2024 WINTER SOLSTICE

Chambersburg, PA
Winter Solstice on Thursday, December 21, 2024
Winter Solstice Sunrise - 7:29 AM

Winter Solstice Sunset:- 4:49 PM

This is an astronomical event that occurs because our world is tilted on its orbit around the sun, a fact that explains the seasons in our temperate zones. The shortest day and the longest night of the year. It marks a turn in the seasons as the length of the days get longer.

IF THE DAYS ARE LONGER WHY IS IT SO COLD?

The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang reports that “even though daylight slowly increases after the solstice, many places don’t see their coldest days until mid-January. This happens because the Northern Hemisphere continues to lose more heat than it gains for several more weeks. The oceans – which take longer than land to heat up and cool down – play a role in this seasonal temperature lag. Only after the Northern Hemisphere starts to receive more solar energy than it loses do average temperatures begin their upward ascent.” 

Doug Wenztel of Penn States Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center says there’s a bright side as well. This is an opportunity to go out and explore your local areas and see a different landscape. Each year the Center has a Winter Solstice Stroll.

A walk along a favorite summertime wooded path reveals the shapes of trees and their branching patterns. Sit still and quiet for 15 minutes and soon you will see the birds that stay with us all winter. Discover mosses and evergreen ground covers nestled against the rocks near the path or check the edges of a pond for ice crystals. Think about the bit of shelter they provide for wintering birds as they perch among the rattling leaves, away from winter’s wind.

WHY ARE THERE STILL LEAVES ON THE TREES?

You most likely will hear the rustle and rattle of dead leaves still clinging to the branches of some trees. Kathleen V. Salisbury, Extension Educator, asks,  "Have you ever noticed some trees hang on to their leaves after all the other have colored up and fallen to the ground?"  in her article "Why Do You Just Keep Me Hanging On?"

 “…there's a reason why some leaves keep on hanging on all winter. Marcescence (use it 3 times in a sentence today and you own this word!) is the term for this winter retention of leaves. Beech and oak are deciduous native trees, losing their leaves each fall. But young beech, as well as their cousins [the] oaks, not to mention musclewood, witchhazels and parrotia, hang on to some of their leaves throughout the winter. They are marcescent.

In the fall trees create a separation zone (abscission layer) between petiole (leaf stem) and branch. If the separation layer is complete, the leaves will drop to the ground, to add nutrients to the root zone as they decompose. 

Trees shed their leaves to prepare for harsh winter conditions by conserving valuable resources. They create this separation zone so the falling leaves do not damage the plant in the process of shedding. Marcescent trees do not form this abscission layer completely and so some of the leaves hang on through the winter.”

~ Carol Kagan, Master Gardener

References:

The Washington Post: Winter Begins Today-Answers About the Solstice

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/12/21/winter-begins-today-five-questions-and-answers-about-the-solstice/?arc404=true

Penn State: Winter Solstice Walk 2022

https://www.facebook.com/shaverscreek/winter-solstice-stroll/wentzel/819053985832668/

PennState: Why Do You Just Keep Me Hanging On? 
https://extension.psu.edu/why-do-you-just-keep-me-hanging-on

Pennsylvania State Climatologist: Greencastle, PA Max/Min Daily Temp: 12/21/2023 to 03/19/2024

https://climate.met.psu.edu/data/ida/index.php?t=3&x=cwop_hourly&id=CW4362

Weather Atlas: Monthly Average Temperatures

https://www.weather-atlas.com/en/pennsylvania-usa/mont-alto-climate

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