Cool, wet and some Veteran's Day trivia

Good Morning Augusta

This Morning we have showers early, then cloudy in the afternoon. Highs will be near 46F. Winds will be out of the N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

Tonight we’ll have partly cloudy conditions with a low of 32F. Winds will continue out of the N at 5 to 10 mph.

The readings from my instruments are:

Humidity is 76%, the dew point is 35ºF, outside its 40.3ºF with a wind chill of 33.7ºF.

The wind direction is North Northwest between 6.4 mph and 10.5 mph.

The Barometric pressure is 30.00, HPA 1014 and falling with a weather graphic predicting rain.

The UV rating is 0.0 out of 16, Sunrise is at 6:29 a.m. Sunset is 4:16 P.M. Moon rise is at 6:07 A.M. EST, and the moon phase is waning crescent.

The METAR reading from Augusta’s airport is:

METAR KAUG 111053Z AUTO 02011KT 10SM OVC090 06/02 A2995 RMK AO2 SLP143 T00560017

Visibility is 10.0 miles/16.1 kilometers with overcast down to 9,000 ft / 2,743 m.

We have rain here of 0.0 inches so far, but that’s going to change soon.

From the New York Times, here is a bit of Veteran’s Day trivia for you.

BACK STORY

The 1918 truce that halted fighting in World War I went into effect at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Today, that is commemorated in the U.S. as Veterans Day.

Which gives us the opportunity to share a trivia question from a reader: “Who was the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in history and what was his rank?”

There’s a simple answer — George Washington — with a complicated explanation.

Washington, a major general in the Revolutionary War, was given an honorary promotion to lieutenant general after his presidency, giving him three stars. All the four- and five-star generals who followed officially outranked him.

So as part of the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, President Gerald Ford signed a resolution posthumously promoting Washington to the highest rank ever: general of the armies.

That was also the title given to John Pershing following his service in World War I.

But the measure Ford signed also stated that “no officer of the United States Army should outrank Lieutenant General George Washington.”

So no matter how many stars other generals are awarded, Washington is understood to have one more. Right now, that puts him at six.