Spring in Chicago

 

This is Chicago, so winter can linger here. Sleet and snow are still possible tomorrow, or next week, and even  in March and April. 

But already,  there are early signs of spring---

buds on the branches of the hickory tree!

crocuses coming up in the yards!

geese in a line flying north!

The Chicago Auto Show, paczkis for Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday, potted tulips at Walgreens. 

And amid news of basketball and hockey, there's first reports of Spring Training baseball.  

Pitchers and Catchers Report!  Those four words in the gray days of winter--you can almost smell the green grass, feel the warm sun and blue sky---everything is new again...

This is spring in Chicago---buds on the branches, baseball on the radio.

The Last Full Moon of Winter

 

 Midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox now.  We have gained more than an hour of daylight since the winter solstice.  

Sun on melting snow, today, and buds on the bare branches.   We are so ready for signs of spring.
Stores are stocked with cut flowers and potted tulips, bright-colored orchids for Valentines Day.  

If the night sky is clear, you might be able to see the green comet--- a brighter sight in February than in January.

And the full moon rising now is like a beacon in the winter sky. It is the last full moon of meteorological winter. It has many names--the Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, Bone Moon. These would be fitting names for the February moon.  There would be snow, maybe lots  of snow.  Food would be scarce at this time.  

Native tribes also had other names for this last full moon of winter.  According to the Old Farmers' Almanac---

"Names for this month’s Moon have historically had a connection to animals. The Cree traditionally called this the Bald Eagle Moon or Eagle Moon. The Ojibwe Bear Moon and Tlingit Black Bear Moon refer to the time when bear cubs are born. The Dakota also call this the Raccoon Moon, certain Algonquin peoples named it the Groundhog Moon, and the Haida named it Goose Moon."

 

These are the animals of winter. Imagine a sunny day in February, eagles and geese in the blue sky. But they are also signs of changing season,  groundhogs  and raccoons breaking hibernation, and bear cubs born for the spring.

 From the Blog Archives---First published on ChicagoNow---1-22-2014 

Big snow flashback--the blizzard of 1967

The blizzard of 1967 is still  the largest single snow event  in Chicago history. It was the Big Snow. During  35 hours on January  26-27, a total of  23 inches of snow fell on the city and suburbs.

Two days before, on Tuesday, January 24, the temperature was unseasonably mild. It was a balmy 65 degrees, with rain.  Wednesday, temperatures started dropping. Snow began falling on Thursday, January 26 at 5:02 a.m. and kept falling until  4 p.m. on Friday, January 27.

According to the Chicago Tribune, there was little or no advance warning. Thousands of downtown workers were stranded trying to get home. Both O'Hare and Midway  shut down. Hundreds of CTA busses and thousands of cars were abandoned, blocking the streets. Roofs collapsed under the weight of the snow. The city came to a standstill.  Long lines formed at grocery stores. There was looting. There were 26 deaths from the snow, including a 10-year-old girl who was accidentally caught in the cross-fire between police and looters and a minister who was run over by a snowplow. Several others died of heart attacks from shoveling snow.

Drifting, blowing snow piled  as high as 10 feet.  Schools were closed for days. As you can see from the photo above, these  kids had a great  time.

Could this be the memory of snow we carry with us, the kind of winters we remember?   A "real" winter? Snow piled higher than cars.  Even those born since then have seen pictures and heard stories about the Great Blizzard of 1967.

Think of it in context of  the  mid-60's, too--Lyndon Johnson was President. Richard Daley, Sr. was Mayor. The Viet Nam War was going on. Martin Luther King, Jr. would speak out against the war in April of 1967.

The number 1 song on the Billboard charts for the week of January 26 was "I'm a Believer " by the Monkees. The Beatles, the Supremes and the Rolling Stones  were  also popular. Mini skirts were the latest style.

This was before Woodstock, the first Moon landing, the '68 Convention. There had been riots on  the West Side the summer before.  There were no  cell phones, except on Star Trek, which premiered in 1966. This was before microprocessors and personal computers. A first class stamp cost 5 cents.

There was a Woolworth's on State Street, then. And Marshall Fields. Marina City, built in 1963, was a marvel of modern city living. The Picasso statue in Daley Plaza would be dedicated in August of 1967.

The Chicago Cubs roster that year included  Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins and Ron Santo. The Chicago Blackhawks had Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita.

Many winters have passed since then, and blizzards.  We have the internet, now. We have Doppler Radar.

Could the Blizzard of 1967 happen again?  Well, call it Snowpocalypse or Snowmageddon, the Ground Hog Day Blizzard of 2011 brought almost as much snow as the Blizzard of 1967. A total of 20 inches was reported at O'Hare.

Because of the state-of-the art forecasting, many downtown offices closed early, and people were able to get home before the storm hit. Yet, even with  advance warning, cars were still stranded on Lake Shore Drive. Cell phones ran out of power. Fake Twitter account @RahmEmanuel  was tweeting from the hood of a snowplow on Lake Shore Drive.  And who could forget the THUNDERSNOW?

 Real Rahm Emanuel is the Mayor, now. We are more prepared for snow storms, today. We have snow plows and snowmobiles, snow blowers and snow shovels. We have antifreeze. We have better cell phones.

