Daily Weather Observations from SW Alabama for Sun., Aug. 3, 2014

Temp: 72.5 degrees.

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.00 inches

Humidity: 82 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Mostly Cloudy skies; birds audible and visible; crickets audible; security lights still on in the distance.

Barometric Pressure: 29.52 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.00 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 0.00 inches

Summer to Date Rainfall: 2.30 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 45.65  inches

NOTES: Today is the 215th day of 2014 and the 44th day of Summer. There are 150 days left in the year.

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-4, Station Name: Excel 2.5 ESE. 

Singleton tells of childhood friend, former slave and circus traveler, Uncle Tony

George 'Buster' Singleton

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Uncle Tony, an old man remembered” was originally published in the Oct. 13, 1988 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

Uncle Tony was an old man who didn’t have a family to look after him in his old age. So my father, who had known him for many, many years, took the old man under his wing, so to speak, and looked out for his well-being.

A small house was built nearby, and Uncle Tony took up housekeeping. The food that he ate came from our table; there was always plenty prepared, so there wasn’t any bother when three or four extra were around at mealtime. My mother was an outstanding cook and supervisor of the kitchen. When mealtime came around, there were always extra guests.

As a child, Uncle Tony had been a slave. As close as anyone could calculate, he was born in 1848, give or take a year or so.

A long walk to church

He was in excellent physical condition despite his advanced age. He could walk with the best of them. Ten or 12 miles at one time didn’t phase Uncle Tony. He had a special church that he liked to attend. The church was 10 or 11 miles one way from where we lived. He would walk to church and return, every Sunday.

My father insisted that he ride one of the horses that we kept around the farm. He refused because he said that he didn’t want to be bothered with the animal.

For Christmas one year, Uncle Tony became the proud owner of a new blue serge suit. This suit came complete with a white shirt, necktie and new shoes.

Giving him the shoes was a waste of money, because no one had ever known Uncle Tony to wear shoes. Winter and summer, he would walk around barefoot. Ice or snow didn’t phase Uncle Tony.

So he would put on his new blue serge suit, complete with necktie and white shirt, and proceed to walk barefoot the distance to and from church.

Hiding the shoes

To please my father, who had raised a considerable amount of heck because he wouldn’t wear the shoes that had been bought for him, Uncle Tony would put his new shoes on and wear them a short distance from the house. Here, he would pull them off and hide them until the return trip home that evening. He would then put on his shoes and come walking proudly up the road as though he had worn them all day long.

This went on for several weeks until my father got wind of what was going on. Papa proceeded to follow Uncle Tony to the place where he would always hide his shoes. Papa took the shoes and hid them himself for several weeks. Uncle Tony searched far and wide for his lost Sunday shoes, only to find out later that Papa had them all the time.

As a small boy of 10, I learned much from this gentle old man. I tasted my first tobacco in a corncob pipe that was secretly made for me. Each time that I smoked the crude pipe, I would get terribly sick. I suppose that this may be one of the main reasons I never took up smoking.

I would spend many hours in the evenings after the work was done and the supper meal had been eaten, listening to the many tall tales that Uncle Tony retrieved from his outstanding memory.

Magic tricks

As a young man, he traveled around the country with Ringling Bros. Circus. He picked up several small magic tricks that would entertain me for hours on end. And to keep my interest up, he would tell me that he was going to teach me all the tricks he knew, always at a later date. The magic tricks and the many tales from his circus experience kept a 10-year-old boy spellbound.

My father, out of necessity, was a self-trained blacksmith. He did all the work that he had to do to keep the farm going, in a small shed out near the barn. Many times during the cold days of winter, he would sharpen his plows and repair his farm equipment for the spring planting and the farm year ahead.

On one of these days, everyone was huddled around the small fire in the blacksmith forge to kind of keep warm, all the while keeping a good bull session going also.

Uncle Tony was there, barefoot as usual. Papa had just heated a piece of iron to be used in the repair of a plow point. He had heated the iron red hot, and had cut a small piece of the iron off the larger piece. The small piece of the red hot iron fell almost unnoticed to the earthen floor of the blacksmith shop.

