Today is the low point of the sun’s trajectory across the Northern Hemisphere.
Sunlight increases tomorrow through June 21, 2024.
Twenty-first century Americans celebrate at Christmas, as the ancient Romans and many other civilizations did, the welcome return of light and warmth. Romans celebrated the Saturnalia, dedicated to Saturn, god of agriculture. Week-long festivities began Dec. 17 and ended on the 25th. Citizens dressed in colorful clothes rather than everyday togas, released their household slaves from their duties and often feasted with them.
(“Saturnalia,” History. com Editors, Sept. 14, 2022) Our Christmas celebrations echo theirs; that’s no accident. Early Christians needed cover for celebrating the birth of Christ. What better cover than partying and feasting? Like those long-ago Romans and early Christians, we give gifts, feast, make merry with friends, and family, sing carols and furnish our homes with Christmas trees, lights and decorations.
Christ may have been born in the spring, a time when shepherds had to watch over their flocks of sheep and newborn lambs at night. Yet we celebrate Christmas at the darkest time of the year, looking forward to new beginnings and increasing sunlight, just as previous peoples have. Part of the reason may be that as “Christianity began to take hold in the Roman world, in the early fourth century, church leaders had to contend with a popular Roman pagan holiday commemorating the ‘birthday of the unconquered sun’ (natalis solis invicti) — the Roman name for the winter solstice.”
(“This Day in History, Dec. 25, Christ is born?” History.com) The coldest, snowiest part of Colorado winters usually occurs after Jan. 1, as daylight increases. In Ouray, January through April snow averages 108.1 inches (62 % of the year’s total, 173.4). May and June average another 6.8 inches (4%).
From September-December, Ouray averages 58.5 inches of snow, 34% of the total. 2023’s warm and dry fall, however, brought no September snow. Just 5.2 inches accumulated in October and 11.1 inches in November. As of Tuesday, 13.2 inches have fallen in December (normal is 33.1).
A White Christmas is badly needed since September-December snow totals just 29.5, 50% of normal.
NOAA’s latest 3-4 week forecast, released last Friday for Dec. 30-Jan.
12, predicts slightly below average temperatures and well above average snowfall, so that’s encouraging. Dec.
24-28’s forecast features seasonal temperatures with above normal precipitation. Snow is expected this weekend.
Some of you may remember last month’s discussion of the new 2023 USDA Hardiness Zone map update (https://planthardiness.ars.usda. gov) for Ouray. In the 2013 version, the city moved from Zone 5B (minimum mean yearly low temperatures minus 15 to minus 10) into Zone 6A (minimum mean yearly low temperatures minus 10 to minus 5).
In the new 2023 version, representing the years 2013-2022, the city has two different climate zones: 6A and a warmer 6B (minimum mean yearly low temperatures minus 5 to 0).
Much of the town remains in zone 6A, including my 212 Ninth Ave.
NWS COOP weather station (Ouray #2) on the west side of Main. The warmer 6B zone includes the area east of Main from north of Ninth Avenue south to Fourth Avenue and extends eastward and upward over the lower Amphitheater Road.
I sent the following query about Ouray’s minimum mean yearly low temperatures to Peter Bretting of the USDA/ARS Office of National Programs in Beltsville, Maryland, using my station records as reference.
“Except for the first year, 2013, minimum low temperatures have fallen into the 6B category. That leaves me wondering if the east side of Main and the Amphitheater Road somehow escaped any temperatures below minus-5 degrees from 20132022, and if so, where was this data collected.”
A USDA technical expert said that data from 1981 to 2006 at Ed Thompson’s previous Ouray COOP station near east Fourth Avenue was incorporated into the 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Map for Ouray’s east side. He emphasized that both stations came out with similar plant hardiness values (within 0.5 degrees of each other). Ouray falls “right on the boundary between two grid cells that are a half-mile on a side. We have data from two COOP weather stations there, Ouray and Ouray #2.
Both show mean annual minimum temperatures within a few tenths of degrees of minus 5 degrees. Given the size of the grid cells, other factors beyond the city boundaries also affected the predictions, resulting in 6b to the east and 6a to the west.
Should it be interpreted that the east side of town is somehow warmer than the west side? Not at all. The differences are miniscule and fall well into the statistical “noise level” of the predictions. If you are located on the edge of a zone, the slightest change in temperature can put you into a new zone, even though no changes have taken place in your garden.” Do not trust any statistics you did not fake yourself.
–Winston Churchill Karen Risch gardens, records weather for NOAA and CoCo-Rahs, writes and hikes in Ouray. Her Wu derground weather station ID is KCOOURAY3, transmitting weather from latitude N38 1’ 34”, longitude W107 40’21”, Elevation 7,736’. A purpleair.com air quality monitor RISCH operates at the same location.
