January 6---And Snow!

 

 

 

 

We are still new to the new year, and new beginnings. Already, earthquakes, missiles and the first school shooting of the year.  Today is January 6--- and 3 years ago, it was Insurrection Day, a  violent attempt to overthrow an  election. It didn't start that day, and there is still a threat to democracy today.

Saturday, January 6---Epiphany, Three Kings Day.  And snow today! This is real snow, the snow the kids wanted for Christmas. About 1 or 2 inches of wet snow, here. Yes, enough to shovel.  It's so beautiful, clinging to the bare branches of the trees,  the milkweed  pods, and stems of the autumn grasses.  

The snow is the color of the sky, and the sky is the color of the snow.

And today, walking through the alley, there are  Christmas trees,  covered with snow. 

Happy New Year

  

 

Just past the  last full moon of 2023.  And today, 2 minutes, 36 seconds more daylight since the winter solstice on December 21.  

It's been a year of  tornadoes and hurricanes, erupting volcanoes, and wars.  The plague is still with us.  If you want to read more about the hottest, coldest,  rainiest and snowiest days in Chicago in 2023, here is an article from the Chicago Tribune.

No, we didn't get snow for Christmas, but there was some snow on Halloween!  

The new year will still  be influenced by the strong El Nino.  Will there be snow in January?

In November,  we will be voting in a general election. In the meantime, what will be happening in Ukraine, in Gaza, at the US Southern border?  

And still, we look up at the moon. In these  uncertain times,  the moon is still with us,  always changing phases. Waxing, full,  and waning.  And new again.

Wishing you all good things in the new year! 

Winter solstice 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

Counting the days to the winter solstice, and the holiday lights and decorations are festive in this dark time of year.   Sunset today, December 17,  is at 4:20 pm. 

This time last year, we were shoveling snow here. Friday, December 15,  it was a festive 51 degrees, and a neighbor was cutting the grass on the parkway!

 According to the old Celtic calendar, the solstice in December marks midwinter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the return of the light. This year, the solstice will occur on December 21, 9:27 CST. 

 Here's a post I wrote about it last year. 

 May you celebrate this time of year, whether summer at the South Pole, or winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Season's Greetings to all, this is the season of light.  

Amid wars and plagues, climate change and uncertainties, may this also be a season of hope, and peace.

El Niño update

 

 

 First week of Meteorological winter, and the holiday lights are welcome in the long nights and earliest sunsets of the year now. The December Solstice on December 21.  The high temperature was 51 on December 7  under cloudless blue sky and sun. It was the warmest December 7 in 42 years, since 52 degrees in 1981! 

The sunset was spectacular, too. It was a beautiful day---but it didn't feet like December.  Today, December 8, it was even warmer, almost 60 degrees!  Yes, unseasonably warm.  Enjoy it while it lasts, people say. And if you are from Chicago,  you may say, we'll be paying for this in January. 

Is this part of the El Niño effect?  Global warming?  Climate change?  

Yes, weather folks are confident  in a strong El Niño lasting through the spring. This means a milder winter here,  and not as much snow.

Global warming caused by human activity affects the ocean waters, too, which in turn affect the jet stream, and the polar vortex, and weather all over the world.

Global warming and climate change are not the same thing. Global warming is part of climate change. Due to warmer temperatures, hurricanes may be more extreme, and intensify more rapidly.

 Climate change is weather over time, a pattern of more severe storms, heat waves, droughts and flooding. 

These changes affect everyone, everywhere--from melting icebergs in Antarctica, to fall foliage in New England,  fewer bees, more mosquitos, changes in crops and timing of flowering cherry trees.  

We are all part of these changing climate patterns,  even as private jets fly into Dubai.

 

A Hazy Shade Of Winter

White gray sky,  a cold wind,  brown leaves, and patches of snow. It's a  hazy shade of winter,  today. Maybe you remember this song by Simon and Garfunkel---

 

November Sky

November  sky--white-gray and winter feel, bare trees and brown leaves and cold wind.  Historically, November is the cloudiest month in Chicago.  November sky---The stormy iron-gray  sky and hurricane-force winds  that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald  in Lake Superior forty-eight years ago on November 10.

But not today--the sky today---sun and cloudless blue!  And the leaves falling in that light, and the colors on the almost-bare branches of the trees...There's a slight breeze chasing the leaves down the streets.  It's a beautiful  fall day. 

Yes, the sky really looks  more blue  in the fall. According to Accuweather, this is due to  drier air, and the angle of the sun at this time of year.  The contrast with the colored leaves is also a part of it.

This period of mild,  dry weather  after the first frost is still sometimes called Indian Summer in North America.   In European folklore, this time before winter cold really sets in has other  names--little summer, poor man's summer, grandmother summer.  You can read more  here.

It is said the veil between the worlds grows thin when the leaves start to fall, and the sky is wide open and blue. And maybe we can imagine spirits, ancestors and loved ones,  dancing with  the leaves....

Update  November 15---another beautiful blue sky day---this is the longest streak of sun and blue sky days in mid-November in 22 years! 

Halloween Snow

  

 

 

 

Apigiannagaut  is a word in the Inuktitut language for the first snow of autumn.  Here in the  Chicago area, we  got the first snow of autumn  on October 31 for Halloween. 

Yes, snow on the carpet of fallen colored leaves. Snow on the pumpkins and skeleton decorations. Snow on the bridges and grassy areas. Sometimes, it was light as the falling leaves. Sometimes it was like being in a snow-globe, snow swirling around in gusts of wind.

Snow squalls they called it. Sun then snow, then sun again. 

Sometimes, the snow looked like tiny white balls. There's a name for this, too--graupel.

According to Wikipedia----"Graupel, also called soft hail, hominy snow, or snow pellets, is precipitation that forms when supercooled water droplets in air are collected and freeze on falling snowflakes, forming 2–5 mm balls of crisp, opaque rime.  Graupel is distinct from hail and ice pellets in both formation and appearance. "

 It's not the first time we've had Halloween snow.  The last time  was in 2019, when 3.4 inches of snow fell in Chicago!  

Today, November 1, a clear blue sky, and cold. Still some snow on the leaves and the grass. Sun on melting snow and falling leaves....