In cooperation with the Alabama Office of the State Climatologist, Robert Erhardt, Jr. is collecting and analyzing 19th century data for the state of Alabama. This project will include traditional weather station data from the 1890's and data from military forts as early as the 1820's. These data will help us put the current climate in proper perspective. For example, the 1910-1940's were so warm in Alabama, that millions of satsuma orange trees were profitable in Mobile and Baldwin Counties. Current climate conditions prevent profitable citrus crops north of central Florida. We suspect the climate of the 19th century was as cool as it is today. We will make data accessible on this site when it becomes available.

Robert Erhardt, Jr. is assistant state climatologist for Alabama. He was a former weather service employee and is now a meteorologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Climatology of Alabama, 1890
We are pleased to present to you a bit of Alabama's weather history! The following document is available for you to view, however the pages may take some time to load if you have a slow connection. Please be patient! The documents are fascinating and I am sure you will find them to be as well! Enjoy!

Download MS Word document:
(File size is 5megs)