Merry Christmas and a Snow Carol

Merry Christmas (or happy whatever solstice holiday you celebrate.)

In honor of the season I’m posting one of my Geophysical Christmas Carols, and to help the words go with the music, a recording of my singing it. I’m not much of a singer, but this might help you hear how it goes together. (I’m still trying to figure out how to do this sound thing, so you may have to go through several clicks.) Meanwhile, to see the words while listening to the song, open the blog in two windows, click the audio link in one and then switch back to the other. (And you’ll catch me making a couple of mistakes that way!)

In the air, vapor’s swirling,
On the pond, folks are curling,
The vapor makes drops, the drops freeze and pop,
And six-sided snowflakes fall down.

On the lake, skates are gliding,
Overhead, clouds are hiding,
Ice in the sky is growing, oh, my,
And six-sided snowflakes fall down

Snowflakes could be square or five pointed,
Or octagons, or spherical, you know,
But water with water is jointed
So that only six arms can grow.

On the slopes, skiers swish on,
Snowflakes hide stars to wish on,
They fall through the air, and catch in your hair,
The six-sided snowflakes fall down.

(The snowflakes were Photoshopped from those included on the CD-ROM with Bentley’s book.)

North Pole Weather 12/24/12

The sun will rise at 10:59 this morning (as it has for the last several days) but it will set a little later, at 2:43. Christmas eve is almost a minute longer that December 23, though the sun at noon is only a tenth of a degree higher in the sky. Temperatures are a little bit warmer, though warmer is relative – it was fifty below toward the end of last week. My digital thermometer did get above LL yesterday evening, though it’s still well below zero. (Update 8 am — the temperature is up to 22 below.)

Snowstake December 22. Notice the bump left as the snow settled.

Believe it or not we are still getting closer to the sun every day. The moon, on the other hand, is getting higher in the sky as it is approaching full, and is beginning to shine in my bedroom window. The Star Gazer episode last week (Moon of the Short Shadows) was on this opposition of sun and moon, though the graph they used was dead wrong as far as the positions of the rising and setting sun and moon were concerned. The sun this time of year rises in the SSE and sets in the SSW (at least here) and the full moon is already well north of east when it rises.

No new snow, and no snow forecast. What snow we have is settling and leaving a noticeable bump around the base of the snow stake that makes it difficult to read, though I’d guess it’s settled to about 1’ 3”.

We had some serious ice fog last week, and the air quality has been pretty bad. I don’t live in the center of North Pole, but the air quality there is “very unhealthy” and is forecast to remain that way. Why? Wood burning, leading to very high levels of PM-2.5 particulates: the kind that stick in your lungs. Incredibly, in the last Borough election the vote went against regulating wood stoves, which simply means the state and/or the EPA will step in and do it. I have a friend in North Pole who’s on oxygen, and it really does have health effects.

North Pole Weather 12/17/12

The sun will rise at 10:54 this morning, stay above the horizon (even if I can’t see it) for 3 hours, 43 minutes and 35 seconds, and set at 2:39 this afternoon. We’re losing only a little over a minute a day now, and in only four more days we’ll be at the shortest day and the days will start getting longer! The sun at its highest is only 2° (4 times its own diameter) above the horizon, so it doesn’t get very light even at midday. At least the days never disappear here, as they do a little farther north.

Looking right into the sun (it’s there, somewhere behind the trees) with a clear sky near noon yesterday.

We did get a storm with about a foot of snow all told, and the snow stake now reads 1’ 7”. Should help keep the ground from freezing quite so deeply, though I wish it had come earlier. Unfortunately my digital thermometer is back to LL (below -40°) and the warmest in the forecast for the week is below zero. Typical December weather.

The seed catalogs have started arriving! And with the solstice this week I can start thinking about spring. Hope the weather is a little more welcoming where you are, though I have to say we are certainly going to have a white Christmas. In fact, it’ll be white through most of April, at least.

11 am this morning, 12/17/12

I’ve started to dig out my Christmas DVD’s. So far I’ve watched A Christmas Carol, How the Grinch stole Christmas, and two Nutcrackers (two to go if you count the Nutcracker Suite from Fantasia.) Then I need to find Hogfather. I might get a new one this year if the weather lets up enough I can go shopping. In self-defense I watch these on the stationary bicycle or the rowing machine while exercising, not sitting on the couch (unless my blood sugar goes too low.)

North Pole Weather Update

That winter storm warning (still in effect) was serious. We’ve had over a foot of snow since last Saturday — I’m probably going to have to get the driveway plowed. If the photo looks dim, I can only say it was taken after sunrise this morning (11 am) but the clouds were still pretty heavy. At least it’s warmed up; it was in the twenties yesterday. Forecast is 40 below for the weekend, though.

Yes, it’s dim, but that’s how much light we had. The bottom of the stake is below the lower edge of the picture; that’s 1 foot 7″ on the ground.

North Pole Weather 11/12/12

The sun will rise at 9:18 this morning, and set at 3:54 this afternoon, for 6 hours 39 minutes of alleged daylight. Today will be 6 minutes and 35 seconds less than yesterday, but the rate of reduction is slowing. By the end of the month, we’ll be losing only a little more than 5 minutes a day.

