Thursday, January 03, 2008

Deep south deep freeze



Well, at least the wind's not blowing.

7.9°F (-13.4°C) is not the norm here, but I guess the temperature gods wanted to remind us that we're really still in zone 7, despite the updated hardiness map.

We are in a valley, so it's usually a bit colder here. The local tv station is saying that it's 16°F; (-9°C) in Birmingham.

This is the display for the fancy weather observation system we got for Christmas. I cropped out the bottom of the picture -- it also shows the atmospheric pressure.

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I could swear that it reached -12°F (-24°C) when I was a kid, but nobody else seems to remember this. We lived a little further north at the time, in Gadsden. According to this site, the lowest recorded temperature in Alabama was -27°, on January 30, 1966 in New Market. Now, that location is practically in Tennessee, but that could be the weather event I'm recalling.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

My wife said it was 11F this morning on the mountain where we live just outside Rome, Ga. I don't know whether we had wind; if we did, we were colder than the official temperature at the airport. If not, we were warmer. But cold in any event. The coldest I remember when I lived in Huntsville was 5F. It was cold enough that the diesel fuel gelled in the fuel line despite the block heater. i had just enough warm fuel to get a mile down the road before the engine stalled. I had to walk home and call a friend for a ride to work. Then I had to wait till it warmed up into the teens to get another ride back to the truck to get it out of the highway. I don't remember a very cold spell in '66 in Rome, but that was a while ago.

Rurality said...

Mark, you are near my Mom's family's old homeplace I think. They lived on Little Sand Mountain. I noticed that the lowest recorded temp in GA was from Floyd Co!

kris said...

I had to smile at your comment about there not being any wind. We're forecasted to hit 30 today - a nice jump from the 10 we had yesterday for a high. But when I woke up this morning, the wind was screaming around the house. I'm guessing when I step outside, it will make yesterday seem warm!!

robin andrea said...

I am always surprised when I read how cold it gets there. I can't imagine why I thought the south was sultry all the time. Hope this cold spell passes without too much damage.

anne said...

It's wicked cold here in the northeast for sure - brrr.

Stopping by to say Happy New Year! Thank you for all of your wonderful pictures and writing.

Bobby said...

And it's cold down here in Florida too! Supposedly we got some snow flurries here and there.

This is hurting our oranges! I think I like California oranges better anyway.

Kerri Farley said...

BRRRRRR - it was 12 here this morning.

I remember my first year of college -- I lived in Princeton WV and it was -15 on the bank sign that also showed the temp. That was 1985. The coldest I remember in my lifetime.

Anonymous said...

I can remember the outdoor thermometer saying it was -60 degrees in St. Louis when I was growing up. I'm pretty sure it was a faulty thermometer though.

Supposed to be in the (+) 60s this weekend. Roundrock here I come!

Shady Gardener said...

I think this is just the beginning of an extraordinary year! It was fun to see your latest posts. :-) Happy 2008!

mountainmelody said...

I'm remembering (the hard way) that old houses don't always stay as warm as you want them to! Here's to extra heaters--and warmer weather soon!

wineandroasts said...

Are you SURE there was no wind? Dink the uber-meterological station on top right there, b/c I KNOW I felt wind when I was scraping the ice off my windshield here in Lauderdale. Great Googlymoogly, it's COLD!

Anonymous said...

That is cold for sure! I saw 5 degrees when I went to bed! Should have checked to see how cold it ended up getting!

SantaBarbarian said...

Here in Santa Barbara, we tend to be pretty "moderate" in temperature, however, I do remember when it got down below 20 degrees. Pretty much wiped out our agricultural crops. Who needs supermarket freezer sections when you can get frozen OJ directly off the trees?

It's not going to get freezy here this weekend. It's going to get VERY wet. We are scheduled to get slammed by three storms this weekend.

Not the best of times to have a convertible.

Phillip Oliver said...

Cold here too but not that cold! It got done to around 15 last night and will get close to that again tonight. Stay warm!

Rurality said...

Thanks for commenting, everybody. It's now early Friday morning -- it "only" got down to 13 last night! They are predicting a warm-up after this though, I believe.

Kris, I know I can't compete with MN winters... or even the summers sometimes, LOL.

RA, oh yeah lots of people think that. "Normal" highs for us this time of year would be in the 50s. And it doesn't even freeze every night. This cold snap is a little unusual but we do normally get a day or two in the teens (overnight) at least once a winter.

Anne, someone from the northeast told me once that the plants there are actually more protected than here, seeing that they're normally under all that snow!

Bobby, I thought I heard the price of my food going up...

Kerri, I can't even imagine anyone going outside when it's that cold. :)

Dang Pablo, are you sure you weren't in Alaska?! It's supposed to be in the 60s here next week too.

SG, I just hope this is the last of the cold, and we don't have a late cold snap like last year (that wiped out all the fruit in the county).

MM, I feel your pain. :) I was sitting in the kitchen asking, "Where is that breeze coming from?!"

CG, hubby put the sensors up on the same pole that has the tv satellite dish. It's possible that if the wind was coming from a certain direction, it'd be blocked a little I guess. But I didn't feel any wind here! (Sure felt it the day before though. I think it felt even colder then.)

Tom, you can keep your cold weather way up there, ok? :)

Jill, I guess that's why they grow most of the food in CA and FL! I heard something on the news about your coming storms... wish you could send a little of the rain this way.

Phillip, I was sure y'all would have colder weather than we did!

Anonymous said...

What is the brand/model of weather observation system? Just curious...

Rurality said...

Let's see, it appears to be a "La Crosse Technology Professional Weather Center WS-1515U-IT". We like it!