Think your tide charts are wrong?  Supposedly  the tides will be lower than
they have been in 133 years on Dec 21 and 22.  And here we are in Texas and
won't get to Sanibel until Dec 30th.  They predict snow and sleet Mon night
and then a hard freeze on Tuesday night. in the Dallas Area.  It is time  to
head for Florida (grin).

This information from my friend Joyce Matthys.  Anyone have anymore to add
about this unusual occurrence?

Information she sent is as follows:

This December 22 winter solstice coincides with a full moon.  It hasn't
happened for 133 years!  The moon and sun occupy opposite ends of the sky on
December 21-22.  A full moon will rise just as the sun goes down in its
leftmost position of the year along the horizon.

Since a full moon on the winter solstice occurs in conjunction with a lunar
perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth), the moon will
appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in it's elliptical
orbit that is farthest from Earth).

The Earth is also several million miles closer to the sun at this time of
the
year than in the summer, so sunlight striking the moon is about 7% stronger,
making it appear much brighter.  If the weather is clear and there is a snow
cover where you live, it is believed that even car headlights will be
superfluous.

The last time the full moon, lunar perigee, and winter solstice fell on the
same day was in 1866.  But even then the moon merely reached its closest
approach of the month.  On this Dec 22 the moon will be at its nearest point
of the year.  It's the kind of event that would have driven "primitive"
cultures bonkers!  On Dec 21, 1866 The Lakota Sioux took advantage of this
combination of occurrences and staged a devastating retaliatory ambush on
soldiers in the Wyoming Territory.

In laymen's terms, it will be a super bright full moon, much more than the
usual.  Our ancestors, 133 years, ago saw this.  Our descendants 100 or so
years from now will see it again.

And, believe it or not, there's more.  The day of Earth's maximal tilt (when
the axis is directed most fully away from the sun) will also combine with a
very close sun, which reaches its nearest point to the earth 12 days later.

The confluence of all these forces at "the very least" will brew up huge
proxigean tides, also called "closest of the close moon" tides.  They will
extend a few, but crucial, inches farther than normal, ranging from reaching
the boardwalk highs to lows that uncover rarely exposed marine life.  If you
add a low pressure storm at sea scenario to this day, unusually strong tides
could go over the edge.  Earthquakes also occur more often during strong
tide
effects.

Long ago and early on in the experience of using calendars, years end always
coincided with the winter solstice.  That changed during the switch from the
Julian to the more accurate Gregorian calendar, beginning in the sixteenth
century.  What seems to have been lost was a much more appropriate time,
from
a celestial point of view, to celebrate the passing of 1,000 years.  On
December 22, the sun, moon and Earth perform a truly, genuinely, once in a
millennium dance.

Happy Shelling
Ardeth Hardin
Carrollton Tx
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