Weather by the Numbers

We all know that much of the Southeast is suffering through one of the worst droughts ever. Some of these numbers refer to that and other wide ranging topics.

* 26.32 inches is the rain deficiency for 2007 at Anniston as of today.

* 16.55 inches is all the rain they have received so far.

* 43 inches of rain is the approximate amount that Anniston should have received by this time in the year.

* 24.30 inches is the rain deficiency for the Cullman Agricultural Station.

* 15 feet below normal is the level of Catoma Lake, the main source of the Cullman water supply.

* 5.40 inches is the shortfall for 2007 rain at Eufaula Wildlife Refuge. A number of South Alabama locations are in considerably better shape than in the central and north.

* 59% (58.8% to be exact) of Alabama was designated as an exceptional drought area. That is a 6.8 increase since one week ago. A year ago this week, none of the state was in the that kind of drought. Only abnormally dry and moderate droughts describe the state.

* 77% of the pasture and rangeland in Alabama was in very poor or poor condition as of today due to the exceptional drought. This is based on a release this afternoon from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alabama Field Office, Montgomery as part of their weekly report.

* 41% of Alabama livestock was in very poor condition and an additional 17% in poor conditions. Most ponds and streams that cattle drink from were completely dry or very low. Tragically, some cattle got stuck in mud and died trying to reach the last little bit of water.

* 94% of Alabama has very short or short topsoil moisture. This is absolutely amazing.

* 36 was the lowest temperature officially in Alabama during the last week at Hamilton. 92 was the hottest at Headland, Montgomery and Muscle Shoals.

* 53.54 is how many inches of rain Oklahoma City has already received this year. This makes it the all-time wettest year in their long weather history and they still have 2-1/2 months to go. The average rain per year in Oklahoma City is about 35 inches.

* 1% is how much of the lower 48 states were covered by snow this morning. A foot or more of snow fell over the weekend in the higher elevations of Colorado. Many areas above 7,000 feet elevation received 6 inches.

* 10 inches of snow on the ground at Warren Air Force Base, elevation 7,769 feet at Cheyenne.

* 9.5 inches of snow fell at Breckenridge, Colorado.

* 278 inches of snow now on the ground at Snowbird, which is a ski area in the Wasatch Mountains of Northern Utah.

* 10 inches on the ground at the base of Mt. Hood in the Meadows area.

* 10 was the coldest temperature in the entire 50 states this morning. That was at Eagle, Alaska.

* 10 inches is the cut-off number that most climate experts use to determine desert or no desert. Less than 10 inches per year, of course, means desert. Many of the major deserts around the world get a lot less rain than that.

* 10 million is how many people died in China due to a disastrous drought. It resulted in a famine that killed that many people in one year. It happened in 1877.

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