According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, the 2016 winter solstice arrives here on the West Coast of North America at 2:44 a.m. tomorrow morning, Wednesday, December 21. At that point the hours of daylight stop becoming shorter and begin becoming longer, which lengthening continues until June 21.
Technically, tomorrow is the first day of de jure winter, today the last day of autumn. However, for much of the central U.S. de facto winter came over a week ago with record low temperatures for the time of year.
For millions of residents of flyover country, global warming has to seem a largely theoretical construct, one not especially connected to their daily lives. My neighbors who winter in Wyoming would enjoy less cold and snow, conditions with which the continent's backbone is too-generously supplied.
