However the next month, January 1990, was the warmest January on record for the entire country. At the end of 1990 the western states experienced the coldest December ever. The winter of 1991-92 was the warmest winter on record with temperatures 4o F above normal nationwide and 11o F above normal in the upper midwest. There was almost no snowfall outside the mountainous region of the country. But a freak storm in May provided northern Georgia with its largest snowfall ever recorded.
Hurricanes draw their strength from the heated surface layers of the sea.
The warmer the sea, and the deeper the heated layer, the more powerful the storm will be. A tropical cyclone that struck Bangladesh in 1991 was the most powerful storm ever to ply the Bay of Bengal. Known only as Cyclone 2B, it reached sustained winds of up to 200 mph shortly before it struck land. A 20-foot tidal crest ushered the storm ashore where it killed 140,000 people. Seven typhoons struck Japan in 1991, including Mireille, which killed 50 people and caused more damage to insured property than any other storm in that nation's history.