Truth is, I knew this. But, at times, I get lulled into a false sense of National-Weather-Service-security. The NWS has created quite the reputation of being pretty dependable over the past 15 years. Sometimes it is hard to remember a time when people were taking measurements by analogue thermometer, writing it in a diary, and reporting it to the local NWS office by telephone.
But people did. And probably still do in some places.
That brings me to an interesting bit of data I stumbled across while answering a question from a viewer here in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Robbie Frazier asked me to look back in the record books at December 11th, 1957. She said her dad told her that Dec 11th, 1957 was the coldest day he could remember.
Meteorologists hear this a lot. Sometimes it can be hooey. In fact, often times people mis-remember things. Psychology tells us that people tend to exaggerate history to make either much better or much worse than it was. But I love these requests because I get to play “detective” and find little nuggets of weather information that I would normally miss. Because who takes the time to casually read the weather almanac from 50 years ago? No one.
So Robbie’s request led me to this:
Notice that December 11th doesn’t look terribly cold. In fact, it is only about 10 degrees below the average high of about 60 degrees. Not frigid. But the lows are missing…
That happens. Especially with old records. Most times I don’t think anything of it.
But I stopped and thought, we’ll what if it was a really, really cold night? Or what if the thermometers at this station were in the direct sunlight and misrepresented that afternoon temperatures?
So I did a little digging. And look what I found! It was indeed a VERY cold day across southern Mississippi.
It looks like a cold front moved through during the day on December 11th and plunged temperatures into the mid teens across parts of southern Mississippi by December 12th. Some parts of the area only managed the low to mid 30s that day!
This is another good reminder to check multiple different weather stations when looking at historical data. Neat stuff!
