SHIVERING IN ALASKA
National Weather Service in Fairbanks issued a Special Weather Statement this afternoon about the bitter cold spreading across Alaska. Examples:
-42 Arctic Village
-44 Chandalar Lake
-40 Granite Creek
-37 Coldfoot
-31 Fairbanks
NWS said this is the first time this season that the temperature at Fairbanks International Airport has dropped below -30!
BARROW ALASKA
No sunrise and no sunset at Barrow on the Arctic Coast. That northernmost town is in their long stretch with no sunlight.
MILWAUKEE
3 to 5 inches of snow in the next 24 hours. Likewise for much of Iowa, Central and South Wisconsin and Extreme Northern Illinois.
BASRAH IRAQ
For the next five days, high temperatures 68 to 71 and lows 46 to 53. We can’t forget our military in the war zone and their families back home.
BACK HOME IN ALABAMA
We only have four short weeks to erase rain deficits around Alabama that have been around most of the year. As of today, here is a list of shortfalls:
-0.98 Birmingham Airport
-4.22 Anniston Airport
-2.56 Montgomery
-14.64 Tuscaloosa Airport
-15.73 Huntsville Airport
It will be near impossible for Huntsville and Tuscaloosa to recover by New Year’s eve. Mobile is an exception, they are slightly above normal.
REGIONAL RAIN SHORTAGES
-4.69 Tupelo
-2.26 Nashville
-12.40 Chattanooga
-9.60 Atlanta
NOT EVERYBODY TOO DRY
+14.00 Des Moines
+17.44 St. Louis
Much of that excess built during the massive river flooding in Iowa and down the Mississippi earlier in the year.
IOWA
The state of Iowa really got hit hard by the record flooding earlier in the year, Much of the corn crop was damaged or wiped out. Did you know that Iowa has more land under cultivation than any other state? More than 24 million acres! Texas is second. In farm and ranch country like Iowa, weather is extremely crucial.
LIFE WITHOUT RAIN
There is a location in the Atacama Desert in Chile where it has never rained. Calama is the name of one such location.
THE VAST SAHARA
There are adult tribesmen in parts of the vast Sahara that have never seen rain.
DOES THAT MAKE YOU THANKFUL? For our average of 54 inches per year in Central Alabama? (Although not every year!)