Everyone present began to notice the burning odor of what appeared to be skin or leather burning. To their amazement, Uncle Tony had stepped back on the piece of the red hot iron. The odor was from the tough skin of his foot that was burning when it came in contact with the red hot iron. Uncle Tony’s foot was so tough that he hadn’t really noticed that his foot was burning.

This tale was to be retold many, many times by those present that cold day there in the small blacksmith shop. During the remaining years of his life, a day hardly passed that he wasn’t reminded and kidded about him standing on the red-hot piece of iron.

 (Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from 1964 to 1987. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)

Today in History for Aug. 2, 2014

Warren G. Harding

Aug. 2, 1819 - The first Alabama constitution was adopted on this day, paving the way to statehood in December. Known today as the Constitution of 1819, to distinguish it from five subsequent constitutions, it was considered a model of democracy at the time.

Aug. 2, 1864 – During the Civil War, there was a build-up of Federal Naval strength off the mouth of Mobile Bay, Ala.

Aug. 2, 1865 - The captain and crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, still prowling the waters of the Pacific in search of Yankee whaling ships, was finally informed by a British vessel that the South had lost the Civil War.

Aug. 2, 1923 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, passed away while in office from a stroke at a hotel in San Francisco, Calif. at the age of 57. Harding was the great-grandson of Conecuh County’s Henchie Warren, who is said to have hid a chest of gold in Shipps Pond during the Civil War.

Aug. 2, 1953 – The Evergreen Greenies, managed by Zell Murphy, beat Florala, 8-7, in Brooks Stadium in Evergreen. John Greel Ralls hit two home runs, and J.W. Windham got the pitching win.

Daily Weather Observations from SW Alabama for Sat., Aug. 2, 2014

Temp: 73.4 degrees.

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.00 inches

Humidity: 82 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Mostly Cloudy skies; birds audible and visible; crickets audible; small mushrooms visible in the grass; security lights still on in the distance.

Barometric Pressure: 29.51 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.00 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 0.00 inches

Summer to Date Rainfall: 2.30 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 45.65  inches

NOTES: Today is the 214th day of 2014 and the 43rd day of Summer. There are 151 days left in the year.

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-4, Station Name: Excel 2.5 ESE. 

1914 Monroe Journal reports on 'scouting party' along the Old Federal Road

(The following story appeared on the front page of the July 30, 1914 edition of The Monroe Journal newspaper and was written by Journal editor, Q. Salter.)

STATE HIGHWAY OFFICIALS VIEW OLD FEDERAL ROAD

Strong Movement Inaugurated for Its Designation as Link in Birmingham-to-Gulf Roadway

Large and Enthusiastic Party of Citizens Accompanies Highway Commission on Trip of Inspection – Burnt Corn Performs Office of Host on the Occasion and Does the Honors in Characteristic Style – Trip Notes

That the movement recently inaugurated for the rehabilitation and perpetuation of the historic Old Federal Road – the highway that played so important a part in the early settlement of all Southern Alabama by the whites – is rapidly growing in popular favor was unmistakably evinced by the enthusiasm manifested by hundreds of representative citizens of Conecuh and Monroe counties on the occasion of the automobile trip of inspection by members of the State Highway Commission on July 22, as well as by numerous prominent citizens of other counties whose interests will be materially affected should this commendable undertaking meet with success.

The natural advantages possessed by this route encourages the hope that the next legislature may by induced to adopt the road as a link in the proposed state trunk highway from Birmingham to Mobile and give substantial aid by appropriation from the public treasury in promotion of the undertaking. As a preliminary step in this direction leading good roads advocates held a conference with the Highway Commission in Montgomery and an inspection trip over the old roadway was arranged for Wednesday, July 22.

