* 22 inches is the 2007 rain deficiency for Tuscaloosa as of today (21.93 to be exact)
* 18.44 inches is the Birmingham shortfall
* 14.62 inches is all that we have received so far this year
* 38.72 inches is how much we had received at this same time last year
* 35.55 inches is how much rain we would have by New Years eve IF (and a huge if) our rain would return to exactly normal for the rest of this year. Our normal each year is 54 inches. We must remember that and pull thumbs (an old Gabby Bell saying on Barons baseball broadcasts) for ABOVE normal rain the rest of the year. We need to remember water tables, wells, lakes, rivers and reservoirs
* 450 inches is the normal annual rain amount for Cherrapunji, India. Moisture-laden winds off the Bay of Bengal (monsoon winds) are forced to rise as they push up against the Himalayas and they dump enormous amounts of rain
* 1,000 inches of rain fell in one 12-month period at that location. Amazingly, almost all of their rain comes in only four months. Then the monsoon season is over as the winds shift and they have eight months with virtually no rain. Serious water shortages happen during the dry season and people have to travel long distances to bring in fresh water.
* 16.68 inches is the present excess rain amount for Oklahoma City so far this year. They have received 37.89 inches so far this year as compared to 14.71 inches at this same time last year.
* 4 inches is how much rain fell at Alice, in South Texas just in the last 24 hours.
* 9.07 inches for San Antonio so far this month making this July already the 2nd wettest July of all time with still a week to go
* 11 inches is the rain surplus for New York City this year
* 34.36 inches was the statewide average rain amount for Alabama in 1954. That was the lowest amount in 71 years of record up until that time. It was the state’s worst drought up until that time
* 123 days in a row with not even a sprinkle in 1954 at one Central Alabama reporting station
* 1871 is how far back official weather records go for Mobile
* 89.34 inches is how much rain fell in Mobile in 1929. It was a very wet year statewide
JUST TO COOL YOU OFF
* 20 inches was the snow total in the Blizzard of ’93 at Walnut Grove–the most in Alabama. Walnut Grove is on U.S 278 in the west edge of Etowah County, very close to the Blount County line
JUST TO MAKE YOU CRY
I am holding in my coffee-stained fingers a black/white photograph that I made during the serious flooding in February 1961. It is a pix along the Bessemer Super Highway just outside the Birmingham City limits. It shows the flooded highway but it also shows a flooded Billups gas station. The sign in front shows clearly the price of regular gasoline at 28.9 cents per gallon. Bottled water is many times more expensive than that now.
* 0 is how many bottles of water I have bought. Tap water here tastes great as far as I am concerned.
