 7 to 8 June 1964, rains pounded Montana's snowy mountains resulting in what the National Weather Service says is the worst flood on record in the state's history. It was so severe that it led to the evacuation of some 8,700 people. When it was over, damage totalled £50 million ($62m), according to the US Geological Survey and state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The whole Flathead Valley was affected but at the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, pictured here today, 31 people lost their lives.

One of the most devastating storms in US history, the Easter Sunday tornado rattled through Nebraska on 23 March 1913. Incredibly, the storm took only 35 minutes to speed across some 40 miles of Nebraska. In the later part of the afternoon, the tornado headed for Omaha where it arrived without warning and disappeared again in a matter of seconds. It devastated a 4.5-mile stretch, leaving 103 dead in the Omaha area.

Known for being the driest state in the USA, even Nevada is prone to flooding, as this photo of Las Vegas in 1983 shows. However, one of the worst weather events in the Silver State occured in the 1860s. Weeks of heavy rains and snow (including a record level of rain from 9 to 12 January) contributed to historic floods from December 1861 to January 1862. The flood was the largest on record for the states of Oregon, Nevada, and California. This vast flooding – possibly a once in 500 years event – left swathes of several states unliveable until the summer months. It's thought to have caused £580 billion ($725bn) of damage at today’s prices.

On 12 April, the highest surface wind measured anywhere on Earth was recorded by staff of the Mount Washington Observatory (pictured): a staggering 231mph. Mount Washington has long been known to harbour some intense weather conditions – winds average around 35mph and break hurricane-force once every three days during the winter. It's one of the most extreme places on the planet.

If you live in New Jersey it's likely you're more than familiar with a snow shovel. But one of the worst blizzards ever, killing more than 400 people, hit the Northeast from 11 to 14 March 1888. There have been bigger snowfalls, stronger winds and lower temperatures, but the combination of all three over an extended period meant this winter storm affected by far the most people. Across 10 states, about a quarter of the population of 19th-century America felt the effects. The National Weather Service estimated parts of New Jersey and New York had up to 40 inches (101cm) of snow.

Did you know that even New Mexico's sunny state capital of Santa Fe (pictured) isn't immune to the odd flurry of snow? However, some 5 feet (1.5m) of snow covered the northern reaches of New Mexico in winter 1967. Snowfall began on 11 December, and remote Navajo Nation bore the brunt of the blizzard and vital supplies had to be airlifted to residents here. The death toll was thought be at least 51 people, all from the surrounding area.

The extraordinary heatwave of 1911 allegedly drove New Yorkers to the point of insanity. The high temperatures began on 4 July and didn't let up until July 15. At the time, it was considered one of the most deadly weather events in history, claiming 158 lives and causing the death of about 600 horses, which were still the main mode of transport. Record high temperatures were set all over New England. The heatwave was finally broken by a severe thunderstorm. Here gentlemen snooze in Battery Park in the early 1910s.

This is Hurricane Florence, as seen from the International Space Station. The image was taken by Astronaut Ricky Arnold as the hurricane gained strength in the Atlantic moving west. It was another three days before Florence hit land in North Carolina. When it did, it caused a record-breaking storm surge of 9 to 13 feet (2.4 to 4m), catastrophic flooding due to rainfall of up to 2.5 feet (0.7m) and extensive wind damage along the North Carolina coast. The flooding caused 42 deaths, more than half in vehicles.  The total damage from Florence in North Carolina was a whopping £19.8 billion ($24.2bn).

One of the Red River's most serious flooding incidents since 1826, the 1997 flood hit the city of Grand Forks the hardest. The devastation was worsened by a fire that began at the same time, and as both flames and floodwaters ravaged the city, a significant part of Grand Forks' central area suffered damage. Flood prevention efforts have since been put in place.

The most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded in Ohio occurred between 3 to 4 April 1974. Of the 148 confirmed tornadoes across 13 states, 30 were F4/F5 on the Fujita scale. The outbreak was also the second largest over 24 hours, and at the time, the first to record more than 100 tornadoes in a day. At one point, as many as 15 separate tornadoes were on the ground simultaneously. The tornado that struck Xenia (pictured), Ohio, was the deadliest, claiming 32 lives.

Oklahoma's most deadly tornado struck on 9 April in the city of Woodward. A violent F5 tornado arrived in the evening with little warning, levelling more than 100 blocks on the west and north sides of the city. At least 107 people were killed in the Woodward area, and nearly 1,000 more were injured. It's though that the tornado claimed 116 lives in total. (Pictured is Woodward in 2010).

The waters of the Willamette River reached their highest ever level in June of 1894. A mix of heavy rains and snowmelt in the spring caused the river to reach a high watermark of more than 33 feet (10m) – water soon poured into downtown Portland, flooding businesses and destroying infrastructure. The disaster finally led to serious flood-control measures being undertaken in the city.

