THIS FIRST SET OF NUMBERS HAS TO DO WITH THE SIGNS OF THE SEASON
* 5 above zero was the temperature at Summit, Greenland this morning on the ice cap. It is still technically summer there as well as here.
* 20s have been the low at Ojmjakon, Siberia the last several days. That town is billed as the coldest continuously inhabited place on earth and they once had a minus 96. This is a signal to us that colder air is about ready to take back the territory that it surrendered during the long, hot summer.
* 2 minutes is how much additional sunlight we will lose by tomorrow.
* 89 is now the normal high for Birmingham. It slipped below the 90-degree mark four days ago–normal was 91 the first 15 days of August.
* 67 is now our normal low. It was 70 as recently as August 13.
* 80 will be our normal high by the end of next month and 58 the normal low. 58 sounds so nice. If we could have had 58 this morning, there would have been widespread celebrations and pep rallies.
* 34 was the temperature at mid-morning at Alert with steady light snow. The wind chill was 26. They expect a low of 22 Thursday morning. Alert is the northernmost weather station in North America. As winter comes on, that is one of the weather stations we will watch closely, as well as some over the North Pole into Siberia. I have always believed (but definitely cannot prove) that when the temperature drops to lower than 50 below zero at Dawson and Mayo in the Yukon and the pressure builds to above 1050mb, that a massive jail break will occur with the bitter cold air making me wear a coat about a week later.
OTHER NUMBERS
* 4 inches is how much snow that I believe Birmingham will get at some point this winter. No, no, that is not a forecast–it is just a gut feeling. I am not a big believer that we will get some weather event because we are statistically overdue. For example, we went 4 years with no measurable snow early this century, then we had 7 winters in a row with measurable snow. In fact, 9 out of the 10 winters between 1909 and 1919 had measurable snow.
* 27 inches is how much snow we got in the 1930s. That decade was very good to us for snow. 8 out of 10 of the winters in the 1930s had measurable snow. This included 10 inches in January 1940 and 12 inches in 1936. That 12 inches in 1936 stood as Birmingham’s all-time record for a single snowstorm until we got 13 inches in the Blizzard of ’93.
* 3 inches was one of the biggest rain amounts in Alabama yesterday at Sylacauga. There was 1.90 inches at Gainesville Lock and Dam over on the west side of the state.
* 43.54 inches is how much rain Oklahoma City has received so far this year. They had received only 19.07 inches at this same time last year.
* 19.72 inches is the current rain excess for Oklahoma this year.
* 15.15 inches is how much wetter Dallas/Ft. Worth is than they are supposed to be at this time.
* 23 inches is the current surplus for San Antonio and 16 inches in Houston. We have always said that nothing is fair in rain distributions, droughts and heat waves.
* 5.94 inches is the current rain deficit for Geneva in South Alabama. That weather station has consistently been in better shape than the rest of the state.
* 24.27 inches is the current deficit for 2007 in Thorsby. They have only received 38% of their normal rain so far.
* 23.28 inches is the deficit for Tuscaloosa as of yesterday. They, too, have received only 38% of their allotment so far this year.
* 94% of Alabama currently has very short or short topsoil moisture. Only 6% is adequate. Those numbers were released by the U.S. Deparment of Agriculture, Alabama Field Office at midafternoon yesterday.
* 77% of the pasture and rangeland in Alabama is in very poor to poor condition. Only 3% is in good condition.
OTHER NOTES FROM THE REPORT
* Darrell Rankins, Auburn Extension Cattle Specialist, reports that livestock producers are still facing severe shortages of forage as a result of the extended drought. Many herds have already been liquidated and others will be sold if substantial rain does not begin soon. Many producers have run out of water in ponds and creeks, which had typically served as a livestock water source. Producers that still maintain their herds are facing severe hay shortages as we go into the winter feeding period.
* Donald Mann, the County Agent in Jackson County, reported that the 100-degree temperatures and drought was killing the soybean plants and that late soybeans will not be worth harvesting. Mr. Mann also said that cotton has gone downhill fast and boles that are not falling off are starting to open prematurely. The yield potential for cotton has dropped all the way from 800 pounds per acre a few weeks ago to 300-400 pounds per acre now.
