Sun sets at Barrow, AK
November 19th, 2008 at 3:05 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog
<–Barrow, Alaska. On Tuesday at 2:32 PM, the sun set at Barrow, the northernmost town in Alaska. The sun won’t rise again in Barrow until January 23rd. North of the Arctic Circle, Barrow gets the “midnight sun” in the summer. The sun shines 24 hours-a-day for about nine weeks. In winter the opposite is true. The sun falls below the horizon and they have nine weeks of continuous darkness. Here in Grand Rapids, we’re entering the darkest two months of the year. Today at solar noon, the sun climbs only to an angle of 27.2° above the horizon. That’s how high the sun is at 6:41 PM on the Summer Solstice. We’ll lose another 33 minutes of daylight before the Winter Solstice on Dec. 21. December is also the cloudiest month of the year in West Michigan.
It was sure awesome to see the sun yesterday! I guess we should be saying good bye sun for awhile. HELLO WINTER! I just could not believe the difference in snow. Saugatuck/Douglas received about 8 inches or more of snow while we received about 1/2 inch here just south of GR. I know that can be the case when the snow is a LES event. Its almost like it only snowed in one area.
Another reason why solar energy is less than ideal for Michigan.
John – Winter is the time we have the most consistent winds, so wind energy can take up the slack when the clouds roll in…
The dark gloomy days of winter here in Michigan. Graig you know you receive more sun in the winter (on average) then we do over on this side of the state. But yes there is more wind (most of the time) in the winter.
SlimJim
SlimJim, I am well aware of that. Oft are the times when you folks are getting a LES blizzard and the sun is beaming over in my neck of the woods. That just adds insult to injury!!!!
Wind power is useful, however the “bird-choppers” have some serious drawbacks. Clean power is just seven miles away. Straight down. Geothermal is clean and renewable.
John, everything has drawbacks. That is what “brainiacs” are for, they love to resolve problems like that. Keep a positive attitude and we’ll ween ourselves off this dinosaur sludge.
could you imagine the size of the “fins”/Cage if they wrapped them to prevent birds from being wacked..
Im thinking some sort of sonic noise or something…
mother earths Geothermal energy is a awesome power without depletion
Snowed early this morning here, just enough to coat everything..about .20″
28*
where’s my big snowstorm?
Parts of Lansing electrical needs are being fulfilled by Landfill Gas, they started today producing about 3.2 megawatts of power.
TWC is precictiong a Blizzard in the Mid-West for The first week of December.. HUH? Sounds intersting I will let you know what’s going on and post a link!!
The landfill gas could be supplemented by the gas given off from the legislature on both sides of the aisle. It should be able to supply power to most of the lower peninsula.
AMEN JOHN!
Brennan,
You think they are talking about this little ole thing..2 day storm
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer/gfs/12/images/gfs_pcp_288m.gif
The models have been playing with that for a couple days ..here it is, here it’s not! LOL
But what a whommper if that panned out!
right now any energy is better than than non….sounds like Barrow could live off solar in the summer and geothermal in the winter…I’m sure 48 degree ground water feels warm to them…..I thought my neice who was a nurse up there for a year said they have fairly high rate of depression and suicides…too much of anything can be bad for you…that must be why we live in Michigan…It doesn’t matter if you like or dislike the weather today odd’s are it will change real soon.
This is why we have one of those sun lamps in our living room.
Depressing. Downright gloomy and hopeless. That’s what it feels like.
This must be why they put three holidays over this period; it would be unbearable otherwise.
Having grown up in West Michigan, I assumed that winter days were supposed to be cloudy and gray. My mom (in Muskegon) still notes on her calendar the days that the sun peeks out in the winter months.
It wasn’t until I met my Texan husband and later moved down here that I realized not everybody experiences such dark winter months. He pointed it out to me and said that it was one of the more difficult adjustments he had to make after moving up there. The snow and cold he expected. The funny way people talk (and I said, “what accents?”) he got used to. But the many days in a row of cloudy skies were a little hard on the physche. He observed that, in lieu of sunshine, a fresh snowfall often brightened up not only the landscape but people’s dispositions. Anyone else find this to be the case?