Thursday, December 22, 2011: The Winter Solstice

A dusting of snow up on Wind Gap Tuesday. It's probably gone by now...

Morning Observation:

Happy Solstice! This morning in Huntington at 6:40AM it’s currently 36 degrees under overcast skies. Winds are calm. Relative humidity is 96%, dewpoint 35, barometric pressure 29.92″ and rising rapidly. We picked up 0.46″ of rain in the past 24hrs. 24hr high was 48, low 36.

Forecast:

We’ll see partly cloudy skies today with highs of 41°F and winds less than 5 mph. Chance of rain is 20% this morning. Tonight will be overcast with a chance of snow in the evening and snow after midnight. Lows will be around 27°F with winds less than 5 mph. A fast moving storm will bring us a 70% chance of snow overnight with accumulations up to 2″ possible – highest totals in the higher east-facing elevations.

Friday’s looking overcast with a chance of snow. Highs will be around 30°F with winds from the ESE at 5-10 mph. Chance of snow is 50%. Friday night should be mostly cloudy in the evening, then overcast. Lows will be a seasonably chilly 10°F with winds less than 5 mph.

Saturday should be overcast with a chance of snow in the morning. Highs will be around 25°F with winds from the ESE at 5 mph. Chance of snow is 30%. Saturday night should be partly cloudy in the evening, then overcast with lows of 3°F and winds less than 5 mph.

 Almanac:

Last year on this date we had a high of 27 and a low of 24. We picked up 0.25″ of snow and had 5″ on the ground.

Burlington norms for this date are highs of 30°F and lows of 15°F.
Record high was 57°F in 1990.
Record low was -20°F in 1955.

Sky Notes:

Sunrise: 7:25 AM EST
Sunset: 4:16 PM EST
Length Of Visible Light: 9h 57m
Length of Day: 8h 51m
Tomorrow will be 0m 5s longer (yup, longer!)

The Moon is a waning crescent, 27d 5h old with 7% illumination.
Moonrise: 5:04 AM EST
Moonset: 2:23 PM EST