WEATHER BY THE NUMBERS--Tuesday Edition

We have updated the list of low temperatures around Alabama this morning to add some later reports. It is amazing that the low in Black Creek this morning was only about 7 degrees away from some possible light frost. Here is the complete list:

45 in Black Creek (NE Etowah County)
46 in Heflin
47 in DeSoto State Park
48 in Crossville, Gaylesville
49 in Munford and Cottondale, Hamilton
50 in Ft. Payne, Cullman, Gadsden, Wedowee, Ashville
51 in Anniston, Troy, Pinson
52 in Tuscaloosa, Anniston, Alexander City, Alabaster
53 in Evergreen, Vinemont, East Trussville (Jay Shelley), Alexander City, Jasper
54 in Huntsville, Tuscaloosa
55 in Albertville, Decatur, Helena
56 in Inverness, Birmingham, Montgomery
57 in Auburn, Muscle Shoals, Gadsden (Noccalula Falls)
59 at Shelby County Airport (NWS)
60 in Selma
63 in Mobile

Oak Grove in West Jefferson County reported a low of 39 this morning. We are dicounting that. Their minimum temperature has seemed several degrees too low for a week or more.

* 61 was the low at the skycam site on Mt. Cheaha this morning. That was due to a nice inversion and it was 10 degrees warmer than the low at Anniston Airport not far away and 12 degrees warmer than nearby Munford. It was only 74 on Cheaha at noon today.

* 6 June is the birthday of a well known (very well known) Birmingham meteorologist. Won't tell you how old he is, but the day he was born gasoline was selling for about 23.9 cents per gallon and even as low as 19.9 when there were gas wars underway. Gas wars are unheard of anymore.

* 35 dollars a gallon will be the price of gasoline when that certain weather man reaches age 100.

* 4 days after he was born, Britain gave up control of the Suez Canal after 72 years.

* 3 days after he was born, President Eisenhower was hospitalized again and had surgery to relieve an intestinal obstruction.

* 3 weeks after he was born, President Eisenhower authorized $33.4 billion for a nationwide network of interstate highways.

* 4 days after he was born (Hint: He knows where every pothole is in the State of Alabama), the U.S. Senate was looking into charges that the three major television networks--CBS, NBC and ABC--were trying to hinder the development of other VHF TV channels.

* 118 was the hottest in the USA yesterday in Death Valley.

* 31 at Stanley, Idaho, in the Sawtooth Mountains, and at Lake Yellowstone inside Yellowstone National Park was the coldest in the lower 48.

* 25 was the wind chill in Barrow, Alaska at noon CDT where snow was falling.

* 25 was the coldest temperature in Alaska this morning at Eagle.

* 36 was the low this morning atop Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains.

* 115 was the high in Bullhead City, Arizona yesterday. It is located near the lower Colorado River between Arizona and California and often competes with towns like Parker and Lake Havasu City for the nation's hot spot. It was 108 at Phoenix. The high temperatures in Phoenix are backing off just a bit and they are expecting a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms tonight mixed with blowing dust.

* 1885 is when weather records began at Valley Head in NE Alabama's DeKalb County, so they have been kept continuously for 121 years. Mr. Crow, the long time observer for Valley Head, received the Thomas Jefferson Award in 2003. That is the most prestigious award for NWS cooperative observers.

* 739 is the approximate number of people who died in the major July 19, 1995 heat wave in Chicago. That still stands as one of the worst weather related disasters in the State of Illinois. During that time, the temperature peaked at 106 at Midway Airport. During another famous heat wave in the 1930s, many people in Chicago slept outside in parks or along the shore of Lake Michigan. They were too afraid to do that in 1995.

* 2 is the number of days in a row that Goldwing Dave, one of our regular blog readers, has worn cold weather clothing while going to work on his motorcycle.

* 13.99 is the rainfall total so far this year at Orange Beach reported by Lewis Cullen, the 3340 Online Weather Watcher for that area. This is far below normal.
Posted by  
on June 6, 2006, 6:16 am
Hey JB add my low for Alabaster 52.0.

Reply to this comment
Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 6:44 am
The low was 52.5 in Vinemont.

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Posted by  
on June 6, 2006, 7:21 am
55 for a low in Helena this morning at 6:00.

-Brian-

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Posted by  
on June 6, 2006, 9:09 am
I dont really know what the temp was in Huffman - but I know this was the 2nd day in a row that I had to wear my cool weather gear on the bike at 6am

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Posted by  
on June 6, 2006, 12:14 pm
Happy Birthday, James!!! :) :) :) :) :)

P.S. The pothole reference gave it away...James has been to every school anywhere near Birmingham, and knows where every pothole is exactly...:) :)

Reply to this comment
Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 1:46 pm
Cold Weather Clothes in june huh??? LOL

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Posted by  
on June 6, 2006, 1:58 pm
Happy birthday, James. Welcome to my side of the hill. Life begins at 50!

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Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 2:27 pm
James Spann is 50 years old and about:

39 years 7 months younger than Walter Cronkite, age 89
34 years 11 months younger than Nancy Reagan, age 84
32 years 0 months younger than George Herbert Bush, age 81
24 years 8 months younger than Barbara Walters, age 74
22 years 7 months younger than Larry King, age 72
16 years 4 months younger than Ted Koppel, age 66
12 years 11 months younger than Geraldo Rivera, age 62
9 years 11 months younger than George W. Bush, age 59
4 years 11 months younger than Jesse Ventura, age 54
0 years 7 months younger than Bill Gates, age 50
4 years 3 months older than Cal Ripken Jr., age 45
10 years 1 month older than Mike Tyson, age 39
14 years 2 months older than Jennifer Lopez, age 35
19 years 7 months older than Tiger Woods, age 30
26 years 0 months older than Prince William, age 23

and that you were:

45 years old at the time of the 9-11 attack on America
43 years old on the first day of Y2K
41 years old when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash
38 years old at the time of Oklahoma City bombing
38 years old when O. J. Simpson was charged with murder
36 years old at the time of the 93 bombing of the World Trade Center
34 years old when Operation Desert Storm began
33 years old during the fall of the Berlin Wall
29 years old when the space shuttle Challenger exploded
27 years old when Apple introduced the Macintosh
27 years old during Sally Ride's travel in space
24 years old when Pres. Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr.
23 years old at the time the Iran hostage crisis began
20 years old on the U.S.'s bicentennial Fourth of July
18 years old when President Nixon left office
15 years old when Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot
13 years old at the time the first man stepped on the moon
11 years old when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated
9 years old during the Watts riot
7 years old at the time President Kennedy was assassinated
3 years old when Hawaii was admitted as 50th of the United States
a 1 year old when the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 was launched


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Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 5:41 pm
:) :) :) Happy Birthday James :) :) :)

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Posted by  
on June 6, 2006, 6:44 pm
Hey Chuck,
That is pretty cool how you got all those dates and ages for James Spann. Is there a website or something that can figure up different things? Is there is I would like mine even though I am only 25! ;)

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Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 9:22 pm
Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 9:24 pm
Bridget,
most everything birthday related, including calculators and such ....

http://www.rexanne.com/bday-info.html

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Posted by   www
on June 6, 2006, 9:27 pm
Must be an echo in here :)

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Posted by  
on June 7, 2006, 11:49 am
Thank you John and Chuck. That is really neat!

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