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The earth is nearly 94.5 million miles away from the sun today. That’s the farthest we get in our annual, slightly elliptical, trip around the sun. Perihelion, when the earth is closest to the sun, occurs in early January.
Given that it is a lot warmer today than in early January, it is fair to say that distance from the sun plays second fiddle to the tilt of the earth in determining the seasonal temperature cycle. However, the dates of the aphelion and perihelion move forward about a day every 58 years and that change is a major driver in the advance and retreat of the Ice Ages.
No worries about glaciers today, except if you’re concerned about the rapid melting of Greenland, as a ridge of high pressure will warm us up to the lower 80s. An upper level disturbance is bouncing into the ridge, hence the clouds and maybe a slight chance of showers, especially west of the city, tonight. There is a much better chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow after a warm front passes through the city. Look for Tuesday’s high to reach the sticky mid 80s.
A cold front is expected to slowly arrive on Wednesday. That slow advance will let the moisture levels build up in the atmosphere and give us a good chance of showers and thunderstorms, some of which could drop lots of rain. Wednesday’s high will be in the upper 80s. Some showers could linger into Thursday as the front stalls somewhere south of the city, but we should see generally slightly cooler and drier conditions toward the end of the week.
Earth’s aphelion this year occurs at 12:24PM EDT on Monday, July 4th. At that point, the Earth will be exactly 94,512,904 miles from the Sun. That’s a difference of 3,109,092 miles from when the Earth was at its closest to the Sun back on January 2nd.
Happy Aphelion!
Agencies/Canadajournal
