Series of unbelievable weather events that hit the 1986 U.S. Women's Open

This Day In Weather History is a daily podcast by Chris Mei from The Weather Network, featuring stories about people, communities and events and how weather impacted them.

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On Thursday, July 10, 1986, the U.S. Women's Open kicked off at the South Course at NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb near Dayton. Jane Geddes won the Open and then got right off the course to presumably celebrate elsewhere. The Open faced several weather events, including smoke, locusts, thundershowers and an earthquake.

Two days before the Open started, a train derailed in Miamisburg, a nearby town. The train dumped white phosphorus and caused a fire; 30,000 residents were evacuated. The next day a related fire broke out and some players could not access the course.

The Open began on Thursday and was greeted with aggressive thunderstorms, which delayed play for 83 minutes.

On Friday, the players and spectators were faced with swarms of locusts.

Gary Nuhn, a Dayton Daily News sportswriter, was covering the tournament. On Friday, he wrote, “Saturday, how about an earthquake?” Adding, “And Sunday, to finish the week just right, armageddon?”

And on Saturday, July 12, a 4.5 magnitude earthquake shook the Anna Ohio Seismogenic Zone near St. Marys, Ohio. The earthquake was felt in Dayton, and some areas lost electricity.

The tournament finished off with another round of thunderstorms, delaying play for over two hours.

“It was wise to bring an umbrella to NCR South Saturday. It was wiser still to bring a change of clothes. It was wisest to bring a hard hat, an inflatable raft and a life jacket,” wrote Nuhn.

To learn more about the many weather events that impacted the 1986 U.S. Women's Open, listen to today's episode of "This Day In Weather History."

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