Ch..Ch..Changes... (1-31-12)
There are certain times of the year when you can expect a lot of change weather wise in central New York and late winter can show us some of the greatest change. In this blog, we are going to focus on what happens between now and St. Patrick’s Day. That’s just 6 and a half weeks or 46 days from today. I know we haven’t seen much winter up to this point but for those that REALLY want winter to be over here are the changes-Our average high temperature goes from 32 degrees (close to our climatological low) to 43 degrees. We gain a degree just about every 4 days climatologically speaking. -Sunset will be almost two hours later by March 17th. It will set that day at 7:14 pm. Of course one hour of that change comes as we go to Daylight Saving Time March 11th and move the clocks ahead one hour. Still it seems that nothing lifts late winter spirits like having it light into the early evening. All told, when we include the mornings, we will gain more than two hours of daylight over the next six and a half weeks.-The sun will be about 15 degrees higher in the sky at Noon on March 17th. When I say ‘degrees’ in this case I’m talking about degrees on a compass, not temperature. Think of the horizon as 0 degrees and straight overhead as 90 degrees.
Today the sun was at an angle of 29 degrees above the horizon at Noon but by March 17th it will have risen to almost 46 degrees at Noon. That plays a big role in our warming as the sun’s rays are striking the earth in the northern Hemisphere more directly or at less of an angle. When the temperature is close to freezing that higher sun angle by mid March will make it harder for steadier, light snowfalls to accumulate during the day on roads. Also, there will come a day sometime in February where the sun is out and the wind is light where it will feel warmer than it actually is. That is the higher sun angle at work and a sign that Spring is not too far away. To put things in further perspective, by the first day of summer the sun will be 70 degrees above the horizon at noon.I’m not trying to suggest that we aren’t going to see any winter over the next six weeks. In fact, if you follow the ‘climatology’ our normal snowfall is just about three feet during this time. It’s just there is a lot of change all around us that reminds us our seasons are about to change even if there is snow and cold from time to time.
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