**Meteorologist Robert Henson is a writer and editor at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He is the author of "The Rough Guide to Weather" (second edition, 2007) and "The Rough Guide to Climate Change" (second edition, 2008).

(Robert Henson) To paraphrase Charles Dickens, 2008 was the calmest of times and the stormiest of times. In this article, we have recapped some of the highest impact U.S. weather events of the last 12 months.

1. Hurricane Ike (Texas/Louisiana, September). One of the wildest and weirdest hurricanes in recent years, Ike started its career with a bang in the open Atlantic. It intensified from tropical storm to Category 3 status in less than nine hours on 3 September. A few days later, Ike crossed the Caribbean and waltzed across extreme western Cuba as a Cat 3. But Ike's peak winds never regained major-hurricane force. Instead, the system simply got bigger, eventually packing some of the largest radii of hurricane-force winds (125 miles) and tropical-storm force winds (275 miles) ever measured. This posed a major public communication challenge, as the vast swath of wind was expected to stir up a storm surge in the Galveston area far worse than people might presume from the storm's Category 2 rating.

The worst of Ike's surge struck less-populated areas just east of Galveston Island on the night of 12-13 September, but the overall damage was still tremendous: more than $30 billion (in inflation-adjusted dollars, that's the third costliest U.S. hurricane on record). Much of Galveston and nearby coastal towns were left in shambles, and storm-surge damage extended well east into Louisiana. Ike resulted in 82 U.S. deaths--among the highest tolls in recent decades--and more than 200 people remain missing in the hurricane's aftermath. The Boston Globe posted an incredible Ike photo gallery.

2. Midwest rains and flooding (Iowa and surrounding states, June). Although El Niño often gets the rap for U.S. flooding, it was a relentless storm track powered by La Niña that focused heavy winter snows and spring rains across a belt roughly from Kansas to Michigan. It all culminated with two weeks of incredible rains centered in two bands, one from central Iowa to southern Wisconsin and another running from eastern Illinois to southern Indiana. Some spots notched more than 14" between June 1 and 15, and a total of 15 stations had their wettest single days on record, gauging anywhere from 4.5" to 9.5" of rain. The resulting floods managed to topple a few of the marks set in the epic 1993 Mississippi flood. The most jaw-dropping imagery came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where floodwaters spread to an almost-incomprehensible extent. More than 42,000 people were evacuated and some 400 city blocks were inundated as the Cedar River rose nearly a foot above its previous record crest.

3. Hurricane Gustav (Louisiana, September). It threatened to pummel New Orleans with the same or greater ferocity than Katrina did in 2005, but in the end, Gustav--as with many sequels--failed to deliver the punch of the original. Except for a sharp southwest jog in the northern Caribbean, Gustav followed a remarkably straight northwesterly path toward the Louisiana coast. Fears of a Katrina repeat were stoked when Gustav quickly reached Category 4 strength while approaching western Cuba, and people left the Louisiana coastline in droves--the state's largest evacuation in history. But the hurricane never quite recovered from its brief passage over Cuba, and it plowed into the coast at borderline Cat. 2/3 strength near Grand Isle, just far enough west to stave off another New Orleans disaster. Nevertheless, Gustav left an impressive swath of damage well inland, with countless trees and power lines knocked down across Louisiana. In all, 43 U.S. deaths were recorded, along with nearly 100 others in the Caribbean.

4. Super Tuesday tornado outbreak (Midwest and South, February). As if there weren't enough drama in the air as political primaries unfolded nationwide on February 5, nature threw a few tornadoes into the mix--87, to be exact, causing some precincts to close early. The parent storms were sparked by a potent upper-level trough, but perhaps the most unusual ingredient was a large swath of moist, record-warm surface air that swept into place more than a day ahead of time. (More typically in a midwinter outbreak, such air masses race north only hours before storms develop.) Some of the worst damage was near Nashville and Memphis and in star-crossed Jackson, Tennessee, which endured its third major tornado strike following hits in 1999 and 2003. If nothing else, the onslaught is beefing up the city's tornado awareness. Students at Union University dove for cover as dormitories were heavily damaged, but nobody died on campus. All told, though, the tornadoes took 57 lives, making this the deadliest U.S. outbreak since 1985.

5. Winter onslaught across northern tier (Northwest/Midwest/Northeast, December). An unusually potent jet stream brought multiple waves of wintry weather across the northern half of the nation from mid-December toward month's end. The sustained cold was noticeable, if only because recent years have brought so little of it, but frozen precipitation was the real star of this show. The Portland, Oregon, area saw its heaviest snow in 29 years (11-13"), and several Wisconsin cities had their snowiest Decembers on record, less than a year after the state set many seasonal snowfall records. The worst ice storm in New Hampshire's history left thousands of customers without power for days just before the holidays, and hundreds were stranded at snow-crippled airports from Seattle to Chicago.

6. Southeastern US drought slowly abates (ongoing). The year opened with many parts of the Southeast desperate for rain. Atlanta was at the epicenter of the multi-year drought, with Lake Lanier--the city's chief source of water--having just set a record low on December 26, 2007. There wasn't a single dramatic drought-buster, but recurrent fronts managed to douse enough of the Southeast by April to completely erase the region of "exceptional" drought (the most dire category). Slow improvement continued through the year. Today, only a dimple of "extreme" drought remains from northeast Georgia into southwest North Carolina, while many adjacent areas are now drought-free. However, Lake Lanier remains only a foot above its record low and more than 17 feet below full. [GREAT GRAPHIC: you can generate a comparison from Jan 1 to Dec 23 by going to U.S. Drought Monitor Web site and using the pull-downs.

7. California wildfires (June). The northwest flow that dominated the U.S. in the first half of 2008 left much of California high and dry. Many locales, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, reported their driest springs on record. What shocked many observers wasn't the wildfire itself--in a year like this, it's inevitable--but how quickly it arrived and how intensely it raged. A freakish round of low-precipitation thunderstorms swept across the northern half of the state on June 20-21, triggering more than 2,000 fires. Before summer had even gotten going, huge fires were devastating regions from the Big Sur area through much of the forested north. By late July, though, conditions had eased, and the rest of California's fire season was comparatively tame outside of an intense round of wildfires close to L.A. in November.

8. January tornado outbreak (Midwest, South). Even seasoned weather watchers were astounded to see a tornado outbreak so far northwest so early in the year. When twisters strike in January, it's usually in the Deep South, where moisture is plentiful year round. But on January 7-8, the action was focused in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. There were even two twisters in southern Wisconsin; only one other had been reported in that state in January since records began in 1844. On January 9 and 10, the tornadoes continued, but most were in the more climatologically favored Deep South--except for a true outlier that struck near Vancouver, Washington, making it that state's first-ever January tornado. All told, the outbreak was the nation's second most prolific for January, but only 4 deaths were recorded.

9. Ohio snowstorm (March). Buffered by the Appalachians and the Great Lakes, Ohio gets many types of weather, but seldom in super-strong doses. March 7-8 was the exception that proved the rule, as much of Ohio was hammered by more than a foot of snowfall. Columbus was buried by 20.8", with 15.4" of that total setting a new 24-hour record. The storm was accompanied by strong winds and biting cold, although temperatures and overall hardship across Ohio fell far short of the memorable Blizzard of 1978, when bitter winds of up to 70 mph piled fresh and existing snow into drifts that paralyzed the state for days.

10. Boy Scout and Kansas State tornadoes (June, Iowa). Hundreds of tornadoes ripped across the nation's heartland in the spring of 2008, but one in particular struck me with its poignancy. More than 100 Boy Scouts and staff encamped on a hilly, wooded site north of Omaha found themselves fighting for their lives on June 11 as an EF-3 twister tossed trees and destroyed a cabin where many campers had taken shelter. More than 40 Scouts were injured, but only 4 died, in part due to the quick action of peers who provided first aid. The incident catalyzed fresh debate on the need for dedicated tornado shelters. Less publicized, but just as impressive, was an EF-4 tornado on the same evening that sliced across the campus of Kansas State University, severely damaging several buildings. Afterward, KSU vice president Tom Rawson delivered what has to be the most ironic weather quote of 2008: "The Wind Erosion Lab is gone." Thankfully, the campus was nearly empty and nobody was seriously hurt.

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