OK, the question is: Which Bristol are we talking about?

I am aware of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and Bristols in the states of Pennsylvania, Vermont, Connecticut, Indiana, Virginia, and Tennessee. Are there others I missed?

We're the Bristols in Virginia and Tennessee. Yes, we're in both states. If you look at a map showing the two states, and it has the Interstate Highway System on it, look at I-81 where it crosses the Virginia-Tennessee state line. That's us.

There are two Bristols, called "The Twin Cities" - and to confuse matters even more, we sometimes look at the triangle formed by Johnson City, and Kinsport in Tennessee and the TWO Bristols of Tennessee and Virginia, and call it the "Tri-Cities." Even the airport is called the Tri-Cities Regional Airport.

Bristol TN and Bristol VA share a downtown area. The main street is called State Street and it is a two-lane street with one lane in Virginia and one lane is Tennessee. We have a common Chamber of Commerce, but have separate city governments, separate school systems, police and fire departments, etc.

Bristol VA has 1 high school, 1 middle school, and 4 elementary schools. Bristol TN has 1 high school, 1 middle school, and 6 elementary schools.

Bristol TN is 21.1 square miles and has a population fo 15,200. Bristol VA is 11.6 square miles and has a population of 17,900. These figures are courtesy of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce.

(I'm trying to get the basic demographics out front here, and then we'll go on to other topics later.)

The January low temperature is around 22.5 F (-3.6 C) and the July high temperature is around 85.5 F (29.7 C)

The average annual precipitation is 41.4 inches (105.0 cm) and the snowfall is 16.2 inches (41.0 cm).

That's the basic picture for the FOS (Friends of Statistics.) We'll talk next time about some local events and as we talk in the coming missives, I'll continue to throw in statistics, but not as many.

Until next time...