Winter Solstice: A Time to Celebrate
Tomorrow, December 22nd, is the Winter Solstice: the shortest day of the year, and what we like to refer to as the first day of winter.
But what does that really mean? Hasn't winter already started? In the U.S., it came in with a bang but has since tapered off to a whimper. One week ago, on December 14th, the only place that fell below zero was Big Piney, Wyoming with a low of -2°F. That's pretty mild for December in the lower 48!
But in Europe, winter has already taken its toll. Last week, winter storm "Joachim" tore through western Europe, leaving as much as 5 feet of snow in its wake. Joachim's lowest central pressure got down to 963.8mb, and wind gusts up to 105mph (175 kph) were recorded.
From Christopher C. Burt's blog on Joachim:
Widespread wind damage in northern France brought down power lines resulting in 400,000 homes losing electricity. A large Maltese cargo ship, the TK Bremen, was washed ashore by 25-foot English Channel seas landing on the coast of Brittany. The crew was safe but some 200 tons of fuel oil leaked from the vessel.
So why do we wait so long to declare winter?
The first day of "meteorological winter" is December 1. Meteorologists like to break the year up into three-month chunks, which happen to coincide with the four seasons. Winter, for us, is December, January, and February. But traditionally, the rest of the world declares that winter begins on this, the shortest day of the year.
At 12:30am ET (5:30am GMT) on December 22, the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is 23.5 degrees south of the equator. For the Northern Hemisphere, the sun on this day is at the lowest point from in the sky for the entire year. The word "solstice" comes from the Latin word "solstitium," which literally means "the sun is standing."
During the Northern Hemisphere's Winter Solstice, the sun is centered over the Tropic of Capricorn—23.5° south. (Image source: Wikipedia)
For places in the Southern Hemisphere like Australia, Chile, Brazil, and southern Africa, it's the longest day of the year, and they're (usually) basking in warm summer weather.
But for us in the Northern Hemisphere, we're trying to get through a brutal winter that's only just started. Although the days will get longer from now until June, we won't see the temperatures and snow turn the corner until March. That's because temperature tends to lag the amount of sunlight we receive. The lowest temperatures are recorded about a month after the winter solstice, and the highest temperatures about a month after the summer solstice in the third week of June.
It's no surprise that many of our most important festivals and celebrations fall close to the winter solstice. It's the time when the nights get shorter and the days get longer, and culturally it symbolizes rebirth. Today begins the trend of longer days, shorter nights, and the migration of the Sun back to the Northern Hemisphere.
So, there's something to help you get through the rest of winter. Summer is just around the corner.
Angela
Reader Comments
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Latitude 48.5 degrees north (southern Germany)
90 degrees-48.5=41.5.
41.5-23.5 (sun south of the equator)=18.
So the noon sun on Dec 22nd is only 18 degrees above the horizon. It does look like a late afternoon sun.
Nice visual. I sometimes forget that the Equator also tilts. Illogical, I know. Perhaps "old timers disease" plays a part in this? ... I just can't seem to remember if that is the case or not.
Can we start a movement to abolish the time change?
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a dead giveaway. I'll bet you a significant chunk of change that my girl went to Catholic school...
9:46 PM GMT on December 21, 2011
Yep, that's right!
Happy winter solstice
Wishing you and Your's the Very Best this Christmas Season Angela, and thank you for all the Wunderful entries here..
Merry Christmas from Uptown NOLA
I am curious what the atmospheric CO2 would be right now if the oceans had not been "sucking" some of it up. Do you have this info ready to hand?
thanks for any help you can provide, my Googling was not fruitful.............
have a good holiday.
5:32 PM GMT on December 23, 2011
That's a great question. I remember seeing absorption charts at one point. It's a multi-variable curve, depends on temp of water, air, co2 concentration (even how much algae/co2 eating organisms are present), etc. But would be an interesting exercise to remove the oceans from the system and see what happens!
This link was provided by Skyepony on Dr. M blog (thanks Sky)
HIPPO reveals climate surprises
Link
.....
Currently, land plants and the oceans absorb roughly half of all carbon dioxide emitted, notes Britton Stephens, a scientist with the National Center on Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. But details on which parts of which ecosystems do it, under what circumstances and how efficiently remains somewhat of an open book. Simply put: %u201CWe don%u2019t understand their behavior at the current time well enough to predict their behavior into the future,%u201D he says. ...............
This article gives me a rough answer to my question. It is the %u201CWe don%u2019t understand their behavior at the current time well enough to predict their behavior into the future,%u201D that is worrisome.
If those factors reach saturation, the atmospheric co2 goes up faster, assuming that the models use the current rate of absorption for predicting increases of CO2 in the air.
Merry Christmas, Angela!
5:21 AM GMT on December 25, 2011
I really do hope you get your rain!
Just to be clear, that's *not* the assumption they make. Rather, they assume that the sink absorption rate will increase as the partial pressure of CO2 increases. So far that's how it's actually worked. If and when (well, when, I'm afraid) we start seeing substantial sink saturation (some is already happening on land), the rate of sink absorption will still be increasing, just not fast enough. Given the poor long-term outlook for the land sink (warming and drought not being so good for plants as it turns out), and the fact that based on past behavior ocean absorption will tend to pick up that slack (since as noted much of the the ocean absorption is basically a function of the partial pressure of CO2, and CO2 not absorbed by the land sinks will increase the partial pressure and so the ocean absorption rate), any sign of a reduction of the rate of absorption in the oceans is bad, bad news, so a very close eye is being kept on it. Such a change would not be expected to be even, and IIRC some recent research found early signs of it in the far southern Indian Ocean, but it seems to be not clear yet as to whether there's a long-term trend there.
David Bowie and Bing Crosby together...
Is that a streetcar named Surreal, P? :)
I'm not really an Xmas-spirit type of person, but if I were this stuff would take it right out of me.
Thanks Angela! We got a good bit the last couple of days. Today, for the first time in many, the sun is shining brightly! It's up to 54 headed for the 60's and 70's later in the week. =) It really is amazing the difference in temps when our side of the planet turns away from the sun. Hope your holidays are going well.
and...the article also sticks it's finger firmly into the eye of Accuguess...
11:55 PM GMT on December 29, 2011
12:06 AM GMT on December 30, 2011
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