Spring Arrives Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the “official” arrival of spring for the northern hemisphere. The 2007 vernal equinox occurs at 7:07 p.m. CDT Tuesday; that is when the sun is directly over the equator, and we have approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. And, of course, while we celebrate the arrival of spring, our friends in the southern hemisphere welcome the autumn season.

We consider “meteorological spring” the months of March, April, and May, which is also the primary tornado season in Alabama. Spring offers a wide variety of weather in Alabama; but certainly the historic tornado outbreaks headline the red letter days this time of the year. We are coming up on the 75th anniversary of the state’s most deadly tornado outbreak; on March 21, 1932 when hundreds were killed across the central part of the state. Some of the hardest hit counties included Dallas, Chilton, Marengo, and Tuscaloosa. Bill Murray has been writing about this event in recent days in this space.

We can’t forget that our most serious floods and flash floods typically come during the spring; in April 1979 the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers in West Alabama reached “100 year” flood levels; at one point the entire Demopolis Lock and Dam on the Tombigbee River was submerged by the swollen river.

Oddly enough some of our biggest winter storm events have come during the spring; five inches of snow fell on Birmingham on April 3, 1987. Snow flakes have been seen as late as April 25, 1910, when flurries were reported.

Toward the end of the season hot weather begins to take hold; the hottest temperature on record during the month of May is 99 degrees, recorded on May 28, 1962 and May 29, 1898. And, while we rarely have long dry spells this time of the year, we must note that with only 1.01” of rain this month, it will be one of our driest months of March on record here!

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