Aphelion
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
Today is Aphelion Day, the day when the sun is farthest away from the Earth, about 94.5 million miles. That’s about 3 million miles farther away than at Perihelion which occurred last January 4th. The sun’s light is actually 7% brighter in the first week of January than in the first week of July. I know what some of you are thinking…how come we have the hottest weather (this week not withstanding) when the sun is farthest away? Our seasons are caused by the Earth tilting toward and away from the sun. Today the sun climbs to about 70 degrees above the horizon at solar noon (about 1:44 PM) and it stays out for 15 hours and 16 minutes. In the first week of January, when we have Perihelion (Earth closest to the sun), the sun is only at 24 degrees above the horizon at solar noon and it’s out for only 9 hours and 6 minutes. If Perihelion and Aphelion were reversed, with the Earth closest to the sun in July, West Michigan would be 3 degrees colder in January and 3 degrees hotter in July. Interesting fact: If you could drive toward the sun continuously at 55 mph today, it would take you 196 years to reach the sun if it were 94.5 million miles away (roughly the time expected for the Lions to win a Super Bowl). Click the picture twice to super-size…picture from Wikipedia.
That is very interesting Bill!
maybe that sun needs to be right on top of us so we can finally warm up and have a darn summer!
Shush, dont tell anyone but its one of the other secrets of climate change. As the orbit cycles change so can (and dose) our climate.
SlimJim
BTW good old Brett Anderson at accuweather in looking at the European long range weekly model now thinks that it will be cooler then average for maybe the whole month of July so may we dare say it may not hit 90 this month? Who knows its happened before. So lets say maybe 87, 88 the highest for the month?
SlimJim
CPC’s new July forecast also says cooler-than-normal, so Brett’s not going out on a limb
I don’t think that means no 90. I think it means no streak of nineties though…
You never know some years we do not break 90 most of the time we do but you never know. Many times when we are cold for a while we get a return flow and it could warm up really good (next week?)
Hey accuweather is not one to stick their nicks out but then again neither is the CPC
SlimJim
AccuWeather gave up the “accurate” part of their title a LONG time ago.. They now get their kicks by making off the wall predictions (like their east coast hurricane one just a year ago — ooops) and criticizing the NWS. They are not a trustable forecast entity (who could be that advertises hourly weather forecasts out to 16 days?!?)
they need to define “cooler” because id call it darn right cold, when it’s 20 degrees below normal!
fix the weather bill! does anybody else miss craig james and his more accurate forecasts? oh wait i forgot were talking about woodtv8 here!
don’t get me wrong im not putting bill down, i just think they tweak the forecasts and make it look like it’s going to be warmer then last minute change it! i mean look at all of the rain west of us, you all know darn well it’s gonna rain and be cold again tomorrow. ill believe these 80+ degree days next week when i see them.
And I’m sure you’ll come back on to acknowlege that they were right too…..right?
“i mean look at all of the rain west of us, you all know darn well it’s gonna rain and be cold again tomorrow.”
So if there is rain west of us, that means there will be rain here? If only forecasting was that easy… Easily wrong that is
All in all its been a very cold start to July. Its a cool 61° here now. This is from the Detroit NWS office:
A Cool Start To July
…RECORD LOW MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE SET AT FLINT THURSDAY…
YESTERDAY`S HIGH TEMPERATURE AT FLINT WAS 65 DEGREES. THIS IS THE
LOWEST HIGH TEMPERATURE ON RECORD FOR JULY 2ND…WITH THE PREVIOUS
RECORD BEING 67 DEGREES SET IN 1978.
TO PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE…
WHEN FACTORING IN THE PREVIOUS DAYS MAXES OF 67 (JULY 1ST) AND 65
(JUNE 30)…ONE NEEDS TO GO BACK TO 1967 TO SEE SUCH A COOL (3 DAY
CONSECUTIVE) STRETCH OF WEATHER THIS LATE IN THE SUMMER.
FOR DETROIT, THE HIGH TEMPERATURES OF 69, 72, 67 (JUNE 30-JULY 2ND)
MARK THE COOLEST START TO JULY SINCE 1978.
SlimJim
LMAO @ the Lions comment.
Very interesting facts Bill! This week looks stunning, sunny, dry, and warm! Back to Summer again =)
I am loving this sunshine and warmer air now.. I was feeling pretty down during that cutoff low.. Real bored and sad.
HAPPY 4TH!!! =D
Interesting article, Bill!
Looking outside it’s not hard to imagine the sun being a few million miles further away — the way it looks today, it feels like it strolled right out of the neighborhood! This sure isn’t much like the dusty-dry cornflowers and cicadas on the wires Fourths of July of my youth, back before global warming struck …
You’re an optimist about the Lions, though.
Interesting info from Bill Marino @ NWS. The last week (6/26 – 7/2) in GRR averaged 2.9*F below normal.
This same week in 1902 averaged 10.6*F below normal! I’m not quite as convinced as Gary Fisher that global warming is to thank, but it sure was cold back then…