Large Party Forms Escort

Notwithstanding the brief notice given of the proposed trip, more than 30 automobiles loaded to capacity with enthusiastic good roads advocates were ready on the appointed date to accompany the Highway Commission over a considerable portion of the trip. Dr. W.G. Hairston, Dr. H.C. Fountain and Messrs. J.F.B. Lowrey and Robert Mosley of Burnt Corn met the Commission at Fort Deposit and piloted the members over the entire route, a distance of 118 miles. The official party was composed of W.S. Keller, state highway engineer; Prof. G.C. Mitcham of the faculty of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, and Capt. John Craft of Mobile, president of the Alabama Good Roads Association. These were accompanied by Probate Judge Wood of Lowndes County, and Mr. Coker, a leading business man of Ft. Deposit, both of whom are keenly interested in the construction of the state highway. The main party of local citizens assembled at Midway – the celebrated half-way point between Mobile and Montgomery in the days of stagecoaching – to await the arrival of the official scouting party. To this party Monroeville contributed eight automobiles with 31 representatives, viz: B.H. Stallworth, J.I. Bizelle, G.A. Harris, A.J. Kempton, D.D. Mims, J.B. Barnett, G.W. Salter, J.L. Holloway, L.A. Hixon, I.B. Slaughter, M.M. Fountain, Stephen Hixon, S.H. Tucker, A.T. Sowell, J.M. Sowell, Mr. Turner, J.E. Lazenby, F.W. Hare, J.R. Lyon, J.D. Ratcliffe, Dr. W.T. Bayles, B.B. Finklea, T.W. Russell, Q. Salter, H.J. Coxwell, J.M. Coxwell, R.L. Coxwell, L.J. Bugg, W.G. McCorvey. One car from Tunnel Springs with Dr. F.S. Dailey, C.J. Jackson, J.J. Dailey and – Dailey; two cars from Peterman with Dr. D.R. Nettles, Dr. Robbins Nettles, E.A. Thompson, Dr. Isaac Betts; three cars from Repton with 11 representatives, viz: Mayor G.W. Gaston, Banker C.S. Kelly, Dr. E.L. Kelly, H.L. Dees, J.W. Warr, Rev. J.M. Munn, J.C. Long, C.H. Moorer, M.C. Dunn, Mr. Booker, Wilton Warr; two cars from Evergreen with Judge F.J. Dean, E.E. Newton, Esq., J.H. Jones of Century, Fla. and perhaps others; one car from Midway with Dr. Stacey.

The arrival of Engineer Keller and party from Ft. Deposit was greeted with enthusiastic demonstrations, the vocal welcome being largely drowned in the medley of tooting auto horns.

An Imposing Procession

The processions from Midway to Burnt Corn was imposing and impressive, such perhaps as was never before witnessed by residents along the route, stretching as it did over more than half a mile, and affording an earnest of conditions that will become commonplace when the road becomes an important link in the great state highway from Birmingham to the Gulf.

Burnt Corn Does the Honors

The largely augmented party arrived at Burnt Corn at 1:30 to find ever facility for appeasing the keenest hunger and quenching their burning thirst bountifully provided by the generous and hospitable citizens of the community, and Mr. James K. Kyser and his watchful and efficient corps of assistants saw to it that no one lacked for anything requisite for the refreshment of the inner man. The dinner was spread picnic style beneath the grateful shade of a beautiful grove, plenteous in quantity, superb in quality and most daintily served. The ladies of Burnt Corn are unexcelled in these matters, and the simple statement that they presided in person over the feast is to express a volume in a few words.

The Journey Resumed

After enjoying to the full the brief stop at Burnt Corn, the Pathfinders again took to the road for the next lap. Various cars with their occupants gradually dropped out at points most convenient to their homes, leaving only seven cars to complete the journey as originally planned. Those remaining in to the finish, in addition to the members of the Highway Commission, were Judge Wood of Hayneville, Mr. Coker of Ft. Deposit, Drs. Hairston and Fountain, and Messrs. Lowrey and Mosley of Burnt Corn, Drs. D.R. and Robbins Nettles of Peterman, J.H. Jones of Century, Messrs. Bugg, Fountain, Russell, L.A. and Stephen Hixon of Monroeville and the editor of The Journal.

