* 450,000 is the estimated number of additional people that have moved into areas of the Western USA prone to wildfires. Most of those are in Southern California.
* 3.5 million is the number of people now living in the fire prone areas of the Western USA.
* 10 million is the number of acres that were burned by wildfires in 2006, which was a national record. This year has gotten off to a terrible start. Just look at the situation in SE Georgia and Florida.
* 236 was the number of fires burning in Florida alone just before the weekend.
* 1.6 feet was the river stage on the Cahaba at Centreville this morning. Flood stage is 23 feet.
* 13 inches will be the rain deficiency for this year so far by tomorrow in Birmingham.
* 7 is how many months in a row that rain has been below normal in Birmingham counting this month.
* 5 months out of the last 17 (since January 2006) is the number of months with rain above normal.
* 38.41 inches is our rain total for the last 12 months (May 2006 through April 2007). Normal is 54 inches.
* 200,000 is the estimated number of acres burned by wildfires in Florida in the current long siege.
* 83.63 inches was the most rain ever in history for Birmingham during a 12-month period. That occurred from February 1961 through January 1962. There was a lot of flooding in Central Alabama in February 1961. I am holding in my never-nicotine-stained hands a photograph I made of a flooded Bessemer Superhighway on the western edge of Birmingham. A gasoline price sign is easily visible in th picture and gasoline was 28.9 cents per gallon at that time in 1961. It was at a Billups Station. Anyone remember those? I have not seen one in years.
* 34.32 was the Birmingham rain total for the year 1904. That was our driest year on record. Only 0.01 fell in all of October and November. That is not enough to wet the pavement in eight whole weeks.
* 400 years ago today is when the English established a settlement at Jamestown. It was on May 14, 1607 and that was the beginning of the USA as we know it today. Be sure and check out the May edition of National Geographic. There is a very interesting exhaustive story of that event, plus a full-size map supplement with very interesting inscriptions.
