Buresh Blog: Neighborhood Weather... Winter has arrived!... January thaw... Warm ‘23... Night skies

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After a mild start to the 2023-’24 winter, January has seen quite the temperature swing! Early morning snow & ice cover on Jan. 16th included every lower 48 state in the U.S. (thanks to a tiny portion of the Northwest Florida Panhandle with a trace of ice):

Such expansive snow cover makes it easier for colder air to reach Florida given the arctic air has less time to modify (essentially the ground is like a big freezer).

The pic below shows the steep snow drifts on a local highway... followed by pics of my dad’s home in Central Iowa where snow is nearly to the top of the mailbox.

Temps. early Wed., (01/17) were the coldest in almost a year but even colder temps. will arrive over the weekend following another strong arctic front.

BUT there is light at the end of this “cold tunnel”. The jet stream will undergo a rubber-band effect allowing temps. to warm dramatically across all of the Lower 48 including right here at home in NE Fl. & SE Ga. It does appear the wet weather pattern will continue too. With some 2 weeks still to go, Jacksonville has had its wettest Nov./Dec./Jan. on record!

And the numbers are in for 2023 showing the year was warm across the globe at more than 2 degrees F above avg - the warmest on record, in fact. The 10 warmest years on record - globally - have all occurred during the last 10 years.

Two images below from NASA:

Night skies courtesy Sky & Telescope:

Jan. 18 (dusk): The Moon, a day past first quarter, is 3° to the upper left of Jupiter.

Jan. 20 (dusk): The waxing gibbous Moon gleams some 5° lower left of the Pleiades in Taurus.

Jan. 24 (dusk): The almost-full Moon is in Gemini, where it hangs 3½° below Pollux.

Jan. 27 (dawn): Look low in the southeast to see Mars and Mercury ¼° apart; use binoculars to tease them out of the brightening sky. Venus shines to the pair’s upper right.

Jan. 27 (evening): The waning gibbous Moon rises in the east trailing Leo’s alpha star, Regulus, by some 4½°.

Jan. 31 (evening): The Moon, a few days shy of last quarter, is 1½° to the upper left of Spica.

Moon Phases

New Moon Jan. 11 10:30 p.m. EST

First Quarter Jan. 17 10:52 p.m. EST

Full Moon Jan. 25 12:54 p.m. EST (Wolf Moon)

Potentially best meteor showers of 2024 * here *. Photo below by Eliot Herman: