Weather by the Numbers, 12/22/09

* 14 degrees is how much the average temperature is warmer in Los Angeles (Pasadena) than Birmingham during the month of January. They are expecting dry weather and highs in the 60s for the next few days. They receive only an average of 13 inches of rain per year as compared to 54 inches for Birmingham. All of this to try to say that your chances of good weather for the game is pretty high. I assume that a zillion Alabama fans will make the trip out there for the big January 7 clash for the national championship between the University of Texas Longhorns and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

* 30 is how many inches of snow still on the ground this morning on Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park from the big weekend storm. Gatlinburg still has 2 inches.

* 68 below zero was the official low temperature last January 8 at Chicken, Alaska. That is 100 degrees below freezing! Chicken is located in a very isolated part of extreme Eastern Alaska near the Canadian border of Yukon. It is a long way from heavily populated areas. Chicken is roughly 175 air miles ESE of Fairbanks and 325 miles NE of Anchorage. It will be interesting to see what kind of winter Alaska has this year.

* 41% of rain and melted snow in the lower 48 of the USA drains into the Gulf of Mexico. It is estimated that the Gulf holds 643 quadrillion gallons of water. The deepest part of the Gulf is 17,070 feet. We love the Gulf of Mexico because it provides Alabama with abundant rain to grow great crops and lush green forests. I often wonder if there had not been a Gulf of Mexico, if the Blizzard of ’93 would have been just an ordinary storm. The intense low exploded over the North Gulf of Mexico.

* 62 inches is how much snow was on the ground at Rogers Pass, Montana at the time they recorded the lowest temperature ever in the lower 48 states of 70 below zero on January 20, 1954. The following spring another weather geek and myself drove all the way out there to photograph the area and visit with two elderly miners at the site. I hope to write a full story about that around January 20.

* 18 inches is how much snow was on the ground between February 13-18 in 1960 at Moulton in extreme NW Alabama’s Lawrence County. That was a state record until 19.2 inches fell in only 24 hours at Florence on December 31, 1963. The snow lingered into January 1, 1964. It became known as the New Year’s Eve snowstorm and thousands of people were stranded at New Year’s Eve parties. Birmingham got 8 inches, officially, at the airport, but as much as 14 inches in other parts of the city where there was more elevation.

* 1,075 buildings were totally destroyed during the April 3, 1974 super outbreak of tornadoes in Alabama. An additional 776 buildings had severe damage.

* 20 inches is how much snow accumulated at Mountainboro in NW Etowah County during the Blizzard of ’93. Of course, drifts were much deeper with some 15-foot drifts reported in NE Alabama. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the city of Boaz absorbed the city of Mountainboro last year. So, 50 years from now, when we say 20 inches of snow was at Mountainboro or Boaz.

* 92.32 inches is how much rain Mobile received way back in 1881. I am holding in my never-nicotine-stained fingers (but often caffeine stained) a copy of the annual summary for Mobile published way back in 1945 with records dating back to 1871–older than Brian Peters and James Spann added together.

* 76 degrees was the warmest in the USA yesterday at McAllen and Harlingen in extreme South Texas. 14 below zero was the coldest in the lower 48 this morning at Spincich Lake, Michigan. The low in Alaska was 27 below at Ft. Yukon. Ironically, Ft. Yukon holds the all-time record high for Alaska which is 100.

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