WEATHER SNAP SHOTS: December 2005 Archives

Melissa Pavlica of Westmont snapped these photos of "sun dogs" Monday
morning. Sun dogs result as incoming sunlight is refracted by ice
crystals, producing a halo, two segments of which are visible, giving
the appearance of a sun on either side of the disc of the sun. Monday's
extreme cold, including -1 at O'Hare, 0-degrees at Midway, -6 at west
suburban Aurora Airport, -1 at Waukegan and -5 at Rockford no doubt
contributed to the presence of the airborne ice crystals which created
this visual phenomenon.

- Tom Skilling

Photo Courtesy of Melissa Pavlica

Anchorage has had unusually mild weather lately but very little (like
none) sunshine. However, my friend and fellow meteorologist in Anchorage, Tom
MacPhail, reported FINALLY seeing the sun Monday albeit briefly. He
snapped this picture of a spectacular sunrise which occurred at 10AM.

During late December near winter solstice in Anchorage, the sun is only
above the horizon for a brief 5 hours per day and even then never gets
very high in the sky so provides little if any warmth. Tom reports
that..."Thankfully, we're nearing the end of the tunnel and days begin
getting longer after Dec 21; very gradually at first...a few seconds per
day...but accelerating to a gain of about 5 minutes per day by late
January." Anchorage's daylight begins to feel normal again by
mid-February and by late March, they are already getting over 12 hours
of sun above the horizon. By June's summer solstice, the sun is up over
19 hours per day and darkness comes in the form of a short period of
dusk between midnight and 4AM. It is truly a land of extremes!

-Tom Skilling

Photo courtesy: Tom MacPhail

WGN-TV meteorologist Richard Koeneman sent these images of the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, which experienced a 10-hour period of freezing rain Wednesday night into Thursday. The freezing rain left an ice accumulation of 3/8th inch on mountains and ridges above 4,000 feet.
Below are views in the mountains above Fairview, N.C., on Friday. Asheville lies in the valley beyond the ridge in the center of the lower photograph.

Lows dropped to 0° overnight in much of Chicago's far west suburban area—and sub-zero lows may be more extensive away from Lake Michigan and the heart of the city Tuesday night. This shot, taken at frigid Waukegan Airport looking southeast toward the Waukegan power plant around 7 a.m. Monday by pilot Anson Mount, drives the point home.
--Tom Skilling

Photo courtesy of Anson Mount

Winter 2005-06 is off to quite a start this year in our 49th state according to friend and colleague Tom MacPhail, veteran Alaska meteorologist and aviation forecaster at the National Weather Service's Anchorage Forecast Office. Tom has sent us these images of a phenomenon known as HOAR FROST taken in Anchorage. Hoar frost forms during with some frequency during periods of ICE FOG—fog which occurs in bitterly cold environments with temperatures well below freezing (if not 0 degrees). Supercooled water droplets in the fog coat trees, vegetation and other outdoor objects in a shimmering covering of ice crystals.

Tom offers us some thoughts on Alaska's cold season-open this year:

"For the first time in the past few years, southern Alaska is having a truly cold start to their winter; more like the kind of winters enjoyed in the early 80s. It has been consistently below freezing since mid-October with the exception of one brief warm-up ahead of a storm in the middle of November."

Photos courtesy of Tom MacPhail