Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Melba, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Melba and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Melba
- Astronomy & Satellites ...
- Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
- To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Melba:
- 31.444893, -89.645628
- Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Melba
- Bird Watching ...
- We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
- The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Jefferson Davis County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Jefferson Davis County
- Since Melba is near Marion County and also Lamar County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Marion County
- eBird sighting report for Lamar County
- Waymarking ...
- Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Melba ...
We found three communities that share the name Melba.
There is one other community in Mississippi which is also named Melba.
Beyond Mississippi, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Located In Mississippi ...
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Idaho
- Kansas
Curious and Interesting Names Near Melba ...
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
- Carson
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest) - Coral
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast) - Double Churches ‑ Historic
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Double Churches have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Double Churches
- Double Churches is located in Jefferson Davis County
- Ebenezer
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west) - Good Hope
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest) - Hickory Grove
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hickory Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Grove
- Hickory Grove is located in Lamar County
- Hopewell
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south) - Improve
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest) - Mount Horeb
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Horeb have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Horeb
- Mount Horeb is located in Covington County
- Rocky Branch
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rocky Branch have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Branch
- Rocky Branch is located in Lamar County
How Far From Melba to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Melba to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Melba and extending to:
- Prentiss, which is the Seat of Jefferson Davis County, lies 16 miles [25.7 km]<2> to the northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Melba to Prentiss, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
- Jackson, which is the State Capital of Mississippi, lies 67 miles [107.8 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take three full days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 876 miles [1,409.8 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 35 days and walking would take 50 days.
- The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,770 miles [10,895.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,479 miles [12,036.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,355 miles [8,618 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Melba. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for State of Mississippi: https://www.ms.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer. Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name. Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time. Also keep in mind that Melba could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out. |
| <2> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Melba) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Melba. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.4449, Longitude: -89.6456 In this case, the coordinates for Melba have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <3> | The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required. |
| <4> | While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day. |
| <5> | The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Melba to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.226 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.802 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 311.821 degrees. |