Last week started cold, then abruptly warmed to 20 above on Friday. Result? Frost formation on the cold-soaked roads, and marks in the roadside snow all over the place where vehicles had gone into the ditch. The warmth was short-lived, though—we’re back to highs near zero. We did get a little more snow—the depth was up to 6” when it got too dark to see yesterday.

One of the reasons I don’t like driving on white ice. Where are the roads?

On #writemotivation I’ve written two more of Zhaim’s scenes, along with Jacyn’s, and I’ve reworked Tod’s story to give more show and less tell. Still a lot more to do, but I think I’m good up through Chapter 24. (Update Monday 8 pm: I’m now on Chapter 30, almost halfway through. Have to write another bit from my villain’s POV to finish this chapter.)

Finally, I’m going to do some griping for Captcha Craptcha day. Good timing, as yesterday was Six Sentence Sunday and Saturday was Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturday. Most of the blogs I visited were (thank goodness) captcha free, but I’ve finally reached the point where if one try

No, it’s not salt. This sidewalk is actually heated.

at a captcha doesn’t work, that blog simply does not get my comments. I’m tired of being unable to figure out photographed numbers that are unreadable even with the aid of a magnifying glass, trying to guess whether (and where) I am supposed to put spaces between separated characters, and trying to figure out whether that’s a w or two scrunched-together v’s. I don’t use a captcha on my wordpress blog because I don’t need one: the spam filter has yet to let anything through that I have a problem with. (If anything, it sometimes catches legitimate comments, so I do have to check the spam filter regularly.)

Start of the Seasonal Snowpack

I think we have the base of our seasonal snow cover. At least it’s dry snow, not freezing rain! As of the photograph (about noon yesterday) the snow was deep enough to cover the grass (a little under 3”) and the temperature was about 20°F. The forecast is for scattered snow showers or chance of snow with highs in the 20’s for the rest of the week, so I’d better dig out my snow boots.

A pretty good idea of how my north yard will look for the next six months or more. The brush is wild roses.

North Pole Weather 10/15/12

The sun will rise today at 8:46 in the morning, and set at 6:26 this evening for a bit more than 9 hours 40 minutes of daylight – 6 minutes and 42 seconds less than yesterday. The sun at noon is only a little more than 16° above the horizon, and a few days ago I noticed that a pickup driving west near solar noon had a pool of sunlight under it — the shadow of the base of the truck was on the north side of the truck.  Daytime high temperatures are sometimes below freezing, and a dusting of snow that fell Saturday night was still on the ground Sunday evening. I can’t be sure until it gets light enough to see, but today’s forecast suggests enough snow depth to measure. The snow itself will help keep temperatures down by reflecting sunlight back to space, so unless we have a really warm spell, which is not even hinted at in the forecasts, this snow will still be on the ground in April.

At the time I took this picture, snow had been falling for about 3 hours. Maybe if it keeps up overnight it will reflect enough sunlight to stop daytime warming. Not that I’m looking forward to that!

At least the maple is now snug in a 7’ tall cage, which I hope will discourage the moose. The snow stake is up, and I’ll be interested to see how much snow falls today and tomorrow. The dirt roads are already pretty solid. The road in front of my house might as well be concrete, though a concrete road that rough would be badly in need of maintenance.

P.S: As of 9 am, we sill have only yesterday’s dusting of snow. The current forecast calls for snow starting around noon and highs in the 20’s for the rest of the week, though.

Update at 3 pm: it is snowing, but it’s the kind of extremely fine snow, falling vertically, that takes forever to amount to more than a trace.

8 pm: we have roughly an inch on the ground, though the snow has never let up. It’s just very fine, sparse, flakes.

Frozen Planet: DVD Review

When I heard that the BBC was making a documentary about the Earth’s high latitudes, Frozen Planet, I knew I had to have the DVD if they made one. When stories appeared that the part on global warming would be cut for US audiences, I was horrified – and relieved when the Discovery Channel relented – at least partly. Since I do not have cable or satellite TV, I had to wait for the DVD. Finally it arrived and I have been watching it – when I have time between gardening, marketing and writing.

As you may have guessed from previous reviews, I adore David Attenborough and really don’t understand why so many of his nature programs for BBC have been released in the US with different narrators.

The first episode is a general overview, followed by one for each of the four seasons – but the seasons used: spring, summer, autumn and winter, are not the seasons as usually defined. In fact they are not well defined, but appear to be based on the weather rather than the usual spring = the period from the northward equinox to northern solstice in the northern hemisphere and from the southward equinox to the southern solstice in the southern hemisphere. Roughly, they seem to define the period of continuous (or at least very long) daylight as summer, that of continuous or very long night as winter, and the period of alternating daylight and dark as the transitional seasons – but even this is not well followed. Other ways of dividing the seasons may be the waning, absence, reformation and solidity of sea ice, or the melting, absence, buildup and universal presence of snow. All seem to be used to some extent.

These first five episodes are almost entirely about the natural world: the wildlife, the weather, the geography.

