Warm one Tue. as the official high at JIA hit 82 degrees -- just 1 degree short of the daily record high of 83 set in 1937 & just 2 degrees of the all-time Jan. record of 84 degrees set on the 17th/1943...27th/1962...29th/1957 & 31st/1982. It was the warmest temp. since 83 degrees more than 2 months ago on Nov. 22nd. Our warm winter has translated into unusually high pollen counts for so early in the year. We're about where we should be in mid Feb. Right now it's mostly tree pollen but grass
will get into the act within the next few weeks depending on temps. The spring pollen peak is usually mid to late March but could occur earlier this year depending on how many -- & to what degree -- freezes we have between now & the end of Feb. Rain would also briefly help our pollen count, so some of the pollen will get "washed" out of the atmosphere & off trees, cars, roads & driveways Fri. when a fast-moving storm system & front brings showers & a few t'storms.
I posted a link Mon. to the Little Rock N.W.S. & their damage survey from Sun's tornadoes....click
here to go the Birmingham N.W.S. & their storm surveys from early Mon. tornadoes. This is the 2nd go-around in less than a year for hard hit Alabama where a swarm of late April tornadoes caused even greater death & destruction. Just about right on cue, an Alabama Preparedness Panel will release a report to the Governor on how to better prepare & respond to natural disasters -- click
here for the story.
A study has been released on predicting -- in a very general sense -- the long range outlook for tornadoes using the Climate Forecast System (CFS). Click
here for the story.
Our 2nd consecutive La Nina appears to be peaking. Equatorial Pacific waters dipped even lower during the 2nd week of Jan. The thought is that this might be the peak with a weakening trend from here on out. Whether or not that's true, our concerns for a dry winter & spring seem to be accurate & should only get worse the next few months potentially fueling a volatile late winter & spring wildfire season for Fl. & Ga. Click
here for the info. (the image below is courtesy NASA).
