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http://www.mlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2015/12/winter_solstice_why_its_not_th.html
The winter solstice occurs tonight at 11:48 p.m. EST.
It marks the beginning of winter, right? Nope. Not if you are a meteorologist.
The winter solstice marks the beginning of astronomical winter. But when we
talk about winter, we think cold and snow more often.
That's where we meteorologists come in. Meteorological winter starts
December 1 every year. So our definition of winter is December 1 to the end
of February.
Why? It's much easier to track winter statistics when we start and end winter
the same days every year. The winter solstice can happen on Dec. 20, Dec.
21, Dec. 22 or Dec. 23. And the spring equinox can happen on varying days
also.
To compare two winters, it is much easier to just take the complete months
of December, January and February.
Image trying to figure out if this is the warmest winter. We would have to
first go back and find the beginning and end date of each winter, if we used
astronomical events. That would be very time consuming.
Instead we just query the data, polling the complete months.
So the winter solstice is not the start of winter in my world. Another nice
aspect to meteorological winter is it ends earlier. If you don't like winter, you
can celebrate the start of spring sooner with us meteorologists.
The winter solstice does mark the start of longer days, but maybe not the
way you think it would. The sunset will be occurring a minute later almost
everyday in late December. The sunset has actually been occurring later
since December 15. The sunrises, however, are still occurring later each
morning until early January.
So the sunset is happening later just a little faster than the sunrise is
happening earlier.
By January 5 the sunrise will start earlier, and we will get more daylight at
each end of the day.
The extra daylight doesn't really help warm Michigan until early February.
That's when we see our average temperatures start to increase.
If you join the meteorological thinking on winter, winter is almost one third
over.
The winter solstice occurs tonight at 11:48 p.m. EST.
It marks the beginning of winter, right? Nope. Not if you are a meteorologist.
The winter solstice marks the beginning of astronomical winter. But when we
talk about winter, we think cold and snow more often.
That's where we meteorologists come in. Meteorological winter starts
December 1 every year. So our definition of winter is December 1 to the end
of February.
Why? It's much easier to track winter statistics when we start and end winter
the same days every year. The winter solstice can happen on Dec. 20, Dec.
21, Dec. 22 or Dec. 23. And the spring equinox can happen on varying days
also.
To compare two winters, it is much easier to just take the complete months
of December, January and February.
Image trying to figure out if this is the warmest winter. We would have to
first go back and find the beginning and end date of each winter, if we used
astronomical events. That would be very time consuming.
Instead we just query the data, polling the complete months.
So the winter solstice is not the start of winter in my world. Another nice
aspect to meteorological winter is it ends earlier. If you don't like winter, you
can celebrate the start of spring sooner with us meteorologists.
The winter solstice does mark the start of longer days, but maybe not the
way you think it would. The sunset will be occurring a minute later almost
everyday in late December. The sunset has actually been occurring later
since December 15. The sunrises, however, are still occurring later each
morning until early January.
So the sunset is happening later just a little faster than the sunrise is
happening earlier.
By January 5 the sunrise will start earlier, and we will get more daylight at
each end of the day.
The extra daylight doesn't really help warm Michigan until early February.
That's when we see our average temperatures start to increase.
If you join the meteorological thinking on winter, winter is almost one third
over.
Last edited by PkrBum on 12/21/2015, 10:22 pm; edited 1 time in total
Looks like that will be the dress this Christmas week for me. No complaints.
