Summer may be remembered as one of the most brutal

The summer of 2007 will long be remembered as one of the most brutal people in the Shoals have experienced.

For anyone who forgets how hot it was, this summer will be listed in weather records as the sixth hottest ever in the United States. In parts of the nation, including the Shoals, it also will be listed as one of the driest ever.

"This summer started off about normal; in fact, temperatures were a little below normal," said Robert Boyd, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Huntsville. "But then it started getting warmer and kept getting warmer, especially in August. For Muscle Shoals, it was the warmest August ever."

The warmer-than-normal temperatures continued this month. On Monday, the first full day of autumn, temperatures in the Shoals were almost 10 degrees above normal.

Nationwide, the average temperature for June, July and August, the period meteorologists consider summer, was 73.8 degrees. Only the summers of 1936, 2006, 1934, 2002 and 1998 were hotter, respectively, since record keeping began in 1885, according to the National Climatic Date Center in Ashville, N.C.

August was especially brutal, with all time temperature records for the month in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Boyd said the average temperature of 85.5 degrees recorded in the Shoals during August made it the warmest month since record keeping began. The previous record was 85.4 degrees set in July 1980.

It was also abnormally dry in the Shoals.

Rainfall in the Shoals is more than 14 inches below normal.

Rain has been scarce throughout the Tennessee Valley this year.

Gil Francis, a spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority, said the lack of rainfall has forced the utility to reduce power generation from its hydroelectric dams by about 40 percent. The levels of some of its tributary reservoirs in eastern Tennessee are an average of 23 feet below normal. Cedar Creek Lake in Franklin County is 7 feet below normal.

"We normally try to reach our winter level for our tributary reservoirs at the end of December," he said. "For many of them, we're already there. Even if we were to have the remnants of a tropical storm move through the valley, it wouldn't have a significant impact on our tributary reservoirs because they are so far down."

Randall Armstrong, Lauderdale County coordinator for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, said the lack of rain has taken a toll on Shoals hay fields. "With the rain we've had lately, some of our farmers have been able to cut some hay. But our hay supply is still far short of what the farmers will need to make it through the winter."

He said the hot, dry weather also reduced the yield of many corn and cotton fields around the area.

Boyd said long-range forecasts offer some hope for easing the drought. The forecasts predict above normal precipitation and temperatures in the Shoals to continue this fall.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.