WEATHER BY THE NUMBERS 2/28/07

* 350 was the number of people who attended the last session of Storm Alert, 2007, at the Bessemer Civic Center last night. (Estimated by 33/40 News Director, Gary Kelly)

* 20 is how many excellent digital weather radios were given away at the event.

* 100 is how many radios were given away in this year’s series of programs. There were 5 stops on the tour. They were top quality Midland radios and very sensitive. As part of the continuing ABC 33/40 promotion, you can still buy one of those radios at Publix or Handy-TV. They are at a special price of $29.95. (translation, a steal)

* 1,000 was the estimated attendance at the Jasper stop on the Storm Alert tour. Seems that was the attendance champion.

* 11 March is when CDT (Daylight Saving Time) starts this year.

* 4 November is the date we go back to CST (Central Standard Time). Woe is me, they are chipping away at my much beloved CST time each year. Soon, there will be little remaining. All my body parts matriculate better on standard time. Too, my forecasts are more accurate during standard time. World weather traffic, including models, stay on the same time year around, so that means we have one hour less time to study a ton of data when we are on the blasted CDT. Oh, well, that is just a personal opinion and I certainly respect yours. I checked with Little Miss Molly and she said she liked standard time year-round. Whatever Littke Miss Molly wants, I want.

* 3 is how many people were killed when a lightning stroke struck a beach in a park in New York City on August 7, 1938. That is not that unusual, except that one year later and almost at the same time, another lightning bolt killed 3 more people on the same beach.

* 1877 was the year that a rain of snakes up to 18 inches long came falling from the sky over the south part of Memphis. This was reported in Scientific American magazine. We all know what happened and it is not exceptionally unusual. A tornado, even a small one, could have moved across a swampy area near the Mississippi River where those snakes were living happily. Instead of doing a lot of creepy crawling, they got to log some sky miles on their credit card..

* 4,800 is the estimated number of hailstorms in the USA each year. Mind you, not all of those are damaging, but hail does cause an enormous amount of property damage in a year and especially crop damage. Some real whoppers can occur in Eastern Colorado, including right up against the mountains in the Denver area.

* 2.07 is the amount of rain that may fall on Birmingham tomorrow. That number comes from a readout of one of our weather models and it is not sealed in stone. It does indicate that we will not only deal with some severe thunderstorms Thursday, but we will have locally heavy rain.

* 90 was the highest temperature in the USA yesterday at Ft. Pierce, Florida. 90 is the normal high temperature for most of the summer in Birmingham, although we do edge upward to a normal of 91 during the hottest of the summer.

* 17 below zero was the coldest in the lower four dozen states this morning. It happened at Big Piney, Wyoming. Big Piney is located in a beautiful area of Western Wyoming. You can stand in the town and see the Wind River Mountain range to the east where there is skiing. You can look to the west and see the lower part of the Teton National Forest. Looking NE 50 air miles away, is Gannett Peak, the highest point in all of Wyoming at an elevation of 13,804 feet.

* 6 to 10 is the number of inches of snow, sleet and freezing rain expected to accumulate in Green Bay tonight through Thursday night. Thunderstorms will also be involved. (Thundersnow!) How would you like to be sitting in Limbeau Stadium in weather like this to see the Green Bay Packers play? Bart Starr can tell you many stories of playing football in that stadium under bitter cold conditions.

* 25 mph is how high the wind is this morning on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. I report that because it is so unusual to see the wind that light. Even the temperature is like a spring day–only 10 above zero.

* 7 is how many cars that passed me in the left lane of I-59 going from Trussville to Roebuck a few days ago. I was in the right lane with my speed control set on 65. They were all doing at least 75 mph and were tailgating so tightly, that there was only one-half car length between most of them and they kept switching lanes every few minutes without using a turn signal just to try to gain a few feet. When we got down to the Roebuck Parkway exit, I saw one of the drivers park at McDonalds and calmly walk into the restaurant. He was in no hurry at all, but out on the interstate he was driving like a maniac. I do not understand. I REALLY do not understand. Please excuse me for closing out this post with a pet peeve.

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