Written by: Brian Neudorff
This year's winter solstice on Tuesday will fall on the same day as a full lunar eclipse for the first time in nearly 400 years. Winter officially arrives at 6:38pm EST.
For the eastern United States, the eclipse will begin a half an hour after midnight on Tuesday. It will totally be in the shadow at 3:17 a.m. EST.
During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth gets between the full moon and the sun, blocking the sun's light from bouncing off the lunar surface. A lunar eclipse can only occur at full moon, but since the three objects are not all exactly in the same plane in space, not every full moon produces an eclipse.
For the eastern United States, the eclipse will begin a half an hour after midnight on Tuesday. It will totally be in the shadow at 3:17 a.m. EST.
During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth gets between the full moon and the sun, blocking the sun's light from bouncing off the lunar surface. A lunar eclipse can only occur at full moon, but since the three objects are not all exactly in the same plane in space, not every full moon produces an eclipse.
I stood up to take pictures a few times but it was always totally cloud coverd! :(
ReplyDeleteConstant cold going to waste. Storm after storm missing every which way. Last year all over again!
ReplyDeletepsst Storm Chaser, you do realize that today's only the first day of winter right...? And that we've already had record snowfall this month? Last year all over my ___ :)
ReplyDeleteAdam,
ReplyDeleteThe only snow we've had is from "home grown" snow off the lake. Not everybody lives north of the thruway, you know. If you didn't happen to get the lake effect, it's been a pitiful year with lots of cold and little dustings here and there. We have not gotten hit by a single major snowfall from a low pressure system. It is just like last year. Places like Livingston county and Ontario county have not had a pick up a snow shovel yet.
You also have to consider how many straight days and weeks we've had temperatures cold enough to produce snow...and yet unless you get that lake fluff, all that cold goes to waste and you're left looking at a sugar coating on the grass. This constant sub freezing cold won't last forever, and time is running out before we get into a milder pattern, like a January thaw. So chances for people living outside the lake effect belts to get just one nice snow storm are running out before we get another thaw and probably rain. And with that said, we just missed a storm that hit the upper midwest, and now this christmas storm is going to miss us WELL to the east, leaving us with, yet again, just lake effect for places north of the thruway. Drive down to Mt. Morris or Dansville, the snow is pathetic. They'll be lucky to have a pitiful dusting of snow on christmas day. And that's about all they've had at any point all winter so far. And as for the first day of winter statement. Weather doesn't follow the calender. All this means is the sun starts getting higher and hotter in the sky from now through summer. Days are now officially beginning to get longer!
ReplyDeleteThe days will get longer but the reason why January and February are colder than Nov & Dec is because of the delayed response of the cold. Yes we do expect mild periods this winter. I agree that with all this cold it would be nice to get a classic storm, especially for all those south & outside of the lake effect influence.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of winter left. It is only December 21 and if I recall a lot of our bigger storms come in the later months of Winter usually. Even get some of the classic winter storms in March.
Now I don't know if that will happen, no one does. I personally don't like seeing all this negativity. It's not like any of us (pros & amateurs alike) can do anything about the weather and what it does. We're all a long for the ride.
Maybe it's because I have been forecasting for awhile now and have learned you can only forecast what you see not what you want. No reason to get down or excited about any storm (or lack of storm) so many days out. Also, keep in mind, if I came on this blog and just said "winter is over, no more snow or storms" Many of you would have my head. Plus, I couldn't say it with out backing up my reasoning for saying that. Most of this is coming from frustration and I get that. Especially for all the snow lovers. I say be patient we really don't know what will come. So many winter forecast have changed, even the best can go a different way than expected. That is the nature of what we do and especially long range forecasting.
Keep it in perspective. There's time left. Now if this were late February then we all would be worried.
And also for you snow lovers, remember what happened last year in late February? After a winter with virtually now synoptic snow storms, we got blasted by 20"+ of snow over a couple days when that storm blew up off the Atlantic and retrograded west right over us. That jumped our seasonal totals from the 60's to the 80's in just a matter of a couple days. Lots and lots of time left indeed.
ReplyDeleteI AGREE WITH STORM CHASER. HE IS NOT BEING NEGATIVE. HE IS BEING REALISTIC. WE DO NOT ALL LIVE BY THE LAKE AND IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE LAKE ROCHESTER WOULD ONLY HAVE ABOUT 3 INCHES IN THE BUCKET. I FEEL FOR THE SNOW LOVERS SOUTH OF US WATCHING SYNOPTIC STORM AFTER SYNOPTIC STORM MISS US.
ReplyDeleteYEAH. ONE STORM LAST YEAR AFTER WATCHING THE MID-ATLANTIC GET BURIED WITH STORM AFTER STORM.
ReplyDeleteI for one live in Wayne County. We get our fair share of snow from the Lake to the North and East. Now, with that being said, I would also love to see a great storm come at us from the south mainly because we have not had nearly the amount of snow fall that we used to get....anyone remember our childhood. 2ft 3ft sometimes 4ft of snow...snow upto the base of the windows...building forts and tunnels...all that is fun, but it seems that those days are behind us...I still have hope for a great time this winter...waiting for the Blizzard of 2011 its going to be a great one :)
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