two inches of rain to Pike Co.

By AMY S. LANSDON

News Editor

Pike County was drenched again yesterday from a storm system that moved from Texas through Mississippi and Louisiana, before spending the entire day and most of the night soaking the area.

Frank Mathews of Banks and a Weather Watcher for WSFA said the rains started about 4 a.m. Monday, and at about 4 p.m. he said rains measured about two and a half inches.

"I went out and checked the gauge and we had about .10 of an inch," Mathews said. "I went back out a little later and we had more than an inch and a half."

By 4 p.m. Mathews said he measured two and a half inches – plus, and the rain was still coming down.

Mathews kept tabs on the weather the first weekend of the month when almost eight inches of rain fell on Pike County. Even though the county didn’t see near that much rain yesterday most of south and southeast Alabama was soaked.

When he calls in his rainfall reports to WSFA that he always gets calls from people who have measured more or less than him, Mathews said last week.

"I tell them that I’m not arguing with them, I’m just telling them what I got," he said. "I don’t know what they got."

Mathew said the amount of rainfall can vary as much as one-quarter of an inch from one gauge to another and he has one on each corner of his lot.

WTBF Radio in Troy only measured 1.87 inches at the last reading before 4 p.m. Monthly totals were not available.

Although flooding was not a concern, driving conditions weren’t good.

The Pike County Sheriff’s Department responded to five different accidents in the county. Brundidge Police Chief Moses Davenport said a couple of people in the area had cars to hydroplane, but no damage was reported. The Troy Police Department reported no accidents inside the city limits.

Rain totals for Pike County for the month of March are now close to 12 inches, and according to Mathews’ measurements the county only received 5.27 inches for the months of January and February combined.

But the rain totals from the first few months of 2001 definitely outweigh the small amount of rain that fell during the same time in 2000.

In January 2000 only 2.36 inches of rain were reported and only one inch was reported for February. During the entire month of March 2000 only 6.25 inches of rain fell in Pike County, and after yesterday’s rain that amount had been almost doubled for this year.

Today skies will be partly cloudy with highs in the middle 70s and lows in the middle 40s. Winds will be from the west to northwest from 10 to 15 miles per hour. Wednesday will begin with sunny skies and highs near 70 degrees and winds from the northwest at five to 10 mph. Wednesday afternoon clouds will begin returning to the area, and by Wednesday night and Thursday good chances of showers and thunderstorms are expected.