Sunday, January 22, 2012

Old Man Winter Over the Hill?

       Almost... At least where I live the 20's of January are the time when the average daily temperatures bottom out. They also reach a maxima roughly around the 20th of July. After this week, it's all up hill from here at least in terms of averages. Of course every year is a little different. A common question is that if the sun in the Northern Hemisphere reaches it's greatest angle around December 21 and the opposite around June 20th, than why does it take so long for the weather to respond. The answer is the seasonal lag. The sun doesn't heat the air, it heats things and then they heat the air. Water takes longer to heat and cool than land. For that reason areas that are inland tend to have earlier seasons while in coastal areas it tends to be later. This is just a generalization of course. Even where I live some of our worst snowstorms have been in February and even March, but at least the longer days and stronger sunlight can help clear the roads up a little faster.