A-L-E-X Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Hey, uh so I looked out my window and it's dark. Is this the work of sun declination?? Should I be worried?? Is the sun ever going to come back!11??? You think thats bad lol-- did you read that rinky dink article that blamed earlier sunrises and later sunsets on global warming? All because there was a few inches less snow in the Arctic this winter so less snow to block the sunrise and sunset at the horizon. On the same level as the DST and less snowfall thing that someone posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkviking Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I'm down in New Orleans for mid winter vacay and today, reaching 60s, the sun felt great..so much so I feel I didn't need the 4000 Mg Vitamin D. I love Winter, and it's storms, but I just feel breaks are needed. Coming here Friday depressed me, stuck in low 40s with rain, I was ready to go out or my mind and only inebriating myself aleviated it. I just want Spring to be Spring at this point...and I have to admit I'm being more drawn to Hurricanejosh's cyclone addiction bc at the least his threads involve wind chills of 70 which I very well would welcome. I loved Long Island winter blitzes the last decade BUT it is getting old and this particular winter is especially cruel and never-ending. I hit 40 in December and maybe that's the problem, I look at weather more and more as a practical matter and winter is very costly when it's this unrelenting. I would, like Faust, sign my soul away for a torrid snow blitz inFeb to guarantee a nice long warm Spring starting in March. Ahhh. What am I saying? Im drunk in French Quarter and I have the luxury of fully leaves trees including palm trees in my view. I gotta grow up and face what's coming before us, although JB and LC say a big break is coming. Bless you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pamela Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I would, like Faust, sign my soul away for a torrid snow blitz inFeb to guarantee a nice long warm Spring starting in March. Dear Bkviking: The aforemetioned declaration shall be legal and thoroughly binding pending your signature in the space below. ----------------------------- Sincerely, William Cadwallader Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sn0waddict Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 You think thats bad lol-- did you read that rinky dink article that blamed earlier sunrises and later sunsets on global warming? All because there was a few inches less snow in the Arctic this winter so less snow to block the sunrise and sunset at the horizon. On the same level as the DST and less snowfall thing that someone posted. Jesus seriously? Do you have a link to such an amusing article? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-X Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Jesus seriously? Do you have a link to such an amusing article? Yeah, hold on I'll find it. The worst part is this is actually a reputable site, so I dont know what they were thinking putting this up. The last sentence in the article makes the whole thing even more hilarious. http://www.livescience.com/environment/early-sunrise-arctic-greenland-110117.html Strange Claim: The Sun Rose 2 Days Early in Greenland By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer posted: 17 January 2011 11:54 am ET Residents of a town on the western coast of Greenland may have seen the sun peek over the horizon 48 hours earlier than its usual arrival on Jan. 13, sparking speculation, and disagreements, over possible causes. The town of Ilulissat sits just above the Arctic Circle, meaning its residents had been without any sunlight for a good chunk of the winter, and traditionally they'd expect to see their "first sunrise" on Jan. 13. News that the sun had peeked over the horizon on Jan. 11 appeared online in British and German-language publications and it appears to trace back to a story by the Greenland broadcasting company KNR that quotes residents who noticed the change. [image Gallery: Sunrises and Sunsets] Of about half a dozen scientists contacted, most were unaware of the report, which was circulating on the Internet. They offered a number of hypothetical explanations, including an illusion caused by an atmospheric effect and conflicting opinions about whether global warming might be to blame for melting along the edges of Greenland's ice sheet. With less ice, Greenland's elevation may take a dip such that the sun would have less distance to travel before appearing over the horizon. How it works The sun comes up each day because Earth rotates once on its axis every 24 hours or so. Seasons are a result of Earth being tilted 23.5 degrees on its spin axis coupled with the planet's 365-day orbit around the sun. The Arctic Circle, a line at 66 degrees north, marks the latitude at which the sun does not set during the summer solstice (when the top half of our planet is facing directly toward the sun), the longest day of the year, nor rise during the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. The farther north you move from the line, the longer the period of night-less summer or sun-less winter. Ilulissat is located about 3 degrees north of the Arctic Circle, so residents spend the middle of winter without any sunlight. At the North Pole, the sun rises only once a year — at the start of spring. It gets higher in the sky each day until the summer solstice, then sinks but does not truly set until late September, at the autumn equinox. Not a global phenomenon While they disagreed on the cause of the town's early sunrise, experts did reach one consensus: This was an isolated event, not a sign of earlier spring around the Northern Hemisphere. "In a nutshell, there can't be a change in the true sunrise, because that would require the Earth-Sun orbital parameters to change," said John Walsh, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Fairbanks is located about 1 degree of latitude south of the Arctic Circle, far enough south that it does not completely lose its sun in winter, and this year the sun has followed its typical pattern in Alaska, he said. "No changes here," he said. "We would have heard about it." Walsh and other scientists agreed there is absolutely no evidence of a shift in the tilt of the Earth’s axis or any other change that might alter the arrival of the seasons around the globe. An atmospheric illusion? Other causes can be ruled out, including the effect of the approaching leap year in 2012, since in and around leap years, the sun is slightly lower in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere around Jan. 11, according to Thomas Posch, of Austria's Institute of Astronomy. The most likely possibility was the refraction of sunlight at the horizon, he told LiveScience in an e-mail. Most