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 closel}^ related in character to that 

 prevailing in the cooler temperate zone, and in the lower division 

 stamp upon it the features of subtropical i-egions. 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. 



Equall}' 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. MelP from the records of the Alabama State 

 weather service, showing for the entire State the monthly mean 

 maximum and mean mininuim 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 F.) . 



The following gives similar information for the seasons and the 

 average temperature of the year: 



Data of temperature by seasons and for the year {degrees F. ) . 



Mean temperature 



Mean maximum (6 year.s) , 

 Mean minimum (6 years) . 

 Widest range (6 years) 



Whole 

 year. 



63 



' P. H. Mell, Climatology of Alabama, Bulletin 18, Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, new series, August, 1890, p. 31. 



