About This Station
The station is powered by a Davis Vantage Pro 2 wreless weather station and a Boltek StormTracker PCI lightning detection hardwarwe. The data is collected every 60 seconds and the site is updated every 5, if not sooner, minutes. This site and its data is processed using Weather Display Software, a link to which may be found on the "Helpful Links"page at this web site. The station comprises of an anemometer, rain gauge, thermo-hydro sensor, and a separate wireless leaf & soil moisture station situated in optimal positions for highest accuracy possible.
About Fairhope
Fairhope, Alabama is located on the eastern side of Mobile Bay, approximately 25 miles east of Mobile and 40 miles west of Pensacola, FL. Its geographically located on the Coastal Plain and the climate is considered Humid, Sub-Tropical. Mean Temperatures are as follows: Annual-67°, January-51°, July-81°. Average Annual Precipitation is 65 inches though we regularly exceed that. Prevailing winds are out of the NW or N during the fall and winter months, and out of the S or SW during the spring and summer.
Fairhope was founded in November, 1894 as a utopian single tax colony by the "Fairhope Industrial Association," a group of 28 followers of economist Henry George who had incorporated earlier that year in Des Moines, Iowa. Their corporate constitution explained their purpose in founding a new colony:
In forming their demonstration project they pooled their funds to purchase land at "Stapleton's pasture" on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and then divided it into a number of long-term leaseholds. The corporation payed all governmental taxes from rents paid by the lessees, thus simulating a single-tax, the purpose of which was to eliminate disincentives for productive use of land and thereby retain the value of land for the community.
"Fairhope Street" was one of the properties on the 1906 version of the board game "The Landlord's Game". Today this game is known as "Monopoly".
In 1907 educator Marietta Johnson founded the School for Organic Education in Fairhope. The school was praised in John Dewey's influential 1915 book Schools of Tomorrow. Dewey and Johnson were founding members of the Progressive Education Association.
The Fairhope Single-Tax Corporation still operates, with over 2,250 leasholds covering more than 4000 acres in and around the current city of Fairhope. Despite the ideals of the corporation, however, the process of land speculation has propelled the transformation of Fairhope from a utopian experiment to artist's and intellectual's colony, to a boutique resort and affluent suburb of Mobile.
A Brief Alabama Timeline
(1540) Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto arrived.
(1704) City of Mobile established.
(1814) Andrew Jackson's forces victorious at Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
(1819) Alabama becomes 22nd U.S, State.
(1861) Seceded from the Union, and with six other states formed the Confederate States of America, with Montgomery as its capital.
(1865) After defeats at Mobile, Montgomery and Selma, Civil War battles are ended in the state. The Battle of Spanish Fort\Blakely actually occured AFTER the war ended.
(1910) Boll weevil worm threatens to destroy the cotton crops.
(1933) Tennessee Valley Authority established.
(1950) Rocket scientists begin work at Huntsville.
(1955) Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Her protest prompted the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights Movement.
(1960) George C. Marshall Space Flight Center is dedicated in Huntsville.
(1961) Harper Lee wins the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
(1972) Governor George Wallace shot in Maryland.
(1981) The vocal group, Alabama, is selected "Vocal Group of the Year" by the Academy of Country Music.
(2001) Condoleeza Rice, Birmingham Native, is appointed National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. She later is appointed Secretary of State.
Some Famous Alabamians
Henry Aaron - baseball player
Robert Abernathy - civil rights activist
Evan Frank Allison - conservationist
Tallulah Bankhead - actress
Hugo Black - supreme court justice
Nate King Cole - singer
Lionel Hampton - jazz musician
William Handy - composer, musician
Helen Keller - author & educator
Joe Louis - boxer
Willie Mays - baseball player
Jesse Owens - athlete
Rosa Parks - civil rights legend
Daniel Pratt - Industrialist
Hank Williams - country music legend
Condoleeza Rice - government official
Harper Lee - author
Alabama Land Statistics
Area 52,423 sq miles (28th) (Land) 50,750 sq. miles (Water) 1,673 sq. miles
Bordering States (4) Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, & Tennessee
Number of Counties (67)
Largest County (by population) Jefferson, 662,047
Highest Point Cheaha Mountain in the Talladega National Forest at 2,405 ft
Lowest Point Gulf of Mexico, sea level
Length/Width 330 miles/190 miles
Coastline 53 miles
Shoreline (includes islands) 607 miles
Mean Elevation 500 ft.
Geographic Center 12 miles SW of Clanton