Some 2,209 people lost their lives in the Johnstown flood, which ravaged the community on 31 May 1889. The flood was caused when the South Fork Dam failed due to torrential rainfall, causing around three billion gallons of water to come flowing in Johnstown's direction. As the waters rushed into the town, they crushed buildings in a whirlpool that lasted 10 minutes, according to contemporary reports in The New York Times. Pictured is an illustration depicting the damage, first published in the Illustrated London News that year. 

Hitting southern New England on 21 September, this hurricane has gone down in history as one of the most powerful in the region. In Rhode Island, where this picture was taken after the devastation, water levels were some 17 feet (5.1m) above normal high tide. According to the National Weather Service figures, the event cost the equivalent today of £33 billion ($41bn) worth of damage.

This devastating Category 3 hurricane carried with it a heavy storm surge of 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.6m), which caused enormous destruction along the coastline and offshore Sea Islands in Georgia and South Carolina. It's estimated that up to 3,500 people were killed, making it one of the deadliest hurricanes in US history. Pictured is Beaufort today, on Port Royal Island, which suffered significant damage.

Also known as the Rapid City Flood, this was one of the most serious floods in South Dakota's history, and one of the deadliest in the US. It took place on 9 to 10 June in the Black Hills of Western South Dakota – during the event, homes, vehicles, businesses and bridges were destroyed, and 238 lives were lost. Damage ran to several billion dollars at today’s prices. This image show a pile up of cars in the aftermath.

This huge flood from 1 to 2 May 2010 was a once in a 1,000 years event. Caused by the torrential rains of a very slow-moving, low-pressure system, it left damage totalling billions of dollars. A Presidential Disaster Declaration was put in place in many of the state’s counties and Nashville experienced its all-time rainiest day (13.57 inches) according to the National Weather Service.

The hurricane that levelled Galveston remains the US’s deadliest natural disaster. The Category 4 hurricane descended on the town on 8 September with 135mph winds, destroying more than 3,600 buildings. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association estimates a death toll between 6,000 and 12,000 people: this Texan island city was particularly vulnerable to the storm surge which was over 15 feet (4.5m).

Tornadoes are rare in Utah – but they do happen. This notable weather event occurred in Salt Lake City on 11 August and was only the second tornado in the state that resulted in a fatality. The tornado ripped through Salt Lake City's downtown area, shattering windows and destroying a tented area, pictured here, that was set up for a convention. It's thought the tornado caused around £139.7 million ($170m) in damage in the 10 minutes that it touched down.

Still the biggest natural disaster in the state's history, the great Vermont flood swept through the state from 3 to 4 November 1927. Widespread damage ensued, with precious infrastructure such as railroads torn up and homes ravaged by the waters. Much of the state suffered six inches of rain during the event, and 84 lives were claimed.

Isabel made landfall on 18 September at Virginia Beach and went on to become the most destructive storm in Virginia’s history. Hitting hardest around Chesapeake Bay, Isabel is most remembered for storm surges that created record-high water levels. The hurricane killed 17 people and caused an estimated £2.8 billion ($3.4bn) in property damage.

During the past century Washington has been no stranger to flood damage. But the disaster of 1996 was one of the biggest, impacting 24 out of 39 counties in the state and lasting over a week from 4 to 10 February. A mix of warm weather that saw snow melt, coupled with heavy rain saw 13 rivers with record water levels, with three people losing their lives and over 2,600 homes suffering damage. Pictured is a submerged house in the Skookumchuck River.

 

About 8-10 inches of rain fell over 12 hours from 27 to 28 August, resulting in a flood that was among the most lethal in West Virginia’s history. Thousands of buildings, as well as important infrastructure such as roads and bridges, were demolished, and at least 23 people were killed. The total cost of the damages was about £800 million ($1bn), according to NOAA.

Read more: The US states where you’re most and least likely to see a tornado

South Wisconsin suffered serious floods in August 2018, when it received a mammoth 20 inches of rain in just 15 days. Record flooding occurred along portions of the Kickapoo River, according to the National Weather Service, and the most dramatic days were 20 to 21 August. The poor weather continued into September when the Baraboo River overflowed its banks too causing road closures. 

Read more: The world's most dramatic weather photos since 1900

An extreme blizzard gripped the state of Wyoming in 1984, leading to severely reduced visibility and dangerous snowdrifts, some of which were 20 feet (6m) tall. Snow began falling on 25 April and it would be three days before the conditions would let up. Places such as Campbell County, which received around two feet of snow, came to a complete stand still. Big blizzards happen here occasionally, with Wyoming hit again in February 2001, when six inches of snow dumped in the Rocky Mountain region, pictured here.

Read more: Weather that changed the world in 2018