* 39 was the 5 am temperature at North Pole, Alaska. Kristie Calvin, the 33/40 Skywatcher happened to wake up at 5 and checked the thermometer.. At least there is some cool weather left on this old earth!
* 36 was the coldest of the official reporting stations in Alaska–at Gulkana
* 31 was the lowest of all in the USA and it occurred in the Lower 48 at Stanley, Idaho. Stanley is nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains. Last time we were there, the speed limit and population were both 35. There was just one street. A strange thing happened. We were looking for a good campsite on the nearby Salmon River. There were plenty available. We especially liked one but it was littered with newspapers. We picked them up and suddenly realized that it was a week old Sunday Birmingham News! Small world.
* 113 was the hottest in the USA Tuesday at Palm Springs, Calif., and Gila Bend, Ariz.
LATER: Soon I want to do a JB’s Journal story about the very first radar we had access to at the USWB/NWS at Birmingham Airport, yet it did not belong to us.
* 105 was the high in Wichita Falls, Tex., they have had a long string of 100 + temperatures. So have a number of other cities in the middle of the nation.
* 104 is the forecast high for Tulsa today followed by. 105 tomorrow.
* 32 (at least) is the number if states today with warnings, watches or advisories related entirely to heat.
* 97 is the expected high in Boston by Friday as the big bubble of heat spreads east. Also on Friday, the forecast is for 99 in Baltimore and 101 at Columbia, South Carolina.
* 99 is expected in Minneapolis today but cooling to 87 tomorrow. Minnesota has been especially prominent in the heat wave story. A few days ago, the heat index exceeded 110 in parts of Iowa and Minnesota.
* 4 people (a mom and her three daughters) have been swept away and killed in a Wyoming mountain road washout. Flooding and Flash Flooding has been a huge issue in the USA so far in 2011.
* 90% of the time is how much the sun shines on Yuma, Ariz., making it the sunniest city in the USA. ( of course that means 90% of the daylight hours)
* 31% is the average relative humidity in Las Vegas, day and night and all year, making it the nation’s least humid city.
* 83% is the average humidity at Quillayute, Wash., making it the nation’s most humid city. However, there is a difference. Daytime temperatures are much cooler there so it is much more comfortable.
*17 days is how much it rains each year in Yuma, Ariz., making it the nations’s least rainy city…
