Drab and Gray

Typing from the sofa in the family room, I can cock my head left and see out our back door. There’s snow on the ground, rain from the sky and a gray gloom that does its best to hide any midday brightness.

Typing from the sofa in the family room, I can cock my head left and see out our back door. There’s snow on the ground, rain from the sky and a gray gloom that’s doing its best to hide any midday brightness.

Yesterday, when I prepared today’s forecast (which included some frozen precipitation in Connecticut’s picturesque hills), I kept in mind the increasing strength of insolation&#185. It is more difficult for light frozen precipitation to stick, because sunlight (even through clouds) makes everything warmer.

We are now two months past the solar minimum of the winter solstice. Not only are there more daylight hours, the daylight is more potent!

There’s a ‘geek cool’ website that quantifies all this. Where I live, the Sun delivers 1,560 watt/hours per square meter per day in December. By February, that number is up to 2,660 watt/hours per square meter per day.

Winter isn’t over by any means, but I can literally feel spring on its way. Even on this awful day, it feels good. I am elated.

&#185 – No misspelling there. Insolation is the measurement of incoming solar radiation.

(Edited to correct watt/hours from watts)

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