* 33 was the coldest temperature in Alaska this morning at Barter Island, Eagle and good old Deadhorse. I am still intrigued by the name Deadhorse. It is almost as far north in Alaska as you can get. Once some guests staying in a hotel there were walking down a hallway and met a polar bear. They quickly did a 180. I guess this is an unusual report because I believe this is the first time since early last autumn that none of the reporting stations in Alaska had freezing or lower. Remember back in the winter when Chicken, Alaska had temperatures colder than 60 below zero several times?
* 891 is the number of people who died in a two-week heat wave in New York City in July 1972.
* 30 chickens is how many that were completely stripped of their feathers after a tornado in Lansing, Michigan on June 1, 1943. I actually saw that happen once also in the mid 1950s after a tornado in North Alabama.
* 69 below zero is the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the state of Utah. It occurred at Peter’s Sink on February 1, 1985 at an elevation of 8,092 feet. This is a very remote uninhabited area off Logan Canyon. I have been within 1 mile of it, but did not have time to hike into the rugged terrain. Frankly, I am surprised that the NWS accepted this temperature because it is usually reserved for populated areas.
* 27 was the coldest in the lower 48 this morning at Doe Lake and Stonington, Michigan. That is 5 degrees colder than the minimum in Alaska.
* 0 (yes, that is zero) is the percent of Alabama’s landscape that has very short topsoil moisture. What a contrast from a couple of years ago when we were suffering a major drought.
* 88% is the amount of adequate or surplus soil moisture. This is based on a report issued yesterday in the Crop Progress and Conditiion Report issued weekly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alabama Field Office in Montgomery.
* 1% is how much of the corn and cotton crop is in very poor condition. A very different story 2 years ago. 97% of the Alabama corn crop has been planted and 79% of the cotton crop.
* 117 degrees is the hottest temperature ever recorded in the state of Illinois. It happened on July 14, 1954 in East St. Louis. That is 5 degrees hotter than Alabama’s all-time record of 112 at Centreville in September 1925.
Let’s close all this with a saying I like once uttered by Robert Frost.
“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t and the other half have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”
