Tropical Storm Barry (2007)

minimum. Four degrees: Europe in permanent drought; vast areas of China, India and Bangladesh claimed by desert; Polynesia swallowed by the sea; the Colorado River

Records indicate that the system was indeed a small one, with an eye no more than eight miles wide, and principal storm bands perhaps thirty miles across. But its compact size is also what gave the storm its legendary strength. No wind-speed-measuring instruments survived, but subsequent engineering analysis of the damage left behind suggested that