Foot's Forecast | Weather Intelligence

"Here Comes The Sun..."-  George Harrison, The Beatles 

read more about this image from NASA's Astronomy Pic of the Day

7:00 AM EST 1/5/12 (Forecaster Mike N. and Mr. Foot) With many weeks of winter in front of us, many of you are no doubt wondering what lies ahead for the Mid-Atlantic region.  The overall trend has been more snow in place where it is less needed, and less of it in places needed most. The real questions on the minds of many we investigated in our previous report... 

• Do climate indicators suggest a different regime for the remainder of this winter?
• Has lack of an expected El Nino-pattern changed the dynamic for 2013's weather? AND... the MOST important question weather fans are asking...
• Are the Ravens ready for Ray Rice as Quarterback?

CELEBRATING RETURN OF THE SUN

For those who have difficulty with the decrease of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere winter, we have some DELIGHTFUL NEWS for you. Help is on the way, courtesy of your neighborhood sunrise table.

Each year Between January 9 and 11, depending on your location, BOTH sunrise and sunset start moving toward the spring-summer pattern. For example, while the date of the EARLIEST sunset in Baltimore was actually December 7, it is not until until early January for SUNRISE to start moving earlier. Need proof? Take a look on the US Navy's daylight tables. 

INTRODUCING THE ANALEMMA. We know, it is a bizarre name and not easily explained, but the unique looking figure 8 image above is a capture of the actual daily travel pattern of the sun in our sky-- across the whole year. called the Analemma. For teachers, here is a great kick off lesson topic for any day this week: 

WHY does the earliest sunset occur BEFORE the winter solstice and HOW CAN the latest sunrise occur AFTER the winter solstice? 

Squirming to know the answer? 
Some resources to help explain it:

• What is the Analemma?
• Astrophotography of the Sun from around the Earth