import re


def alphanumeric_split(time_string):
    """Splits an incoming string based on the first encounter of a alphabetic character after encountering digits.
     It will lower case and remove all white space in the string first, and return a number as float and alpha text
     as a string. """
    preprocessed_string = str(time_string).replace(" ", "").lower()
    string_list = [string for string in re.split(r'(\d+)', preprocessed_string) if string]
    number = float(string_list[0])
    string = str(string_list[1])
    return number, string