Four inches of wet snow fell in a northeast wind, coating that side of some of the trees, while providing a fitting backdrop for Christmas lights that I still had up in a few of our trees. In these parts, most snow occurs with winds from the east, northeast or north, as those directions signal neutral to cold advection near the surface, north of a front, with warm (and moist) advection common above the stable layer. Knowing the snow would melt fast the following morning, I dragged out the tripod and shot this soon after midnight, on a time exposure that maximized ambient light from nearby Norman and the Oklahoma City metro. While the city light is still warm in tone (yellowish in the overcast), I’ve noticed its getting less so in the last decade with the proliferation of LED lighting, while more electrically costly, orange-colored sodium-vapor street lamps gradually fall into greater disuse. This reverses the trend of the ’80s into early ’90s, when the sodium bulbs replaced bluish (and toxic when busted!) mercury-vapor streetlights.
Norman OK (10 Jan 25) Looking SSW