* 3.38 inches is how much rain fell during the night at Palacious, Texas. More thunderstorms with heavy rain are migrating northward toward the Houston area where they had big time flooding yesterday.
* 9.29 inches is how much rain that fell at Houston/Hobby Airport in just a few hours yesterday.
* 11.71 inches of rain fell at Liberty, Texas in the same general area.
* 50 was the low temperature atop Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains this morning. That is about the only cool area in the southeast. The high/low for Gatlinburg was 87/61.
* 1,800 thunderstorms is how many are in progress at any given moment on earth.
* 16 million is the approximate number of thunderstorms each year.
* 25 million is the estimated number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the USA each year.
* 14 is the number of major league baseball parks that Bill Murray has seen games in. Bill is the most avid baseball fan I know--rivaling the legendary Casey Stengal.
* 64 is the number of regular season major league games that Bill has seen.
* 27 is the number of playoff and world series games.
* 0 is the number of college basketball games that I have seen in person. Ironically, I love college basketball much more than the NBA.
* 0 is the number of lightning warnings that Brian Peters had to issue for City Stages this past weekend. Brian has been the meteorology consultant for City Stages almost from the beginning. He is always on site watching carefully for lightning and other storms. He has instant communications with the whole City Stages network.
* 400 is the approximate number of homes still threatened by a raging fire in scenic Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. The fires are only 5% contained. That deep canyon is a very scenic area south of Flagstaff with huge red cliffs and outcroppings. A lot of western movies are filmed there. When you drive south of Flagstaff on the old US-89, you suddenly drop rapidly in elevation via a series of very scary switchbacks. We spent our honeymoon in the lower end of Oak Creek Canyon in the Sedona-Cottonwood area 46 years ago and have visited that area a number of times. I know of one Alabama family that wanted to move to Cottonwood, Arizona and when they got to the top of the canyon to start down the switchbacks, they were so frightened that they cancelled the idea.
* 80 is how old Harper Lee is. She is a legend, of course, from Monroeville, Alabama with her one and only best seller, "To Kill A Mockingbird." Our colleague, Bill Murray's father-in-law, is one of the main actors in the annual play that is held each year in Monroeville. He is A. B. Blass and he plays the part of the baliff. Bill's wife, Sally, is from Monroeville.
* 0.15 is all the rain that has fallen on Anniston Airport for the entire month of June so far. Only 0.03 has fallen in the last 18 days counting today.
* 119 was the USA high in Death Valley Monday. That spot holds the all-time USA record of 134 degrees.
* 27 was the low this morning in Stanley, Idaho. Stanley is nestled among the Sawtooth Mountains on the banks of the Salmon River. The Sawtooth Mountains have jagged peaks reminding you of a crosscut saw.
* 115 was the temperature in Basrah, Iraq at 5:00 p.m. today (Iraq time). The humidity was only 6% and the wind was from the NW at 33 mph. Translation: there has to be a lot of blowing dust and sand. Check out our Weather Brains broadcast that we taped last night. David Black, our colleague and moderator, was able to land an interview with a British soldier on duty in Iraq.
* 100 below zero was the temperature at 10 o'clock this morning (Alabama time) at Vostok, Antarctica. The wind chill was 132 below.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, the vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved."
That is one of my favorite sayings of the legendary Alabama native, Helen Keller.
* 9.29 inches is how much rain that fell at Houston/Hobby Airport in just a few hours yesterday.
* 11.71 inches of rain fell at Liberty, Texas in the same general area.
* 50 was the low temperature atop Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountains this morning. That is about the only cool area in the southeast. The high/low for Gatlinburg was 87/61.
* 1,800 thunderstorms is how many are in progress at any given moment on earth.
* 16 million is the approximate number of thunderstorms each year.
* 25 million is the estimated number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the USA each year.
* 14 is the number of major league baseball parks that Bill Murray has seen games in. Bill is the most avid baseball fan I know--rivaling the legendary Casey Stengal.
* 64 is the number of regular season major league games that Bill has seen.
* 27 is the number of playoff and world series games.
* 0 is the number of college basketball games that I have seen in person. Ironically, I love college basketball much more than the NBA.
* 0 is the number of lightning warnings that Brian Peters had to issue for City Stages this past weekend. Brian has been the meteorology consultant for City Stages almost from the beginning. He is always on site watching carefully for lightning and other storms. He has instant communications with the whole City Stages network.
* 400 is the approximate number of homes still threatened by a raging fire in scenic Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. The fires are only 5% contained. That deep canyon is a very scenic area south of Flagstaff with huge red cliffs and outcroppings. A lot of western movies are filmed there. When you drive south of Flagstaff on the old US-89, you suddenly drop rapidly in elevation via a series of very scary switchbacks. We spent our honeymoon in the lower end of Oak Creek Canyon in the Sedona-Cottonwood area 46 years ago and have visited that area a number of times. I know of one Alabama family that wanted to move to Cottonwood, Arizona and when they got to the top of the canyon to start down the switchbacks, they were so frightened that they cancelled the idea.
* 80 is how old Harper Lee is. She is a legend, of course, from Monroeville, Alabama with her one and only best seller, "To Kill A Mockingbird." Our colleague, Bill Murray's father-in-law, is one of the main actors in the annual play that is held each year in Monroeville. He is A. B. Blass and he plays the part of the baliff. Bill's wife, Sally, is from Monroeville.
* 0.15 is all the rain that has fallen on Anniston Airport for the entire month of June so far. Only 0.03 has fallen in the last 18 days counting today.
* 119 was the USA high in Death Valley Monday. That spot holds the all-time USA record of 134 degrees.
* 27 was the low this morning in Stanley, Idaho. Stanley is nestled among the Sawtooth Mountains on the banks of the Salmon River. The Sawtooth Mountains have jagged peaks reminding you of a crosscut saw.
* 115 was the temperature in Basrah, Iraq at 5:00 p.m. today (Iraq time). The humidity was only 6% and the wind was from the NW at 33 mph. Translation: there has to be a lot of blowing dust and sand. Check out our Weather Brains broadcast that we taped last night. David Black, our colleague and moderator, was able to land an interview with a British soldier on duty in Iraq.
* 100 below zero was the temperature at 10 o'clock this morning (Alabama time) at Vostok, Antarctica. The wind chill was 132 below.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, the vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved."
That is one of my favorite sayings of the legendary Alabama native, Helen Keller.
on June 20, 2006, 10:49 am
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