Earlier sunrise

Where I live at approximately 38° North Latitude, I mark today ( 8 January ) as the genuine beginning of the short half of the year when the days are getting longer.  Yes techinically the time between sunrise and sunset has been increasing since winter solstice ( 21 December ).  But when sunrise comes a bit earlier, it feels like the days are getting longer.   

Back on 7 December we experienced the earliest sunset of this dark corner of the year.  Not until today did the time of sunrise begin to get earlier.  By only a few seconds per day at first, soon the days will be noticably longer.  That makes me happy.  Hopeful. 

The science of how this is so can be explained by the analemma.  

Tanka for 13 February 2013

 

Bare elderberry

Branches reaching to the sky

The violet sky;

Winter wind has stripped the leaves

But -- ah -- soon new leaves will come.

 

I saw the light, yes...

7 January is a red letter day in my personal cosmo-chronological calendar.  Today is the day (where I live) when not only is the time of sunset later than it was yesterday, but the time of sunrise is also earlier than it was yesterday.  (Confused yet?)

The Days of Darkness are officially ended! 

Bright beautiful days are all lined up out there ready to enjoy in 2013!  Now there is real reason for hope. 

Bleak Midwinter

The Dark of the Year

Depending on where you live, places in the northern hemisphere are experiencing their earliest sunsets around now.  In Miami, Florida, the earliest sunset was back around November 29.  In Seattle, Washington, the earliest sunset is not until December 10.  In San Francisco, the earliest sunset is around December 7. 

The latest sunrise for Seattle is about January 1; for Miami it's not until January 12; for San Francisco, it's about January 6.

Mid-winter, the winter solstice, is on December 21 at 11:12 Greenwich Mean Time.  That's the "shortest day of the year" but due to astronomical sciencey stuff called the analemma, the day of earliest sunset, the day of solstice, and the day of latest sunrise are not the same (unless you live on the equator, where all days are 12 hours long!). 

I am always glad when the earliest sunset is past, even though it only varies by much less than a minute per day when the sun is rounding the corner of the analemma, as it were.  I'm glad because I tend to do more of my non-employment-related outdoor activity in the evening, and even a few more seconds of light gives me some hope that the evenings will soon be noticeably brighter. 

May your days be merry and bright!

Rainstorm Morning

The picture is shot of the Weather Underground (I wish they wouldn't use that name) "Wundermap" at 7am 2 December 2012.  The orange streak is the heaviest rain.  We have had just about an inch of rain in the last 24 hours, and it's coming down hard right now. 

Geologist Clarence King, writing in ca. 1880, is quoted in Oaks of California (Pavlik, Muick, Johnson, and Popper, Cachuma Press 1991):

Riding thus in the late summer along the Sierra foothills, one is constantly impressed with the climatic peculiarities of the region.  With us in the East, plant life seems to continue till the first frost; but in the Sierra foot-hills growth and active life culminate in June and early July, and then follow long months of warm stormless autumn wherein the hills grow slowly browner, and the whole air seems to ripen into a fascinating repose -- a rich, dreamy quiet, with distance lost behind pearly hazes, with warm tranquil nights, dewless and silent.  This period is wealthy in yellows and browns, in great overhanging masses of oak, whose olive hue is warmed into umber depth -- those are the conditions of the vegetation.

The same is true of the coastal hills at the same latitude, with the exception of the micro-climates so near the Pacific Ocean that the morning fog cools the day and waters the ground. For the most part there simply is no precipitation from May to October.  The grass looks dead -- this is the real reason, I think (and not the excitement in the second half of the nineteenth century over metal mining), for the enduring nickname of "The Golden State". 

The weather, rainfall and its absence, and water politics are always topics of conversation in California.  For now, talk of raising my water rates due to drought is silent.  Much more of this, and talk of raising my water rates due to damage to our hydrological infrastructure will begin.  Flood watch is in effect for many areas.