Alabama now has 3 seasons: snow, tornado and summer

[Donna]

Today I am stuck with the impossible task of trying to convince you that you need to be doing something fun outdoors.

Fishing? Too hot. Camping? Too hot. Hiking? Too hot. Biking? Too hot. Bird watching? Well, it might be a good time to get a rare photo of a yellow-bellied sapsucker picking up a worm with a potholder.

I have no idea what has happened to Alabama's weather the past two years. We now have three seasons -- snow, tornadoes and summer. This is the first of June and already anything outdoors that doesn't involve a swimming pool is unbearable.

This record heat is forecast to continue for several days and one thing you can be assured of is that people will be complaining about how hot it is.

Rural Alabamians take great pride in complaining about how hot, cold, dry or rainy it is outdoors. In the early 1980s I lived on a farm near Elba in Coffee County and I marveled at my neighbors' comical descriptions of everyday life, especially the weather. Here are a few dillys I remember hearing about those brutally hot, breezeless days:

"It's so hot Satan probably took the day off."

"It's so hot I saw a funeral procession pull into a Dairy Queen."

"It's so hot that I saw two trees fighting over a dog."

"We're having to have to feed the chickens crushed ice so they won't lay hard-boiled eggs."

"It's so hot I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking."

"It's so hot the cows are giving evaporated milk."

"I can't hack this weather. I flunked out of hacking school."

I didn't say it was great humor. I just said I marveled at it.

Like you, a few months ago I was cursing the snow. Now I'm wishing I had a summer home in North Dakota. For the past two years I feel like I was cheated out of my spring fishing season. For the second year in a row it has in a matter of weeks gone from being almost too cold to fish to being almost too hot to fish.

Being in the outdoors is supposed to fun. This isn't much fun.

I went fishing on Memorial Day and the evening before. Last Sunday evening I fished for bream in an incredible private lake and even though I was literally catching bream in the 1½ to 2-pound range I was ready to quit because of the heat.

The following morning I was up at daybreak and fishing for bass in the same lake. I was catching bass in the 5-, 6- and 7-pound range but by 11 a.m. I called it quits even though I was still catching big bass.

I have no idea what is causing this unusual weather. I can remember it going for years without snowing and it has snowed more in Alabama in the past two years than I can ever remember in my life. I can remember it going for years without hitting 100 degrees and last year it was over 100 11 days and over 97 another 13 days.

How hot is it?

It's early June and you're sitting in the air conditioning reading this instead of being outdoors doing something fun.

[Gawoman]

Hi Donna!

When I first moved to the South, it was in Sept. of 1979, and I moved to Tallahasse, Fl.  The first summer in the south was a brutal summer.  Dallas, Tx normally has something like 8 days a year over 100 and that year they had something like 35 straight days!  My co-workers kept saying, "it's so hot, it's so hot" and I kept saying to myself, "isnt' this normal?"  Well, over the years, I have found out that it was not normal!  I had no car at the time, so I had to walk or take the city bus everywhere, and you get used to the heat very quickly in conditions like that.

Another phrase that was said, when I lived there, was when it got hot, "don't go to Alabama!"  Now I'm in the NW suburbs of Atlanta, and on really hot days, I see that the phrase "don't go to Alabama" is true.  When Atlanta is above 95, Augusta, Macon and Columbus will be close to 100 and Montgomery will be over 100--by 2 or 3 degrees!  Usually.  The reason why Atlanta tends to be the "coolest" is because we are around 1200 feet above sea level. 

So, hopefully this heat wave breaks soon.  The good thing is that I just started a job in a warehouse--the first time I've ever been in an air conditioned warehouse. 

[Donna]

What a story and that's some heat. AC is a good thing...enjoy!

[nwfloridafalconfan]

It is 7:50 PM, the temp is 97 degrees!  After growing up just south of  Rochester, I've been down here (Florida and Alabama) since 1970 (with just a few breaks elsewhere).  I have yet to get used to the heat.  After 5 days with temps in the 100s, we are forecast to cool down to the mid-90s this week.  What we save on severe winter heating bills, we spend on AC.  But we don't shovel snow!

[Kris G.]

