* 102 is the forecast high this afternoon for Van Horn on I-10 in far West Texas. Nothing unusual about that except that hot, dry winds will be gusting as high as 50 mph this afternoon with no thunderboomers involved. Models project the dew point to drop as low as 22. (Translation: little or no humidity, probably under 5%.) This means that if you hang out the wash on the backyard clothesline, the first garments will be dry before you get to the end of the line. Bed sheets will be flapping like pop whips.
* 4 is how many inches of fresh snow is expected to accumulate in Yellowstone National Park in the next 24 to 36 hours along with thunder and lightning. In fact, thunderstorms with occasional snow showers are forecast every night through the weekend. (I still catch myself calling it Jellystone Park. You can tell I watched too many Yogi Bear cartoons back in the 60s. It may also surprise you that one of my top three all time favorite movies was Jungle Book. I watched it at least 40 times when the grandkids were young.)
* 6 to 8 is how many inches of snow is forecast for Alta, Utah in the next 48 hours along with thunderstorms. Alta is a ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains, but the snow will be as low as 8,000 feet.
* 9,000 feet is the projected snow level around Flagstaff, Arizona from this storm. This means the upper 4,000 feet or so of the San Francisco Peaks will be white with snow. Those peaks are the highest elevations in Arizona.
* 4 to 11 inches of new snow is forecast in the mountains of Central Colorado tonight and tomorrow along with thundersnow. This includes places like Climax and Leadville. Temperatures at night will drop as low as 19 degrees.
* 3.82 inches is the rain amount for Springfield, Illinois in the last 24 hours and 3.30 at Lincoln, Illinois. In only a few hours this morning, there were at least 11 Flash Flood Warnings issued in Indiana and Ohio.
* 2 is the number of Moderate Risk areas for severe weather that the Storm Prediction Center has outlined for today and tonight. One includes Northern Kansas, SE Nebraska, NW Missouri and extreme SW Iowa. The other one further east includes almost all of West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland. This includes Charleston, Richmond and the nation’s capitol. A Slight Risk area extends all the way from Denver and Southern South Dakota eastward to the Atlantic Seaboard. Places like St. Louis, Des Moines, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are in that area. For tomorrow, the main action shifts back westward with a broad Slight Risk area over the Plains and Upper Midwest from Dallas to Minneapolis and east across Wisconsin and Michigan. This includes a Moderate Risk area for such cities as Wichita, Topeka, Omaha, Des Moines and Minneapolis.
* 113 was the hottest temperature in the USA yesterday at Wink, Texas accompanied by strong south winds and a humidity as low as 4%.
* 30 was the coldest in the lower 48 this morning at Bryce Canyon, Utah and Grand Canyon Village, Arizona.
* 28 was the coldest in Alaska at Point Hope and Cape Lisburn.
* 41 was the temperature at Morning Shadows Ranch Colorado. (Yes, we do get a daily report from there and I love that name.
* 36 was the temperature at Churchill, Manitoba this morning on the SW shore of Hudson Bay. Since I have an overactive imagination, I can just see all the polar bears sunbathing.
* 47.06 inches is the rain shortfall for Scottsboro in NE Alabama since January 2005. That is almost a year’s supply of rain. This information from a statement issued by forecaster, Jason Elliott, NWS Huntsville. (We are not related even though we were both raised in West Alabama. Wish I could claim him as a cousin, because he does great work.)
* 57% of the pasture and rangeland in Alabama is in good condition and 24% fair according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alabama Field Office. That is a big improvement over last year.
* 79% of the state has adequate topsoil moisture–also a huge improvement.
* 10 below zero was the low in downtown Birmingham on February 13, 1899, which is the coldest temperature ever recorded in the city with records going back to the mid 1880s. If we had had airport records at that time, and certainly ones from Pinson, I feel like it would have been 15 below. But did you know that in the first week of February, temperatures were in the mid 70s. I plan to do a blog story later about the tremendous January 1940 snow and cold outbreak.
