A Mid-Winter Day's Dream:
Solstice occurred this morning at four minutes past three. No, we were not up to usher it in.
Audie* did, however, capture Ol' Sol at its mid-day zenith. There it is in the photo above, somewhat obscured by Gulkana River ice fog, at local noon, which at Longitude 145º30' is at 40 minutes past twelve, Alaska Standard Time.
Pretty pathetic! The sun had finally struggled out from behind the mountain to the left just after 11:00; by 2:15 it had already collapsed below the horizon, only a bit to the west than it appears in this photo. Also, the temperatures today never rose above -20ºF/-29ºC, and appear headed significantly lower as nighttime approaches.
HOWEVER.....as this is the shortest day of the year, that means that from now on, the days will be getting longer! Yay! And in just 90 short days, wherever it is you are located, if you are to our south, our days will be longer than yours!
Summer's on its way! Hooray!
*That's me: Allowed Guest Writer Of The Day privileges during the year's shortest day. Go figure.
5 comments:
goodness! 12am-- for 2 hours--yikes
How's it going in AK
It's 13 degrees right now--pretty warm for you guys, huh
A lovely picture but what a short day, of course you'll make up for it this summer! And Audie, you're a good guest writer!
Yes... I believe I will now cease carping about our cold day which is only to hit a high of -7 today.
I don't know how I'd deal with that small amount of sunlight. Although, the opposite was how I exhausted myself during my first summer visit.
My body wasn't telling me to sleep because it was still light! All of a sudden I'm ready fall over because it was 4:00 a.m.! I had no clue!
You guys are really something else! I would imagine I'd get used to it if I was there longer. But still, you guys are tough!
Yes, the difference between summer and winter light-levels here is such a contrast! In the summer I sometimes forget to make dinner until suddenly it's 11 pm! And now, it's so dark I'm thinking about dinner at 4 pm!
But I've been getting used to it...surprisingly, I've been really enjoying it this year. The darkness creates a coziness that one never feels in the manic summer. But still...I'm glad we're on the other end of the solstice now!
Well, the guestwriter of the year sure sounded like someone I'm related to /o\
Happy mid-Winter night dears and looking forward to seeing you in the spring.
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