Chicago Weather Center  reports "cumulative seasonal snowfall of 44.8 inches, and counting. That’s 260 percent of Chicago’s normal season-to-date snowfall (17.2 inches) and 122 percent of the city’s normal full-season total of 36.7 inches. In 130 years of official snowfall data, only two winters have had more snow through Jan. 21: 1951-52 with 54.0 inches and 1978-79 with 66.3 inches."

Yes, we're getting some big snow this year.  I'd say  it's been a real winter, so far!   This is one to remember.

 --------------------------------------------

First published on 1-22-2014

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A Comet in January

 

January 2023---Day after day of gray, and variations of gray---

January can be a bleak month. Holidays are over, and bills are due. And yes, the plague is still with us. Republicans control the House.  

But Chicago has had high temperatures in the 40's--well above average for January.  In spite of the Chiberian Express at the end of December, winter  so far has not been bad.  I've even been doing some yard work.

And there is much to look forward to--a little more daylight every day now, after the winter solstice.

And the Lunar New Year  is coming on January 22--it will be the year of the rabbit. In Chinese astrology, the rabbit is a symbol of longevity, peace and prosperity.  Rabbit years can be kinder and gentler than tiger years, like the one just ending. Here's hope there may be more kindness and healing this year.

And there is a comet in the predawn sky--Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)---visible now, and brightening. This comet was last seen in our inner solar system 50,000 years ago!  

Here is an article from Astronomy Magazine with information on how and where to see the comet.

And, here is an article from Sky and Telescope with more information.

You will have to be up early to see the comet, but wouldn't it be worth it just to catch a glimpse of this rare green comet in the predawn sky?   The last time it was in this neighborhood, there was no human civilization. It was here before Stonehenge, or the Pyramids, before Homer,  Galileo, and Shakespeare, before Chinese scholars painted comets on silk.

And  this is not a just a one night phenomenon, like a lunar eclipse. If the sky is cloudy tonight, maybe another night will be clear sky.  Weather permitting, one night we can see it, too.

Winter Color Therapy

 

 

 

 

 

Day after day of overcast gray.  I'm wearing colors today! Magenta, mustard  and  spring grass green...

 After the chiberian express of my last post, and wind chills of -30 and -40 below,  temperatures have warmed to 30's and 40's--the ice in the water bowl  on the porch for the possums and raccoons is liquid water again. 

And the holidays are holiday sales, now. The alleys have a few discarded trees, some with tinsel still clinging to them. Such a sad thing to see---decorated and admired, and then thrown away. 

Why not save them through the winter?  They can become shelter for the sparrows and squirrels, even hibernating ladybugs.   They are trees--they spent their lives outside in the rain and sun and weather.  

I hope you didn't get an unexpected gift of COVID this year. Whatever variant is with us these days, the plague hasn't gone away.  You can still get the bivalent booster, and it's free! 

I am heartened by the response to what happened to  Demar Hamlin-- instead of insisting the players "go on with the game, "   and "win this for Demar" the players and coaches of both teams did not return to the field. The game was postponed, perhaps indefinitely.  Something has changed. We are all praying for his recovery.

I hope the new year brings you the gift of better days to come, of the miracle in the ordinary, of beginning again.

Chiberian Express

 

 

 

 The  lightness of the solstice,  the end of the solar year,  and the beginning of new things. 

For holiday travelers this year, there was a major winter storm and extreme cold, with subzero wind chills!  It was  a return to Chiberia---do you remember? 

Back in 1983--we didn't call it the polar vortex then. Chiberia didn't even have a name. It was Chicago, and wind chills of -40 and the Lake was steaming.

I first heard the term polar vortex in 2014, when it got so very cold, the switches froze on the Blue Line trains. The Lake was frozen.  Chicago was a frozen city. They called it Chiberia.

Now, it's 2022, how many storms of the century have we seen since then? This latest one is really extreme, even for Buffalo, where they are used to alot of snow.  Veteran meteorologists say they have never seen anything like this before.  

There were trucks stranded on the Ohio Turnpike, total white-out conditions.  There were power outages and burst pipes in subzero cold. Under such extremes, it really is like living on another planet. Metal acts differently. Frostbite can occur in a matter of minutes. 

If you were trying to shovel the snow in Chicago, it was a real challenge with the temperatures and the winds. Fortunately, there was not too much snow, and it was light and easy to shovel.Thank you! 

Today, December 29, there are already 2 minutes and 10 seconds more daylight than the winter solstice.
All the snow is almost gone in 50 degree temperatures. People are out in jackets and hoodies!  It's like Chiberia never happened, but it did. And we remember.

December Solstice

 

 

 

 

Solstice greetings to all. Love and light to you.  You may not celebrate the winter solstice, but you do.  The lights, the evergreens, the gifts and gatherings of the season.  These are older than the holidays we  celebrate, now. 

And tomorrow, December 21, the angle of the sun will appear to align along the Tropic of Capricorn. Astronomical summer begins in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere.  

Here, in the Northern Hemisphere, astronomical winter begins. The Old Celtic calendar called the solstice midwinter. As you can see, the dark time of the year here is between what we call Halloween and Ground Hog Day.  

 

Yes, the solstice marks the longest night. Some say the stones at Stonehenge are aligned in such a way that the sunset on the December solstice aligns with the most prominent stone. This is the death of the old year. Sunrise on the following  day marks the start of new beginnings.  

 

Even by our calendars today, January1 already has a few more minutes of daylight. So the wheel of the year turns again, time and again, beginning again. as it has long before you and me.