Weather by the Numbers–11/17/09

* 14% is how much of the lower 48 states had a snow cover this morning. That compared to 9% one month ago today.

* 288 inches was a typical snow depth in the Western mountains this morning. That measurement was at Alpine Meadows in the Northern Sierra-Nevada range. That number is not that unusual. Those snow measurements are made in remote high country. Cities in the West, such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas, watch the build up of the mountains snow pack with much interest every winter. It becomes the main source of their water supply.

* 110 inches was on the ground at Porcupine Mountain, Montana at an elevation of 6,500 feet.

* 0 (zero) was the coldest in the lower 48 states this morning at Greeley, Colorado. Greeley is located out of the mountains at the edge of the Plains just east of I-25 and SE of Ft. Collins. There have been several days recently that the national low was not in the mountains. It is due to snow cover. There is a fairly deep snow cover now in Eastern Colorado as well as Kansas and Nebraska.

* 45 below zero was the coldest in Alaska at Huslia. The cold air is continuing to build up in Alaska. It will be interesting to watch their winter. I will keep a close watch on the small community of Chicken, Alaska where there is a official weather station. Remember their 63 below zero last winter? (Or, was it the winter before last?)

* 106.41 inches is the precipitation at Yakutak so far this year. Would you believe that is still a 32-inch shortfall? Some places in Alaska get enormous amounts of precipitation each year.

* 12:44 p.m. is the time of sunrise tomorrow at Barrow on the north coast of Alaska. The sun will set less than 1 hour later at 1:41 p.m. That town is getting closer and closer to a long stretch of 24-hours of darkness. They are now losing 27 minutes of sunlight a day.

* 64.55 inches is the Birmingham rain total so far this year as of this morning. That is a surplus of 17.26 inches. As we have mentioned before, if we do not get another drop of rain until New Year’s Day, we would still end 2009 with a surplus of over 10 inches. December is normally a fairly wet month.

* 13.15 inches is the surplus at Anniston Airport and 6.11 inches at Tuscaloosa.

* 13 days is how long it is until the official end of the 2009 hurricane season. It has been a very quiet one in the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Atlantic, the Caribbean and our friend, the Gulf of Mexico. I believe it is fairly safe to say the season is already over. However, we were thinking that before Ida, who was sort of a surprise, causing so much damage and trouble so late in the season.

* 38.09 inches is how much rain that Elba, in South Alabama, received in only 4 weeks in late February and March, 1929. That was one of the wettest years on record in Alabama. Whole towns were completely flooded, especially Brewton. The Seven Hills community in West Mobile County, got an amazing 96.88 inches of rain that year (1929).

* 6 inches of snow accumulated on February 14-15 way back in 1895 in Mobile. That is a record for the port city.

* 5 winters in a row had measurable snow in Birmingham during 1909-1914. There are several other occasions when we got measurable snow more than one winter in a row. I will do a separate story on that later. I have been asked many times.

* 105 mph has been the wind in the last 24 hours on the summit of Mt. Ranier in the Pacific Northwest with a temperature of 9 above zero. That means the wind chill had to be a zillion below zero. (Exaggeration, of course.) The Pacific Northwest has had a monumental storm the last couple of days.

* 115 mph was the gust on Crystal Mountain, Oregon and 88 mph at Mt. Baker. Hoquiam Airport, in Washington State, had a gust to 70 mph.

* 6 inches of rain at Francis, Washington through 6:00 this morning and 5 inches on Mt. Baker. A number of areas got over 5 inches of rain, which was a record, for several of those communities.

* 14 below zero is the expected low temperature tonight at the summit of Mt. Ranier with sustained winds of 45 mph. Both James Spann and I would need to wear a long-sleeve shirt.

* 95 mph was the wind gust at Waldport, on the Central Oregon coast, during the night.

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