Thursday, December 21, 2006

The Darkest Day

The winter solstice is starting out extra dark and gloomy today. Warm air has moved in over the cold, damp ground, producing dense fog throughout the area. We should see the sun by late morning but, on this shortest day of the year, it will set by late afternoon.

While the days will lengthen from now until June 21, the coldest weeks are still ahead. The sun angle will be too low to provide much direct heating until mid February or so and we'll have to depend on southerly winds to bring relief from the winter chill. But the march toward spring begins today and we should notice the longer days and shorter shadows within a month.