Light at the End of Winter's Tunnel

By this time in January, some of us Minnesotans get pretty tired (understatement) of the short days, gray skies, and the freezing cold. Last night my soul was refreshed as I read some very encouraging weather facts on MPR's Updraft Blog by meteorologist, Paul Huttner.

In this world we will have snow, but take heart, spring is closer than you think! There's a light at the end of winter's long dark tunnel.

Find some wintry solace in these heartwarming statistics:
• Daylight is now rapidly increasing! We're gaining more than 2 minutes a day now. We'll be gaining 3 minutes a day starting next week!

• Daylight increases 1 hour 18 minutes in the Twin Cities in February!

• The sun angle increases noticeably in the next few weeks. In less than a month the sun at noon will be 34 degrees above the southern horizon at solar noon. That's a full 12 degrees higher than the 22 degrees on the winter solstice last month.

• Temperatures respond to the increasing solar energy in the next month. Our average high temp reaches 30 degrees in just over 3 weeks, and 45 degrees in the next 60 days!

• In just 6 weeks daylight saving time resumes...and the sun will set after 7pm (7:16pm) on March 13th!

• Meteorlogical Spring begins on March 1st, just 34 days from now!

• Asronomical Spring begins on March 20th at 6:21pm!