Post Blizzard Dig Out

The Great Blizzard of 2016 has moved on after dumping feet of snow along the north eastern seaboard; several feet in many places. After one day of brilliant blue skies and bright sunshine the planet has given way to a little more typical, hazy Virginia winter sun. And, cold.
A bird alert: a Rufous Sided Towhee has just hopped into the bird scene going on outside the tirehouse; hadn't seen one of those in awhile!!  My sister mentioned she was seeing them down her way, guess it's Towhee time!  With all this snow, it is "feed the birds" time; the little feathered monsters are hanging on with everything in their world buried. Toss out the seeds and keep your cats inside.
Back to weather and snow - hard to say how much is around, only measures about a foot around here but the wild wind during the storm piled drifts much higher and also tumbled and broke the snow crystals, packing the snow more densely than the first day's gentle fluffiness. The sleet that fell here on Friday night also added a nice little ice layer to make the shoveling a multi-scoop operation: sweep away the fluffy top layer, pop the middle tumbled, broken, dense layer and finally slide under the sleet capped bottom powder zone to get near the ground; rest and repeat.
There is long term melting help coming, forecasts today call for temps in the low 40's and maybe a little warmer tomorrow with a chance of showers (likely rain but possibly ending as snow…), then cold again late week with serious warming by the weekend. The problem with temp forecasts with snow on the ground is that there is snow on the ground... and it never gets quite as warm as predicted. The atmosphere is mostly heated by the transfer of the sun's radiant energy absorbed by the ground, conducted into the lower atmosphere and then convects onward and upward. When the ground is covered with snow most of that radiation bounces back into space and doesn't heat up the air; it just never gets as warm as they think. We'll see!
If you do get out on Earth today, bundle up and be careful, it's slippery. But, it is time to get out the cross country skis or snow shoes or what ever trudging foot ware you own and go for it. It's a snow day, go play, Today on Earth!!

A Cold Perihelion

Today, the coldest day of this fall and winter season by far with lows in the teens and maybe with lots of sun getting to freezing, also happens to be the day for 2016 when the Earth is closest to the sun. Perihelion, the closest point in our elliptical orbit to our nearby star, about 6pm EST. But, how could it be so cold?
That has to do with a couple of other factors: our axis tilted 23 1/2 degrees from the plane of our orbit and the weather, that daily relationship we have with our atmosphere. While we are indeed 3 million or so miles closer to the sun than we are at aphelion, the far point in early July, we are severely tipped away from our star and not getting much direct sunlight nor was it shining on our part of Earth for very long today.  The weather factor, much influenced by El Nino and a big ridge in the jet stream for most of December (waaaay warmest ever) and November has done the old switch and let the polar air back into the deep south. Tonight will be even colder as the center of the arctic high pressure dome, with its light winds, settles itself over the mid-Atlantic.  Bundle up and/or snuggle up; it's cold out there.
So, today's lesson: OUR DISTANCE FROM THE SUN HAS ALMOST NO EFFECT ON THE SEASONS (or daily weather). It's all about the tilt as we orbit the sun.
And, while I always recommend a jaunt out on the planet, you better be bundled up, Today On Earth!