Trip Completed Without Incident

With the exception of a “blow out” in case of one of the cars, the remainder of the trip was without noteworthy incident and the entire party arrived safe and sound at the capital city of Baldwin a few minutes after eight o’clock. Mr. J.U. Blacksher and Dr. Baumhauer of Maros, joined the party at Hadley and manifested their interest in the project by accompanying it to Local, at which point five cars occupied by 15 or 20 prominent citizens of Atmore were in waiting to extend cordial greetings and a pressing invitation for the entire party to accept the free hospitality of that thriving city over night. In consequence of being somewhat behind schedule already the invitation was reluctantly but of necessity declined.

At Lottie an escort of five cars and perhaps a score of leading citizens of Bay Minette awaited the party and accompanied it to town.

IMPRESSIONS OF THE ROUTE

That portion of the Old Federal Road over which the writer traveled, that is to say, from Midway to the point of its nearest approach to Bay Minette, follows strictly the watershed dividing the streams that flow into the Alabama River and those that empty into the Gulf, and we were somewhat astonished to find the road in such good condition and so few physical difficulties in the way of building at moderate cost and economically maintaining a first class permanent highway. There are few streams that cross the roadway and none that are subject to dangerous overflow. With the present travel over the road only two bridges are deemed necessary between Ft. Deposit and Bay Minette, a distance of 118 miles. Excellent road building material, such as sand, gravel and clay, abound all along the way in close proximity and in reasonably equable proportion. The grades are not difficult even under existing conditions. The distance between Ft. Deposit and Bay Minette by the Old Federal Road is only two miles greater than that by railroad, and this distance could be materially decreased by relocation at various points and the straightening out of unnecessary curves. There are stretches of level country on the lower reaches where the road could be laid out for miles as straight as a line where at present it follows a zigzag course without apparent reason.

Most Practical and Economical

Our traveling companion, Mr. T.W. Russell (to whom we are indebted for a seat in his auto throughout the trip) who has traveled extensively and is familiar with conditions throughout a wide area, is convinced that this is the most practical of any route yet suggested for a trunk highway both from the standpoint of minimum mileage and conditions favorable to construction and maintenance.

The road traverses fertile and prosperous farming sections in Lowndes, Butler, Conecuh, Monroe, Escambia and Baldwin counties and its adoption and improvement by the state would do more to advertise to the world these somewhat isolated sections and promote their development than anything of which we can conceive. It therefore behooves the citizens of these counties to support heartily the efforts being made to this end.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

A brief sketch of the history of this ancient road may prove not uninteresting to many readers of The Journal, now that it is about to be brought again into prominence.

For the main facts of the sketch we have drawn freely from the contributions of Hon. Peter J. Hamilton of the Alabama Historical Society.

Road Provided by Indian Treaty

After the Revolution, when the tide of emigration began to drift westward various roads connected the Atlantic states with the country west of the Alleghanies. Natchez and St. Stephens, making up the best part of the Mississippi Territory, long remained isolated advance guards of civilization. Natchez communicated with the outside world by the Mississippi River, while the settlement on the Tombigbee was separated by the Choctaw Indians from the Mississippi, by the Creeks from Georgia, by the Cherokees from Tennessee and by the Spaniards from the Gulf. The United States made peace with the southern Indians at the close of the Revolution, and in 1801 concluded further treaties with them providing for wagon roads from the Nashville country to the Natchez district and a little later from Georgia to the Tombigbee settlement. Immigrants traveling by land from Columbus, Ga. to the Mobile River in those days before railroads and towns would go west to a point a little below the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, thence southwest, on the watershed following an old Indian trail. On examination of any good map of the state it will be found that this ridge extends from Fort Mitchell in Russell County, via Forts Bainbridge and Hull in Macon County, Mt. Meigs in Montgomery County, Ft. Deposit in Lowndes, Burnt Corn in Monroe and on to Ft. Montgomery in Baldwin County.

In accordance with the terms of the Indian treaty referred to, concluded at Washington Nov. 14, 1805, between Harry Dearborn, secretary of war as United States commissioner, and William McIntosh and other chiefs, this road was opened by the United States authorities from the Ocmulgee River in Georgia, by way of Mims Ferry to St. Stephens then the capital of the Mississippi Territory. Two years later Harry Toulmin, James Caller and Lemuel Henry as territorial commissioners extended it westward from St. Stephens to Natchez, opening a ferry across the Alabama above Little River and another across the Tombigbee above St. Stephens. Causeways were laid over boggy ravines and branches. It acquired in local parlance the alternate name “Three-Notch Way” from the three blazes which uniformly marked it from Georgia to Natchez.