It is 7:50 PM, the temp is 97 degrees!  After growing up just south of  Rochester, I've been down here (Florida and Alabama) since 1970 (with just a few breaks elsewhere).  I have yet to get used to the heat.  After 5 days with temps in the 100s, we are forecast to cool down to the mid-90s this week.  What we save on severe winter heating bills, we spend on AC.  But we don't shovel snow!

You can have it-I can't tolerate it!  I'd take cold and snow anytime over the heat! (and we don't shovel snow-got a nice Kubota with a big snow blower for our 120ft driveway!)

[Donna]

It is 7:50 PM, the temp is 97 degrees!  After growing up just south of  Rochester, I've been down here (Florida and Alabama) since 1970 (with just a few breaks elsewhere).  I have yet to get used to the heat.  After 5 days with temps in the 100s, we are forecast to cool down to the mid-90s this week.  What we save on severe winter heating bills, we spend on AC.  But we don't shovel snow!

You can have it-I can't tolerate it!  I'd take cold and snow anytime over the heat! (and we don't shovel snow-got a nice Kubota with a big snow blower for our 120ft driveway!)

I'm with you Kris, give me snow anytime and I'm a happy camper. I HATE Summer heat! I LOVE to shovel!! 

[Kris G.]

It is 7:50 PM, the temp is 97 degrees!  After growing up just south of  Rochester, I've been down here (Florida and Alabama) since 1970 (with just a few breaks elsewhere).  I have yet to get used to the heat.  After 5 days with temps in the 100s, we are forecast to cool down to the mid-90s this week.  What we save on severe winter heating bills, we spend on AC.  But we don't shovel snow!

You can have it-I can't tolerate it!  I'd take cold and snow anytime over the heat! (and we don't shovel

snow-got a nice Kubota with a big snow blower for our 120ft driveway!)

I'm with you Kris, give me snow anytime and I'm a happy camper. I HATE Summer heat! I LOVE to shovel!! 

                           

[Gawoman]

It is 7:50 PM, the temp is 97 degrees!  After growing up just south of  Rochester, I've been down here (Florida and Alabama) since 1970 (with just a few breaks elsewhere).  I have yet to get used to the heat.  After 5 days with temps in the 100s, we are forecast to cool down to the mid-90s this week.  What we save on severe winter heating bills, we spend on AC.  But we don't shovel snow!

That's one thing I learned, NW, is how to tolerate the heat.  Since I did not have a car for 5 years, I had to walk everywhere.  And what you do next winter, is walk everyday for about 45-60 minutes.  And wear blue jeans.  Then every day walk 45-60 minutes, no matter how hot it gets--still wearing blue jeans; no shorts!  When the first cool day in the fall occurs, believe me it will feel cold!  That's when you know that you've gotten used to the heat. 

[Patti from Kentucky]

That's one thing I learned, NW, is how to tolerate the heat.  Since I did not have a car for 5 years, I had to walk everywhere.  And what you do next winter, is walk everyday for about 45-60 minutes.  And wear blue jeans.  Then every day walk 45-60 minutes, no matter how hot it gets--still wearing blue jeans; no shorts!  When the first cool day in the fall occurs, believe me it will feel cold!  That's when you know that you've gotten used to the heat. 

I follow the same strategy with running and exercising in the heat...I just keep running as the days get longer and hotter, and, given the chance to acclimate gradually, my body adapts to the heat.  We also eat dinner every summer day outside on the deck, which keeps us out of the air conditioning for more time.  Of course then I freeze to death at work and anywhere else since people air-condition their buildings to ridiculous temperatures.

There are some days (today was one) that I get up early to run in the morning to avoid the inevitable ozone alerts...I'd rather not subject my lungs to too much damage when the air quality is really bad...we get those alerts often in the summer because of Louisville's location in a river valley.  I'm not a morning person so this is really hard on me!

[nwfloridafalconfan]

According to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, more than 3.1 million chickens were killed in the April 27 tornadoes.  Makes one wonder how many wild birds perished in storms this year.   

[Donna]

According to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, more than 3.1 million chickens were killed in the April 27 tornadoes.  Makes one wonder how many wild birds perished in storms this year.   

I shudder to think nwf!