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Today is the First day of winter (Original Post) Beachnutt Dec 2022 OP
Incrementally more sunlight from hereonin no_hypocrisy Dec 2022 #1
Gawd I been waiting for this day forever! intrepidity Dec 2022 #3
One of my favorite days nightwing1240 Dec 2022 #4
Yes, and it can't start soon enough. a kennedy Dec 2022 #9
That's enough winter, I'm ready for spring! 🌞 Emile Dec 2022 #2
And a new moon tomorrow... 2naSalit Dec 2022 #5
Happy Solstice! GoCubsGo Dec 2022 #6
A little Solstice music from my anti-Christmas playlist Dread Pirate Roberts Dec 2022 #7
And yet, for centuries, this was called midwinter Maeve Dec 2022 #8
It definitely feels like more like midwinter. (nt) old as dirt Dec 2022 #10
That's because they used common sense. Igel Dec 2022 #12
+1. Good post. yonder Dec 2022 #16
Agree. Cross-quarter days are what we should be using to mark the seasons. yonder Dec 2022 #15
And it's going to be 79 degrees here in L.A. on Christmas. : ( chowder66 Dec 2022 #11
So do I. Igel Dec 2022 #13
It really kind of dampens the mood when it's too warm. Good luck with your greens!! chowder66 Dec 2022 #14
Today is the middle of winter Jack the Greater Dec 2022 #17

intrepidity

(8,577 posts)
3. Gawd I been waiting for this day forever!
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 06:13 AM
Dec 2022

I live in a redwood forest and barely get any sun at all, but it going all dark around 4pm is getting old. I will savor those additional accumulation of minutes.

2naSalit

(101,985 posts)
5. And a new moon tomorrow...
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 07:24 AM
Dec 2022

Here it's -0 and snowing hard so winter could be a doozy this years. If it leaves a lot of snow that melts away slowly next year, that would be ideal.

From this, and the last few storms, there isn't much accumulation at lower elevations and a lot of it blows away.

Maeve

(43,450 posts)
8. And yet, for centuries, this was called midwinter
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 07:48 AM
Dec 2022

As a folklorist/historian, I still think the solstices and equinoxes mark mid-points, not starting points.

Igel

(37,483 posts)
12. That's because they used common sense.
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 11:13 AM
Dec 2022

Today starts astronomical winter. It's a really neat way of breaking up the year given the equinox, and something that every astronomer can agree on. So for them, it's maybe useful. Not so much if you're actually living on Earth. It provides foolish certainty for those who need it. "Look, the solstice and therefore the start of winter was is on 12/21/2022 2148 UTC." It's a precise moment for those who require it. It's silly unless you're an astronomer, and the December solstice isn't very useful at that; the March equinox is what counts. (By the way, "winter solstice" is hemispherist. It's hardly the winter solstice in the Southern hemisphere, where the Sun reaches the Tropic of Capricorn at solar noon at a specific place at 2148 UTC today.)

It was rather more useful for power-centers when the solstice could be seen as the return of a deity or vaguely predictive of winter's eventually ending. Hard to find absolutely fixed points in time and the March equinox, the instant and the location when the Sun crosses the equator as it moves from south to north, is really tricky to measure.

But most of us are more concerned with weather and climate, not where and where the Sun occurs at one of the Tropics or crosses the equator. (Heck, most people have no clue what the tropics are, or how the Sun could cross the equator.)

Meteorologists and climatologists break the seasons down into groupings of three months based on the annual temperature cycle as well as our calendar. We generally think of winter as the coldest time of the year and summer as the warmest time of the year, with spring and fall being the transition seasons, and that is what the meteorological seasons are based on. Meteorological spring in the Northern Hemisphere includes March, April, and May; meteorological summer includes June, July, and August; meteorological fall includes September, October, and November; and meteorological winter includes December, January, and February.

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/meteorological-versus-astronomical-seasons

Of course, this is just the creeping jargonization of every-day language as we find more and more ways of being utterly prescriptivist in how we control yet another aspect of human behavior.

yonder

(10,283 posts)
15. Agree. Cross-quarter days are what we should be using to mark the seasons.
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 05:57 PM
Dec 2022

Roughly, sometime in the first week of February, May, August and November (end of summer/Samhradh and Samhain/Halloween), they describe the seasons much more usefully than the mathematical representations of planetary motions we use today.

I try to keep Cross-quarter days in mind when thinking of the seasons and Solstice/Equinox when thinking of a big ball of rock moving about a bigger ball of gas.

https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/halloween-derived-from-ancient-celtic-cross-quarter-day/

Edit: post #12 nails it

chowder66

(12,139 posts)
11. And it's going to be 79 degrees here in L.A. on Christmas. : (
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 10:54 AM
Dec 2022

I hate it when it's that warm. I'd prefer a cold snap.

Igel

(37,483 posts)
13. So do I.
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 11:15 AM
Dec 2022

But Texas is going big when, in this case, I wish it could go home.

I'd like a gentle frost. Instead it'll be near 70 Thursday at 3 pm, near 17 Friday morning at 3 am.

Meh. Just means I harvest all my winter greens tomorrow and cover the turnips and radishes as best I can, hoping they survive the 36-hour "not above freezing" "snap".

chowder66

(12,139 posts)
14. It really kind of dampens the mood when it's too warm. Good luck with your greens!!
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 12:35 PM
Dec 2022

Jack the Greater

(616 posts)
17. Today is the middle of winter
Wed Dec 21, 2022, 06:04 PM
Dec 2022

What demented committee decided that the shortest day of the year was the beginning?

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