Expansion Into Great Thoroughfare

This rough way, at first little more than a bridle path and used principally by horsemen and packhorses, gradually expanded with increasing immigration from the older settlements and by 1811 it had become the great highway from the South Atlantic seaboard and the interior of Georgia and South Carolina to the whole of south and middle Alabama and south Mississippi. But for the Federal Road with its forts, affording protection to immigrants and inspiring wholesome fear in the minds of the “noble red men” who little relished the rapid encroachment of the whites upon their native soil, the work of laying the foundation for our present great state would have been a much more dilatory and difficult process than it proved. As population increased and intercommunication became more essential, the road was adopted as a United States post road, forming a link in the great overland thoroughfare between Mobile and New York. Stage coach lines were operated regularly over the road for many years, even down to a date easily within the recollection of many citizens now living. Back in the forties, when the Morse system was yet a novelty, a telegraph line stretched along this road from the City by the Bay to the state capital and even yet cleats to which the line was insulated can be seen attached to stately pines that have escaped the woodman’s devastating axe.

Celebrated Travelers

Over this road passed the noted Methodist preacher of pioneer days, Lorenzo Dow and his wife Peggy Dow, on their long and tedious missionary trips to the Tombigbee settlement; Vice President Aaron Burr in his flight after the bloody duel in which he slew his antagonist, Alexander Hamilton, and as a prisoner after his arrest on the charge of treason; General Lafayette, the French nobleman who played so conspicuous a part in the achievement of American independence, and many other characters justly celebrated in the early history of our country.

TRIP NOTES

Of the more than 50 citizens constituting the party that accompanied the State Highway Commission on the inspection trip, only two, Messrs. Geo. W. Salter Sr. and J.I. Bizelle of Monroeville, ever had the experience of making a journey by stage coach over this or possibly any other road. It is needless to remark that both these gentlemen were very much younger in years on those occasions than they are now.

On the return trip the party diverged from the direct route enticed by the prospect of a joy ride over the excellent roadway constructed by Mr. J.U. Blacksher at his personal expense. The pleasure of this experience fully compensated for all the jolts and tedium of the journey to that point. Even the insensate machines seemed to experience the thrill of exhilaration as they merrily sped over the way to the rhythmic pulsation of their ingenious mechanism. This road demonstrates what can be accomplished in any community by the exercise of a little enterprise and the expenditure of a moderate amount of money and energy. It will stand as a lasting monument to the public spirit of Mr. Blacksher.

Crop conditions all along the route were found to be far better than expected. The recent rains have wrought wonders in the appearance of the farms, and inquiry elicited the gratifying information that fair yields of both cotton and corn are practically assured between Midway and Burnt Corn. From Burnt Corn southward the condition steadily improved, attaining its maximum of excellence in the vicinity of Local. There is a world of velvet beans and other legumes growing throughout the three counties traversed.

The Journal has but one criticism to indulge regarding the road system of our sister counties to the south, and that is with reference to the absence of finger boards at road crossings. A stranger traveling without a competent guide is liable to take any one of a dozen roads seemingly tending in the right direction and the chances are that he will go wrong in each instance.

Mr. T.W. Russell is an expert chauffeur for an amateur. No sandbed was heavy enough or hill so steep as to balk his faithful Ford, and as for speed, no Overland, Flanders or Buick in the party was swift enough to distance “Sarah.”

Today in History for Aug. 1, 2014

William Barrett Travis

Aug. 1, 1498 – Italian explorer Christopher Columbus set foot on the American mainland for the first time at the Paria Peninsula in present-day Venezuela.

Aug. 1, 1809 – William Barrett Travis was born in Edgefield District, S.C., near Old Fort Ninty-Six. He would later live in Conecuh and Monroe County, Ala. before moving on to Texas, where he would become famous for being the commander at the ill-fated Alamo. (Some sources say he was born on Aug. 9, 1809.)