of the other scientists interviewed agreed this was the most likely culprit. It is, in fact a common phenomenon, according to Walsh. Light bends as it travels through layers of air with different densities, and as a result the sun is normally a little bit below the horizon when we can first see it. But an unusual stratification of the air over Greenland could have led to a stronger bending of the sun's rays, making the sun appear to arrive earlier than usual, he wrote in an e-mail. Climate change? "It is well known that global warming is causing most of Greenland's outlet glaciers to melt faster and draw down the inland ice, and the details of that are quite complicated," said Tim Dixon, a professor of geodesy at the University of Southern Florida, who has studied the effects of the melting ice sheet that covers Greenland. On average, the ice sheet has lost considerable mass over the last 10 to 15 years, he said. Ilulissat is located on land next to the point where the Jakobshavn Isbrae outlet glacier meets the ocean. The outlet glacier is a long tongue of ice that drains from the main ice sheet to the west, through the coast into the water. [images: Glaciers Before and After] It is unlikely that the melting of the edge of the ice sheet would change the timing of the first sunrise, because the ice is east of the town, while the sunrise would take place almost due south. Even so, Dixon did not completely dismiss melting ice as a cause, suggesting that perhaps the absence this year of a floating ice shelf in the inlet to the south may have allowed the sun to rise earlier. Not enough information But without information about the observations behind this report, it's difficult to speculate as to what may have caused an early sunrise, according to Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University who spent several days in the town. "When my wife was a child, she and her siblings would go to the beach, watch the sun set, and then run up the hill really rapidly, 'unsetting' the sun so they then could watch the sun set again," Alley wrote in an e-mail to LiveScience. "Where you are matters." Given the information available, or lack of it, Alley said the possibility of a "mirage" where atmospheric conditions make it possible to see something that would not normally be visible was more likely, he wrote. But he wrote that he was concerned about the reliability of the report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-X Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Make sure you read the comments below-- theyre hilarious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBG Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 However, the staying power of fresh snow is decreasing. Thus the rapid melt of the Blizzard of 1888 and the Blizzard of February 11, 2006? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isotherm Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Thus the rapid melt of the Blizzard of 1888 and the Blizzard of February 11, 2006? The rapid melt of the Feb 2006 blizzard was mostly pattern related -- we hit 50 degres 48 hours after the storm ended. I remember February 2007, when we hung on to 2-4" of sleet/ice from Valentine's Day to the end of the month. The big jump in sun angle occurs between Feb 20-Mar 20. Right now we'e not that much higher than a month ago. Just like in the summer, we don't see a noticable decrease in daylight until post August 15th or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkviking Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Dear Bkviking: The aforemetioned declaration shall be legal and thoroughly binding pending your signature in the space below. Bernard J Kearney III, signed and aware of consequences ----------------------------- Sincerely, William Cadwallader Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pamela Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I would, like Faust, sign my soul away for a torrid snow blitz inFeb to guarantee a nice long warm Spring starting in March. Dear Bkviking: The aforemetioned declaration shall be legal and thoroughly binding pending your signature in the space below. Bernard J Kearney III, signed and aware of consequences ----------------------------- Sincerely, William Cadwallader Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-L-E-X Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 The rapid melt of the Feb 2006 blizzard was mostly pattern related -- we hit 50 degres 48 hours after the storm ended. I remember February 2007, when we hung on to 2-4" of sleet/ice from Valentine's Day to the end of the month. The big jump in sun angle occurs between Feb 20-Mar 20. Right now we'e not that much higher than a month ago. Just like in the summer, we don't see a noticable decrease in daylight until post August 15th or so. I bet the snow didnt melt that fast in Feb 1934 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HailMan06 Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Was outside today and didn't even need my jacket because of the increasing sun angle (36 degree)!!! On a related note, lost about 1'' of glacier today thanks to the sun and above freezing temps and have about 10'' left Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthlight Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Was outside today and didn't even need my jacket because of the increasing sun angle (36 degree)!!! On a related note, lost about 1'' of glacier today thanks to the sun and above freezing temps and have about 10'' left Yup, I noticed it too. The sun is much warmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikehobbyst Posted February 14, 2011 Author Share Posted February 14, 2011 "Good Riddance" Frosty have the melt of your life !!!! Greenday says so. Billie Joe Armstrong approves Frosty's demise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Patrick Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Clifton, NJ 10:51pm Temp: 41* Wind: Calm Sun: Completely disappeared. God help us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthlight Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 Sun: Completely disappeared. God help us all. It's back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Patrick Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I dunno dude, I think it's starting to go away again... although on a serious note, the longer sunlight duration is a welcome relief. It's awesome not leaving for work and coming home in the dark. It's back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazzo83 Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I have definitely felt the sun more the past few mornings during my runs along the East River. Even this morning with a ridiculous NW wind, it felt warmer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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