First Day of Spring

Equinox.  Yep, 12 hours of daylight and 12 of darkness.  The sun rises due east and sets in the west.  I am fortunate that my kitchen window faces east so as my coffee brews in the morning I can watch the sun rise.  A little bit to the south in the winter and a little bit to the north in the longer days of summer.  Watching the day unfold is one of my daily pleasures.

Besides navigation, the path of the sun is needed for my solar panel that charges the battery for a LED light on my wood pile.  Yesterday I observed the setting sun to make sure the panel gets enough light to charge, something really important when the leaves come out.

Oh yeah, we get our fourth nor'easter tomorrow dumping more snow on our region every 7 days, timed with cyclogenesis, the formation of an extratropical cyclone.  The longer daylight means it shouldn't be around too much.

another nice weekend in New England

Could it be cyclogenesis? According to the AMS dictionary (http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/search?id=cyclogenesis1) is is "to the development of cyclonic circulation" Makes sense eh?

There is a whole mess of good sites out there on the subject. See for example:

http://msx4.pha.jhu.edu/ssip/asat_int/cyclogen.html and

http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/weather_systems/cyclogenesis.html

My point of this is that I predict that next weekend (16-17 Oct 2010) it will be a clear weekend, or at least no rain! Why? Well cyclogenesis typically creates a cyclonic disturbance and it takes 4-7 days. That means we get into a cycle of having rain (or snow) every weekend or during the middle of the week or what ever. We get into a "cycle" of having the same kind of weather on the same days of the week. That is, until the cycle is broken. Stay tuned.