Aug. 1, 1819 – “Moby Dick” author Herman Melville was born in New York City.

Aug. 1, 1823 – The Federal land office officially opened in Sparta, Ala. Prior to that date, land grants in the vicinity of Conecuh County had to be filed in the land office at Cahaba. Johnathan G. Shaw of Massachusetts was the first receiver at Sparta, and Mark Travis, the father of Col. William B. Travis of the Alamo, bought the first land sold by the Sparta Federal Land Office. (Some sources say this office opened on this date in 1822.)

Aug. 1, 1838 – Confederate soldier and physician Calvin Calhoun Nettles was born at Blacks Bend. He enlisted in the Monroe Guards on March 15, 1861 and enlisted in the 5th Alabama Regiment on July 28, 1861 at Bells Landing. He was listed as sick at Richmond General Hospital between Sept. 1, 1861 and Oct. 31, 1861. He was taken prisoner at South Mountain, Md. on Sept. 14, 1862, but later paroled and furloughed. He was listed as missing in action at Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863 and was taken prisoner at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was discharged on Feb. 14, 1865, became a doctor after the war and moved to Mobile. He died sometime after 1921.

Aug. 1, 1864 – During the Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant appointed General Philip Sheridan commander of the Army of the Shenandoah.

Aug. 1, 1908 – Prof. W.W. Hall resigned from his position as President of the Southwest Alabama Agricultural School in Evergreen, Ala. to accept the position of Vice President of Cokers College for Women of South Carolina.

Aug. 1, 1914 – World War I erupted as, four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany and Russia declare war against each other, France ordered a general mobilization, and the first German army units crossed into Luxembourg in preparation for the German invasion of France. During the next three days, Russia, France, Belgium, and Great Britain all lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the German army invaded Belgium. The "Great War" that ensued was one of unprecedented destruction and loss of life, resulting in the deaths of some 20 million soldiers and civilians.

Aug. 1, 1918 – During World War I, Army Pvt. Clifford Cunningham of Atmore, Ala. “died from wounds.”

Aug. 1, 1938 – The Evergreen Greenies baseball team beat the Dothan Browns, 7-6, in Evergreen, Ala.

Aug. 1, 1938 – Former Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Kardow took over the Evergreen Greenies baseball franchise.

Aug. 1, 1947 – Starting at 1 p.m., WEBJ 1240 in Brewton began broadcasting for the first time and at that time this station was the only broadcasting station between Montgomery and Mobile.

Aug. 1, 1953 – Conecuh County Sheriff John H. Brock arrested Willie D. Merrill on murder charges in connection with the shotgun slaying of his wife around 8 p.m. at their home in Brownville.

Aug. 1, 1953 – “Shane,” considered by many critics to be the greatest western movie of all-time, is released by Paramount Pictures. The movie is based on the 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer.

Aug. 1, 1966 - Charles Whitman shot 46 people, killing 14 and wounding 31, from the observation platform atop a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas.

Aug. 1, 1995 – “Circumstantial Evidence” by Pete Earley was released for the first time. 

Daily Weather Observations from SW Alabama for Fri., Aug. 1, 2014

Temp: 71.6 degrees.

Rainfall (past 24 hours): 0.00 inches

Humidity: 78 percent (Humid)

Conditions: Partly Cloudy skies and sunny; birds audible and visible; dogs and crickets audible.

Barometric Pressure: 29.49 inHg.

Week to Date Rainfall: 0.00 inches

Month to Date Rainfall: 0.00 inches

Summer to Date Rainfall: 2.30 inches

Year to Date Rainfall: 45.65  inches

NOTES: Today is the 213th day of 2014 and the 42nd day of Summer. There are 152 days left in the year.

Readings taken at 0700 hrs Central Standard Time (1300 GMT) daily, just west of the Monroe-Conecuh County line, near Excel, Alabama, USA, in the vicinity of Lat 31.42834°N Lon 87.30131°W. Elevation: 400 feet above sea level. CoCoRaHS Station No. AL-MN-4, Station Name: Excel 2.5 ESE.