We’ve had some pretty wacky weather in recent weeks. We’ve had record high temperatures, record cold, snowstorms and this week some very destructive thunderstorms.

The thing is, the weather has always been fickle. You’ve heard the saying: “the calm before the storm.” Essentially that means there can be wonderful weather and in a moment it can change to stormy conditions.

As a cold front came through on Tuesday, bringing tornado warnings in some areas of the state and felling trees locally, I got to thinking about some of the climate conditions we’ve experienced over the years.

I’ve been a photojournalist for 50 years and in that span the local area has experienced floods, blizzards and droughts.

I have attempted to put together — mostly from memory — what I consider to be the top 10 local weather-related incidents during my career.

Possibly you, the reader, can refresh me on weather disasters I might have missed or offer your opinions regarding this compilation.

Obviously, if a weather situation impacted you personally, your list will be different.

Here goes:

1The Blizzard of ’93. This was also known as “The Storm of the Century” and the “93 Superstorm.” It occurred on March 12-13. At its height, the storm stretched from Canada toward Central America, but the main impact was on the Eastern United States and Cuba. The storm buried Tobyhanna with 42 inches of snow. The National Weather Service said 30 inches of snow fell in Kidder Township and 25 inches was measured in Tamaqua. Measured wind gusts at the ABE Airport in Allentown (now Lehigh Valley) were 55 miles per hour, with 72 mph gusts measured in East Stroudsburg. The storm interrupted the 150th birthday celebration of Carbon County. It stopped mail delivery for a day.

2Hurricane Agnes. This wouldn’t normally rank this high since our local area wasn’t impacted as destructively as the towns along the Susquehanna River from Wilkes-Barre to Harrisburg were. It certainly didn’t affect the local area like Hurricanes Camille and Diane did in 1955, which resulted in devastating flooding to Tamaqua, Weissport, Walnutport, Lehighton and other communities. The latter isn’t on this list because it happened more than 50 years ago. The reason Agnes flooding is included is because of the overwhelming efforts by local residents to help those in the flood zones. The former Interstate Dress Carriers trucking company lent its vehicles to transport collected goods to the flood victims.

3Tornadoes. Although not as frequent as in the Plains, tornadoes do strike here. The most serious damage I’ve seen firsthand occurred in Danielsville in July 1981, when about six homes were heavily damaged by a twister. Miraculously nobody was killed. The tornadoes also uprooted trees and tore down power lines. Ironically the same area was hit by a tornado on Nov. 10, 1996, when about 14 homes and a church were damaged. A low-level tornado in Franklin Township on May 23, 2011, damaged 11 homes. That same storm cluster caused major damage to farms and trees in Walker Township, Schuylkill County. In May 1996, a tornado damaged some homes off Lentz Trail in Jim Thorpe and leveled trees in Walker Township. This set of tornadoes coincidentally happened on the day that the movie “Twister” opened in local theaters.

4Drought of 1999. It was a wicked summer in 1999. Virtually all the state of Pennsylvania was in a drought. The state forbid the filling of swimming pools, washing cars, watering lawns and even offering glasses of water at restaurants. Beltzville Lake had much of its water drained to prevent salination downstream. Since then, the state has begun more closely monitoring groundwater and stream levels.

5Winter Ice Storm. I believe it was December 2002 — although I no longer have a file on it — that freezing rain and high winds left much of the region without power for days. The wind was so heavy on trees that walking on roadways you could hear branches falling. The power outage forced the Times News to miss publishing for one day, which was a first.

6Bitter cold in 1981. Every now and then we have subzero temperatures. Fortunately, nights like Jan. 11, 1981, are rare. That evening, the mercury dipped to minus 20 in the Kriss Pines area of Franklin Township, according to resident Lorraine Kunkel. Roger Naratil, a dispatcher at the emergency communications center in Lehighton, said he had a reading of minus 17. The combination of the cold and a drought caused reservoirs to become dangerously low. Two reservoirs serving Walnutport went dry. A leak impacting Jim Thorpe’s water supply and created a crisis situation. A reservoir serving 13 households in the Packerton section of Mahoning Township went nearly dry, then froze solid, making it unusable. Incidentally, the coldest local temp ever recorded was minus 30 in Hauto on Feb. 9, 1934.

7The snow kept coming. It was a bad winter, the 1993-1994 one. The snowstorms kept coming one after another. That winter saw the local area accumulate a record high total of 75.2 inches of snow. At one point, three storms fell in one week. Shoveled snow was piled higher than chain link fences in many yards. It was a frustrating year which probably saw a record number of parking disputes.

8The January 2016 storm. Although the Blizzard of ’93 had its high wind, the snowstorm in January 2016 topped it with local accumulation. Allentown saw 31.9 inches of snow. About 2 feet of snow fell in most of the local area.

9Brush fires. Although they don’t compare to the brush fires out west, our area has seen its share of forest devastation. Two of the most serious happened on the Blue Mountain near Ashfield, one in the mid 1980s and the other in 2016. Hundreds of acres of woodland burned, possibly in 1986, in a blaze that lasted for days. Then on April 19, 2015, an estimated 400 acres were consumed.

10 Hailstorm of 2011. On May 26, 2011, one of the worst hail storms ever to hit the region occurred. Baseball-size hail pummeled mostly Lansford and Summit Hill. The rain put hundreds of dents in cars, broke windows on houses, damaged roofs and ruined housing siding. Miraculously, nobody was hurt.

So there you have it, a quick compilation of the top weather stories locally in the past 50 years. We’d like to hear how you would alter the list.

Send your list to either me, rongower@ptd.net, or my editor, Marta, at tneditor@tnonline.com.