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     As we march into a new year, it's hard not to forget the wild weather of 2009.  The year began fairly ordinary...with a brief cold snap during mid January.

     The third week in March brought a strong bout of severe weather, with three consecutive days of multiple severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings, all in the early morning, carrying into mid-day. The severe weather threat then shifted to flood concerns. On Mach 28th the Dothan airport recieved 6.42 inches of rain, while some aireas of the wiregrass, especially Geneva County recieved up to 9-11" of rainfall. 5-11" was widespread over the wiregrass. The flooding continued into the first week of April, with a second round of severe weather and flooding, which devastated many homes and businesses. FEMA declared many parts of the Wiregrass disaster zones. Some roadways in Geneva, Coffee, and Houston county are still rebuilding washed out roads.

   The presence of a strong El Nino cycle kept the vast majority of hurricaine season at bay, but during June, record heat errupted. Eight new heat records were set, between 101 degrees and 110, and two records tied. Of these ten heat days, ten of them were consecutive. The heat carried into July, and 4 heat records were broken in the first week, with one tie.

   After one of the quietest hurricane seasons in twelve years, it appeared as if we would make it through the season with no US landfalling tropical systems. The 2009 hurricane season had 11 storms, 6 became tropical storms, and 3 became hurricanes. No storms reached landfall on United States land as hurricanes, however two tropical storms did reach the US. On  August 15th, what became Hurricane Bill, a category 4 hurricane at one point, eventally carried it's way all the way up the Atlantic seaboard, reaching and Nova Scotia at Hurricane 1 strength. and Newfoundland as a tropical storm the next week.

   Hurricane Ida reached the Alabama as one of the lastest storms to ever to develop in the season, in early November, reaching the gulf coast around Pensacola, FL as a tropical storm.

Before hurricane season ended, there was a brief cold snap in late October, setting a new low of 37 on October 19th in Dothan.

  2009 will go on record as one of the wettest years on record in the Wiregrass, with many places nearly doubling their annual rainfall. December brought another round of impressive rainfall from December 12-15th which aggitated  local rivers and brought major flooding to the Appalachicola, Choctawhatchee, Pea and numerous other rivers in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. One viewer in Houston county recorded over 90" of rain in 2009, and another viewer in Coffee County recorded 99" inches, roughly 40" more than average.

Christmas eve brought another round of severe weather, which prompted a tornado watch on Christmas eve, evening. Luckily this system only ammounted to  a few severe thunderstorm warnings.

And finally, New Years Eve was greeted by a full moon, and not just any full moon: a blue moon. Blue moon's typically come every 2-3 years, and are called that because they are the second full moon in one month. Blue moon's on New Years eve occur around every twenty years, the last one occuring in 1990, with the next one on New Years Eve projected in 2028. A blue moon is not actually colored blue. It's name is derived from early folklore. Each of the regular 12 lunar full moons is given a folk name, where as ones that did not fall regularly were called blue moons. The very superstitious believe nights of blue moons can bring rambunctiousness or revelry.