Interestingly, while the total daylight hours very slowly increase each day, I saw a chart that showed sunrises will continue to push out later in the morning till about Jan 14th, 2025 while the sunsets have already passed their earliest time at 5:20pm on Dec 10th out here. Here is a cool link you can use. https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/phoenix?month=12&year=2024

Diabolical Canadian ridge coming up.

The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 30/23 there was 4.2” of snowfall melted down to 0.16” of precipitation. There was 4% of possible sunshine. The highest wind speed was 26 MPH out of the N For today the average H/L is 35/24 the record high of 60 was in 1967 the coldest high of 5 was in 1989 the record low of -8 was also in 1989 the warmest low of 47 was in 1918. The most rainfall of 1.26” was in 1949 the most snowfall of 7.9” was in 2008 the most on the ground was 15” in 1951. We now have 20 days of December 2024 in the record books and the mean so far is 30.2 that is a departure of -1.5 the high so far is 50 on the 8th 9th and 14th the lowest 10 on the 12th and 14th there has been 1.58” of precipitation and 19.6” of snowfall. While there is snow on the ground at this time there remains some doubt if there is enough snow to last for a White Christmas.

As holiday lights brighten streets and the season of cheer unfolds, Dec. 21 marks the winter solstice a reminder that the longest hours of darkness of the year is upon us. The winter solstice occurs this year on Saturday, Dec. 21 At 4:20 a.m. ET, the solstice will take place, marking "the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. All locations north of the equator see daylight shorter than 12 hours and all locations south see daylight longer than 12 hours. The winter solstices are considered to be the start of the astronomical winter. And the start of the Southern Hemisphere summer. These seasons are based on Earth's natural rotation. In contrast, meteorological seasons divide the year into three-month groups based on temperature patterns, making them more closely aligned with our monthly civil calendar than astronomical seasons. After the solstice, every day will have a little more sunlight than the one before. By the time we reach the summer solstice on June 20, 2025, it will be the longest day of the year.

45F calm and cloudy.