* 21 was the dew point at Muscle Shoals, in NW Alabama at mid-afternoon. This is the driest air so far this season flowing into Alabama. It should give us our coldest night.
* 27 is my guess that some of the traditional cold spots will record tomorrow morning. 31 is our forecast average low across Central Alabama. It will be interesting to see what Vic Bell reports from Black Creek tomorrow morning. He lives in an interesting spot up there in NE Etowah County. He lives on an elevated area, but also sort of in a valley, so he gets cold air drainage.
* 13 was the dew point in Nashville at mid-afternoon. That is very, very dry air and it chills quickly after sunset.
* 90% is the approximate area of Alaska and Canada that already has a snow cover. We believe that is a high percentage for this early in the season. The western and central prairies of Canada is a good source region for bitter cold air masses to build up in winter. This includes places like the Yukon Territory and Eastern Alaska. If there is a good snow cover and a high pressure area develops, it will get stronger and stronger and the air colder and colder until it breaks away and heads south into the USA. From watching that many years, I got the hint that when the pressure builds to 1060 milibars and the temperatures 50 degrees below zero or colder, it was time to look out.
* 4 below zero (F) is the approximate temperature high above Birmingham this afternoon where you see those thin, wispy cirrus clouds. They are about 25,000 feet above the ground and are composed entirely of floating ice crystals. Even when you see those clouds on the hottest summer day, they are still ice. It is always below freezing where you see cirrus clouds even if it is 110 degrees down on the ground.
* 90% of Montana and North Dakota also has a snow cover. This is based on a NOAA NESDIS satellite survey. Nice thing about that is that it can see remote sections of the world where there are no surface weather reports. The snow and ice extends over the North Pole and down into Northern Siberia. We will be watching weather reports from over on the other side of the North Pole all winter. Sometimes a bitter cold air mass will cross the Pole and head south into North America. Often that brings the coldest temperatures ever.
* 5 above zero was the low in Birmingham on November 25, 1950. That is the only day in November weather history that we have had single digit temperatures. Birmingham had 1 inch of snow on the ground at the time and, leading up to the snow and cold, was one of our more drastic temperature drops in history.
* 80 on December 7, 1951 is the latest in the year that we had 80 or higher. Our high temperature has been 80 or higher in every single month in the year, including 81 on January 10, 1949.
* 1929 was the all-time wettest year for Birmingham. Would you believe we got a whopping 81.82 inches of rain? Our normal each year is around 54 inches.
* 5 is how many pounds of additional weight I lost in October. Four of those pounds can be credited to Little Miss Molly, my 9-pound pal, that leads me around the walking track and almost always breaking the speed limit.
* 90 miles is how far we drove (round trip) to get our eyes examined today. Our opthamologist moved to Alabaster. I was glad to get an excellent report. I believe today was the first time my eyes have ever been dilated. I have only had 2 pair of eyeglasses in my entire life. Thankful? You bet!
Out of here…gotta walk Little Miss Molly again and I am anxious to see a great college football game tonight between West Virginia and Louisville.
