Winter Solstice has arrived – the shortest day of the year in daylight hours.
Even though winter has just begun and the hardest weather is yet to come, there is consolation in the fact that each day is getting a bit longer.
Of course the longer and shorter days don’t matter as much as one heads towards the equator since they do not have the swings that the rest of the globe has.
But for the poles, that is a different story.
And I am sure glad to not be in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, where these ships are frozen in their winter port in Hudson Bay.
The sun rose at 9:07 today and it sets at 3:22 – just six short hours of day light.
And the temperature there is -27 degrees fahrenheit – during the day.
And it has been that way for a couple of weeks now – those boats are going to be there for a long time.
I can’t complain about my temps in the teens – not after seeing what these people deal with.
This is the first year that the Explore.org website has kept these cameras active during this time of the year.
Many of them, including the osprey cam in Maine, and the owl cam in Montana, are being kept live.
I love to visit them off and on during the day – the landscapes and weather are great to watch until the wildlife returns in the spring.
And the sunsets in Hawaii are gorgeous too when one gets chilled from looking at all these snowy scenes.
A big thank you to the folks that work to keep these live cams going for us – their work is appreciated!