The sixth program is about how humans interact with the polar regions. Our species evolved in the Ice Age, so it is hardly surprising that we invaded the northern parts of the continents almost as soon as we could reach them. Two domesticated or semi-domesticated animals made this spread to northern climates possible: the dog and the reindeer. Early migrants and their descendants today relied heavily on the polar oceans, as agriculture of any kind is difficult in permafrost country (though I was a little surprised that permafrost was never really mentioned.) There was little mention of wild plant foods, though in fact berries and other wild plants are definitely part of the arctic diet, and the arctic in spring and summer has high productivity, as indicated by the number of migratory birds that breed at high latitudes. Today human interactions – and impacts – are more often focused on resource extraction.

Antarctica has had quite a different history. Undiscovered until relatively recently, its fauna has evolved with a lack of land predators that could make it very vulnerable. Luckily Antarctica is protected by international treaties so most of the human activity there today is scientific research. But how long will that remain true as our appetite for resources increases?

The seventh program is the “controversial” one. I’m not sure what the controversy was supposed to be about. The program shows observations at both ends of the Earth that demonstrate the thinning and melting of sea ice in the Arctic and collapse of ice sheets, which may act to buttress glaciers draining the interior, in Antarctica. The importance of enhanced glacier calving to sea level rise was touched on. The cause of this warming might be controversial, as is the use of weather records to observe it, but these were not even mentioned. Just the observed changes, and their possible impact on both the human inhabitants and the animals of the polar regions.

As an atmospheric scientist for most of my professional career, the only thing I considered even remotely controversial was the lack of any mention that human activity might in any way be responsible for the observed changes. Somehow I don’t think that was what had Discovery Channel worried.

How does Rain Form?

Most of the rain that falls over the continents started out as snow or hail. It may be quite warm by the time it reaches the ground, but it started out as ice.

Why?

Aftermath of an ice storm. The raindrops were supercooled, and froze as they struck the twigs.

Cloud droplets, it turns out, do not coalesce easily. Most of them, especially in continental clouds, are so small that the air keeps them from actually colliding. The result is that most continental clouds do not rain unless they are tall enough to reach well above the freezing level.

But what if ice and liquid water are both present in a cloud?

No, that’s not impossible. Water can exist as a liquid at temperatures below freezing. It’s not stable, and any small particle around which ice can form will result in rapid freezing, but such particles are rare in the free atmosphere. They do, however, occur. Furthermore, they are activated at different temperatures, and the colder the air, the more particles that can act as freezing nuclei.

At temperatures below freezing but above about -15°C (5°F) such particles are rare enough that most clouds are made up of supercooled water droplets. These are the temperatures at which pilots dread having to go through clouds, because the plane acts as a giant freezing nucleus and any droplets that strike it are instantly turned to ice. Below about -20°C (-4°F) there are generally enough ice nuclei that the cloud is made up of ice crystals, or glaciated.

What happens if both ice and supercooled water are present?

Water evaporates more easily than ice at temperatures below freezing. The result is, water evaporates from the supercooled droplets and condenses on the ice crystals, which grow rapidly at the expense of the droplets. Since they grow more rapidly, they begin to fall faster, and accumulate still more water droplets by collision. If they get large enough to continue falling into the warmer air below the freezing level, they will (usually) melt and reach the ground as rain.

If there are really strong updrafts, as is often the case in a thunderstorm, they may actually be carried upward through the supercooled part of the cloud. They may collect several layers of ice, too much to melt once they fall out of the updraft. The result is hail.

If there is a layer below the cloud which is warm enough to melt the snowflakes but the ground itself is below freezing, the result may be freezing rain. But in most cases freezing rain started out as snowflakes that thawed, but then fell back into colder conditions near the ground.

North Pole Weather 4/23/12

The snow is melting rapidly, the path to the shed is shoveled, and the tricycle is out – I rode about a mile yesterday. We’re forecast to have highs in the 50’s next week, though it’s still below freezing at night and could be below zero. I’m going to plant the beans (indoors) this week. Spring is coming!

It’s light almost all the time I’m awake, now – sunrise today was 5:44 in the morning, and it won’t set until 9:56 this evening for 16 hours 12 minutes of daylight, almost 7 minutes more than yesterday. The closed car now gets so hot I’ve turned on the air conditioning. We only have a couple more days of nautical night – starting April 25 the sun will never dip more than 12° below the horizon.

Pussy willows are out, and I took a few pictures from the trike. The weeds are turning green (aren’t they always the first?) and I’ve spotted new growth on delphiniums, violets, columbine, and hardy geraniums against the house even though I haven’t raked the leaf mulch out yet. Chives are showing green, too, with a nice onion flavor. It’s far too early for rototilling – there are still patches of snow in the garden, and I’m sure it’s still frozen solid, but I’ve started visiting the commercial greenhouses. Plant Kingdom had a good assortment of mints, and I bought 11, but my favorite (Corsican mint) wasn’t there. Don’t know why it’s so hard to get hold of. Maybe they’ll have it at one of the three I haven’t been to yet.