February 2022 - On & Off Earth
After lamenting the lack of true winter weather over the last several years in this column, I, like everyone else, received the harsh reminder that anything can and will happen on our big planet on January 3rd. Every walk over the last three plus weeks has been a new adventure in slipping, sliding and trudging; low friction and the relentless tug of gravity, suddenly an ever present, new combination of dangers. The “snow snakes” that bring skiers down, constantly lurking.
A year ago I mentioned preferring a walk in falling snow over a cold winter rain; I now amend that statement; give me some rain. Gently falling snow is a delight, trudging through deep, fallen snow, far from delightful. With skis on my feet, all is good; hiking boots, in a foot of snow or on refrozen, glacial style snow/ice, I’ll admit, this southern guy is over it.
While the weather of February remains unknown, the extra two minutes of daylight every day of the month will happen. By month’s end, sunset is after 6pm, sunrise well before 7am and we will only be three weeks for Spring; a bit of extra time, everyday, to get out for a walk.
Irregardless of what some groundhog in PA sees on the morning of the 2nd, that evening, if skies are clear in the southwest, an ultra thin crescent moon will visit mighty Jupiter one last time before Earth revolves away from the king of planets. That leaves the evening sky free of planets until Summer. The pre-dawn sky showcases Mars and Venus as the bright “stars” for early risers.
The Winter sky does not need planets to dazzle the eye. Find the three stars in a line marking Orion’s belt high overhead toward the south after dark and use them as a guide to the colorful delights of the Winter stars. The Belt leads your eyes up to the red-orange eye of Taurus, Aldebaran; down to Earth’s brightest star, blue-white Sirius. Above the Belt is reddish Betelgeuse, below, another hot, blue-white star, Rigel. Other brilliant stars, of various hues, surround Orion, the mythical hunter.
The Full, Snow Moon will light up the sky all night on the 16th. Ten days later, having waned back to a crescent, the moon joins Mars and Venus in the southeast before sunrise. The sun has Capricorn’s stars as a backdrop to begin February, our revolution moving our star into Aquarius on the 17th.
To say our recent snowfall forecast was a bit off, one well over, the next well under, would be an understatement (it is tricky to get perfect..). Snow on the ground also causes forecast high temperatures to be on the under side. Snow is very reflective of the sun’s radiation so the snow covered Earth doesn’t warm up nor does the air above it.
Our recent, and ongoing, experience with snow reflectivity is a useful example to explain the issues driving the ongoing warming (despite our cold snap, Earth is still warming) at Earth’s poles. Rapidly shrinking Arctic sea ice isn’t reflecting the 24/7 summer sunlight. Instead, open ocean water is absorbing the energy, as is melt water on Greenland, warming both the ocean and air.
Although somewhat stunted by the, still all the rage, pandemic, human activities are back in almost full swing pushing CO2 levels, after a 2020 lull, ever higher. A planetary system with more energy to use promises to be wild and prone to sudden shifts and changes. Be weather wise and virus aware but I hope you are able to get out to see what daily changes Earth has in store for all of us... Today On Earth..
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