More Like A "Spring" Solstice

Earth's northern end will be tipped as far from the sun as it's going to get this year in about 3 hours; at 5:23pm EST. So far today, the low temperature has dropped to 57 degrees with much more time spent in the 60's, much more spring-like than anything resembling winter. We know that will change, and soon. The rain of yesterday and overnight was part of a complex system that included the intrusion of a warm front into the mid-Atlantic, hence the spring-like start to winter. But, at the winter solstice, cold air is never far away and the chill will return tonight with the first full day of winter feeling like a sunny version of winter, tomorrow. No snow in the forecast so a white xmas in out of the picture.
Today's warm is accompanied with some of the lowest barometric pressure I've seen without a hurricane or monster summer storm: 29.21" of mercury. My old school glass barometer actually has water flowing out of the bowl on top; first time I've ever seen that. And, the center of the low is to our west. Today's breezy conditions are a direct result of that low pressure.
It being the Winter Solstice, I did a little look back through 23 years of weather journal records to see how often it's this warm (or close) on the first day of winter. Half as likely as feeling like winter, I discovered. 12 of the years it was cold and winter-like, with only 6 in what I determined to be the warm category; five years I deemed average - lows chilly but getting near 50 during the shortest day of the year. 16 years of rain records puts our yearly average above 44". This year and 2003 both saw (or have seen, so far) over 70 inches. The lowest still above 30". My 44" average over 16 years matches averages for both Richmond and Charlottesville.
More aftershocks up Kamchatka way after the 7.3 quake yesterday but, as usual, the big shake action is the Indonesia and PNG collision zone where the Australian plate is slamming into the Pacific plate. And, that's where the volcano action is, too. Darwin figured out how change happens with life on the planet; Al Wegener, Harry Hess and others unpuzzled the continental movement scene and gave us a handle on how things really work on Earth. Humans had figured out the solstice thousands of years ago; no doubt, there was quite a crowd at StoneHenge today to celebrate (in amazement) the marking of the southernmost point of the sun's yearly movement: the Solstice, when the sun stands still. Pretty cool.
Just was reminded that today is Frank Zappa's birthday, would have been 79. Another guitar hero(and friend) of mine, Jay Gillespie, would have been 60 today. This evening we will gather to celebrate Jay's life and continue to work through our sadness at his untimely death a month ago. A toast to Jay, Frank and the Solstice of Winter!!🍻

Longest night this year

The Winter Solstice is here

Celebrate with cheer!