Solar Winter Gets Underway With Mostly Dry, Mild Air Ahead

Daylight Saving Time is behind us.

Looking ahead to this week, mild autumn air is once again thumbing its nose at the shortening days and frosty mornings. It promises to stick around for an extended stay and hurl more rain our way by the end of the week.

Today marks a turning point of sorts - a type of seasonal transition that some refer to as the solar winter. It runs through early February and defines the shortest amount of daylight of the year; and consequently, when the sun angle is at its lowest along the horizon in the northern hemisphere. If you Google analemma, you’ll see what I mean.

While these days are dark, they can (and often are) punctuated by warm spells that can soar into the 70s at any point (no, that’s not a typo), thanks to the warming world we live in. While we don’t see warmth of that magnitude this week, we’ll be close on a couple of days (Wednesday and Saturday).

Most of the week is rain free, but a soaker of a storm is slated to arrive by Friday and Saturday. And the wind will pick up as the mild air is squeezed off the Eastern Seaboard toward the end of the weekend.

The week isn’t without some subtle changes, however. We’ll see a quick-moving front slip by Wednesday with a slight shower risk. Then as the sun returns behind it, temperatures take a little hit on Thursday.

All in all, it's not a bad week to settle into the new time ritual. Next thing you know, we'll be talking about the sn- let’s just take it a week at a time.