TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS. 25 
the difference in elevation between its northern and southern sections, 
the State of Alabama is favored by a varied, but in its extremes not 
excessive climate. The climatic conditions give rise in the upper 
part of the State to a vegetation closely related in character to that 
prevailing in the cooler temperate zone, and in the lower division 
stamp upon it the features of subtropical regions. Such conditions 
admit the successful cultivation within its borders of almost all the 
chief crops and many other useful and ornamental plants raised in 
higher latitudes, and also the cultivation of the great industrial staple 
crops and others serving for the sustenance of man and domestic ani- 
mals, originally derived from warmer zones. 
TEMPERATURE. 
Equally open to the influences of the warm and vapor-laden breezes 
from the Mexican Gulf and the intertropical Atlantic Ocean and the 
cool and drier aerial currents from the north unimpeded by mountain 
ranges or table-lands of very great elevation, the climate is mild and 
equable, The following table, transcribed from the diagram com- 
piled by Prof. P. H. Mell! from the records of the Alabama State 
weather service, showing for the entire State the monthly mean 
maximum and mean minimum temperatures and their average, exhibits 
the run of temperature during the course of the year. The regularity 
with which it proceeds within comparatively narrow limits from month 
to month, in the line of the mean maximum as well as the mean mini- 
mum temperature, both series keeping close to the line of the aver- 
age temperature, makes the mildness and uniformity of the climate at 
once apparent. 
Data of temperature by months (degrees I). 
| Jan. Feb.) Mar.) Apr. May. June. July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov.) Dee. 
Mean maximum,........- D440 59 (4.3 70 7) 83 86.7 8b 82 72 ol BS 
Mean average........----- 1.20 49 a7 to. 73 SO 8] 7 73 64 56 {8 
Mean minimum ........-- 35.5 38.7 4b HOS O58 TR2 75.5 TALS 66 56 44 {2 
The following gives similar information for the seasons and the 
average temperature of the year: 
Data of temperature by seasous and for the year (degrees I), 
} } Y . 1 UT] 
| | | Whole 
Spring. Summer. Autumn.) Winter. vent 
Mean temperature. .... 2.022052 22222222 e eee eee eee 63 80 63 50 63 
Mean maximum (6 years) ......-------+-----------+- 90 | OL | 92 | TL o....--- ee 
Mean minimum (6 years) .......--..----+2-----++-- 30 38 26 | 15 |... eee eee 
Widest range (6 years) .......-----22-2-2 222 e eee eee | 60 a6 66 | FS 
| 
| | | | 
IP. H. Mell, Climatology of Alabama, Bulletin 18, Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, new series, August, 1890, p. 31. 
