Tuesday Morning Numbers

January 31, 2006, 9:54 am
Posted by J.B. Elliott in Weather Discussions
Rating: 0/5   Votes : 0
* 10 is the percentage of Earth's surface normally covered by glaciers and ice sheets

* 16 is the number of inches of snow in Salt Lake so far this season

* 21 inches is the shortfall in snow for Salt Lake this season

* 110 is the number of inches of snow at Alta, Utah this morning. (The high country has fared much better than the valleys.) Alta is a ski area.

* 298 is the number of inches of snow on the ground at Lightning Ridge, Utah

* 218 inches is the snowpack at Harts Pass, Wyoming

* 90 was hot hot it was yesterday at McAllen, Texas

* 2 below zero was the Lower 48 low this morning at Crane Lake and Orr, Minnesota

* 51 below was the coldest in Alaska in the last 24 hours at Fort Yukon

* 27 was one of the lowest temperatures in Alabama this morning at Florence and Anderson

OTHER ALABAMA LOWS
28 in Pinson and Madison
29 in Moulton, Athens and Alabaster*
30 in Fort Payne, Mentone, Gadsden, Leeds
31 at Anniston Airport
32 in Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Cullman
33 in Birmingham and at Little River Canyon
34 in Montgomery and atop Mt. Cheaha
36 in Mobile and at Shelby County Airport

* Michael Mills, 3340 Weather Watcher for Alabaster, reports his 29 low ties the lowest so far which has now occurred 8 times

* 3 is the number of cups of coffee I have had this morning, way behind the curve. All decaf
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Posted by Dave - Smoke Rise  
on January 31, 2006, 9:59 am
I believe my low was 35 this morning. It was 35.6 when I left for my run at around 6:40, and I doubt that it dropped much lower. No frost, although I did see a little scattered frost when I dropped down about 100 feet from my house.

I'm fiishing my 4th cup of coffee - but two of those have been travel mugs and probably count for two apiece!

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Posted by  
on January 31, 2006, 11:15 am
Regarding the comments about the snow pack out west. How is the draught shaping up? Lake Mead was extremely low, is that being helped this season?

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Posted by  
on January 31, 2006, 11:31 am
Scott...
Have not seen any recent reports from Lake Mead but I feel sure it is improving. Storm after storm has moved into the Pacific Northwest over the last two months or so and spread precipitation eastward also into the Sierra nevada Range.

If i run across some more precise information will post it...

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Posted by Matt Marshall  
on January 31, 2006, 6:39 pm
The Intermountain West mountains and the Northern Rockies are doing well snow-wise this year, similar to last year. The drought in our area (Utah) basically ended last year, however, we always have to be careful with our usage...drought can always come back. The far Southwest is in bad shape, as J.B. continues to monitor the record for rainless days in Arizona.

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Posted by   www
on January 31, 2006, 11:47 am
Here's an interesting sat photo showing drop in Lake Mead water level. Has been at lowest level in 40 years.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/LakeMead/lake_mead.html

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Posted by  
on January 31, 2006, 12:05 pm
Scott...
Don't know what I was thinking but because we were discussing the NW part of the country, I immediately thought of Crater Lake.

But as the photo that John posted shows, Lake Mead is still in foul shape and I doubt it it has improved much since the last photograph.

The high country of Northern Arizona is really hurting for snowpack this winter. Some of that, melted, drains northward into the Colorado River. However, Lake Mead depends more on melting snowpack and liquid precipitation in the Utah-Colorado mountains. Maybe that will help. However, the buildup of water levels will be long and drawn out.

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