1997 Weather Year in Review

1997 Weather Year in Review

As the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, you'll be able to sum up 1997 weather across the area as very normal. Both temperature and precipitation across much of Alabama and west central Georgia were about average for the year.

Here are some general weather facts for 1997:

The 1997 figures for temperature, rainfall and snowfall are all very close to normal. Especially since the last week of 1997 looks fairly wet.

City	Hottest Temperature	Coldest Temperature	Rainfall	Snowfall
Huntsville	97 on July 27^th	7 on January 11^th	57.48	3.6 inches
Birmingham	97 on September 20^th	11 on January 17^th	55.49	1.7 inch
Montgomery	98 on August 18^th	17 on January 18^th	47.30	Trace
Columbus, GA	98 on July 3^rd	19 on January 18^th	51.59	Trace

**Here are the average annual rainfall and snowfall for these four cities.**
Huntsville	57.18 inches of rain and 4.1 inches of snow
Birmingham	54.58 inches of rain and 1.4 inches of snow
Montgomery	53.43 inches of rain and 0.3 inches of snow
Columbus	51.00 inches of rain and 0.7 inches of snow

New record temperatures for 1997:

Huntsville saw 11
Birmingham had 3
Montgomery broke 5
Columbus set 9

As far as severe weather was concerned, again 1997 was slightly above normal with 29 tornadoes across Alabama. There were 16 tornadoes across the northern 2/3^rd of Alabama and 1 in the Columbus, Georgia area in 1997, they were:

Date	Tornado Strength	County	City	Deaths	Injuries
January 5th	F0	Jackson	Stevenson	0	0
January 24th	F1	Elmore	Elmore	0	0
January 24th	F1	Lawrence	South of Moulton	0	0
January 24th	F2	Tuscaloosa	Tuscaloosa	1	10
January 28th	F2	Tuscaloosa	Coker	0	1
Febuary 21st	F0	Shelby	Maylene	0	0
March 13th	F1	Muscogee	Columbus	0	1
April 22nd	F2	Dekalb	Rainsville	0	10
May 3rd	F0	Limestone	Reid	0	0
May 3rd	F2	Limestone	Athens	0	12
May 3rd	F2	Madison	Meridianville	0	1
May 3rd	F0	Madison	Owens Crossroads	0	0
May 3rd	F0	Madison	Owens Crossroads (two separate storms)	0	0
May 25th	F0	Madison	Huntsville	0	0
June 16th	F1	Colbert	Leighton	0	1
July 22nd	F0	Lee	Opelika	0	0
July 28th	F0	Cullman	Holly Pond	0	0

The only hurricane to impact the U.S. in 1997, was Hurricane Danny that plagued the coastal counties of Alabama in July with very heavy rainfall. The remains of Danny tracked north and caused downpours and severe weather across the Montgomery and Columbus, GA areas.

What does 1998 have in store for us weather wise? With the strong El Niño in place, there is a tendency to increase the precipitation and severe weather across the deep south.

Huntsville

5 record high temperatures of,

68 on January 2^nd
68 on January 3^rd
70 on January 4^th
80 on March 1^st
85 on October 8^th

11 record low temperatures of,

43 on May 5^th
43 on May 11^th
62 on August 1^st
60 on August 2^nd
58 on August 23^rd
56 on August 24^th
58 on August 25^th
52 on September 5^th
34 on October 23^rd
33 on October 28^rd
20 on November 17^th

Birmingham

2 record high temperatures of,

73 on January 3^rd
82 on March 1^st

1 record low temperature of,

57 on August 24^th

Montgomery

1 record high temperature of,

82 on March 1^st

5 record low temperatures of,

42 on May 5^th
60 on August 22^nd
55 on September 6^th
57 on September 8^th
23 on November 18^th

Columbus

6 record high temperatures of,

82 on March 1^st
83 on March 3^rd
84 on March 22^nd
85 on March 29^th
96 on September 19^th
97 on September 20^th

3 record low temperatures of,

46 on May 11^th
55 on July 31^st
62 on August 1^st

1997 Weather Year in Review

New record temperatures for 1997:

As far as severe weather was concerned, again 1997 was slightly above normal with 29 tornadoes across Alabama. There were 16 tornadoes across the northern 2/3rd of Alabama and 1 in the Columbus, Georgia area in 1997, they were:

The only hurricane to impact the U.S. in 1997, was Hurricane Danny that plagued the coastal counties of Alabama in July with very heavy rainfall. The remains of Danny tracked north and caused downpours and severe weather across the Montgomery and Columbus, GA areas.

As far as severe weather was concerned, again 1997 was slightly above normal with 29 tornadoes across Alabama. There were 16 tornadoes across the northern 2/3^rd of Alabama and 1 in the Columbus, Georgia area in 1997, they were: