Winter is Taunting Weha - But It Isn't All Bad

IF WeHa had school tomorrow, you would have a late opening because of

tonight's cold front snow flurries...  But you have the day off tomorrow.

The next storm (and it might be the first big one of the year) will be arriving ... Saturday.  No snow day for you.

On the other hand, with NO snow days yet this year, your summer vacation will begin on June 8.

Now go play outside.

Snow Coming - But No Affect On School

There are two storms in our future, but neither of them will have any affect on West Hartford Schools.


Tuesday there will be some light snow starting in the afternoon, but it won't start until after lunch.  Your trip home may be white, but not early.

The next storm is expected to hit on Saturday, but the temps will be above freezing most of the time.  Snow, sleet, freezing rain, and then just plain wet. 


You just might have to get used to school ending on June 8.

Weather Warning

First warning of this school year:

Tuesday's freezing rain will probably have no effect on school openings, but teachers should consider the wisdom of leaving home early.  You might need to drive slowly.

Evolution Doesn't Always Work The Way We Expect.

It is a common misconception that evolution causes organisms to become more complex.  We think of those single-cell organisms evolving into multi-cellular birds and dogs and cats.

But it can also work the other way.

Evolution is the method by which living things adapt to their environment.  Sometimes that means becoming simpler.

Internal parasites do not need complicated ways to capture food, because they are surrounded by it.  As a result, they can become simpler.

Recent DNA studies of a simple parasite have discovered that it is really a jellyfish!   That's right, a jellyfish that has adapted to being a parasite, becoming smaller and simpler.

Life is fascinating.

There is more information here:  http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/11/13/1511468112

That's All, Folks

Yesterday the oaks were holding tightly to their leaves.


This morning, even though there is not a bit of wind, the leaves are raining down.  

The branches are bare and the ground is covered.


End of Autumn.  

All Over Until Next Year

October 31:  Sunny, bright, the maple trees blazing with color.  The last day of the Autumn season.  Harvest is done. 

November 1:  Cloudy, gray.  Only the oaks are holding on to their leaves.  Winter.

Hello Winter

From http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang

Astronomers divide the year into four seasons, based on obvious (to astronomers) benchmarks:  the two solstices and the two equinoxes.



Meteorologists use what they know - temperature.  For them, Winter is the three coldest months, December, January, February.  Summer is the three hottest months, June through August.

People who are not meteorologists and don't spend their lives looking up and who don't get outside enough tend to go with the astronomers, mostly because that is what they hear on the television.

The End of Autumn.  Hello Winter.

People who do spend their lives outside as much as possible have a third way of telling the seasons.  Like the farmers and herders of thousands of years ago, they look at nature.

When the snow starts to melt and the first green appears, it is Spring.  Putting it on a western calendar would mark it as the start of February, now called Groundhog Day, Candlemass, Imbolc.  That actually arrives half-way between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.  It takes the Earth a while to warm up.


First growth is over and flowers appear at the start of Summer, around May 1st, Mayday or Beltane.

Fruit and grain start to ripen as the days get noticeably shorter, at the start of August.  August 1 is called Lammas, from loaf mass, the blessing of the first new bread.  Now we are in nature's Autumn.

And then, around the end of October, the colorful leaves fall, the gardens die, we celebrate Samhain or All Hallows Eve (Hallowe'en, the first harvest thanksgiving), and winter arrives.  Sometime in the next week a storm will sweep through, the trees will be swept bare.  Hello Winter.