November 2024
December 2024
[2024] December
The Twelfth Month
December Night Watch: Venus is the Evening Star in the west just after sundown. Mercury is low in
the East at dawn after the 5 th . Jupiter is at its brightest arises in the evening and has a conjunction with the moon on the 14.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks on the 13-24 and can be seen all night,
emanating from the NE. See Orion and Tarus have a Glare-off high in the night sky.
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Moon Phases (Mountain Standard Time]
New Moon 1 st Day
Last quarter 22 nd Day
First Quarter 8th Day
New Moon 30 th day
Full Moon 15 th Day – Big cold moon(o’odham)
Winter solstice 21 st Day
Moon Signs
Best Time To:
Bake: dec 16,17
Brew: dec 25-27
Begin diet to lose weight: dec 22,27
Plant aboveground crops: dec 7,8
Plant belowground crops: dec 25-27
December has 31 days.
“What fire could ever equal the sunshine of a winter day?” Henry David Thoreau
December Weather
“The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and
wrong too often for us to rely on it.” Unknown
Tucson Weather Averages For December (1991-2020)
Record High 85 (1911, 1925, 1939,&2021)
Record Low 10 (12/14/19018)
Record Daily Precipitation 2.5 in (12/3/1906)
December Flora and Fauna
Winter rains and occasional snow bring leaves to ocotillos, brittlebush, and creosote. Mesquites and acacias continue to lose their leaves. Desert
mistletoe is bearing fruit in the canopies of trees, as are desert Christmas cactus
underneath.
Phainopepla, curve-billed thrashers and Anna’s Hummingbirds are spreading out and establishing territory. Male mule deer begin their rut later in the month.
Notable December Dates:
December 1, 1905 Birthday of Charles G. Finney, long time news editor of the Arizona Daily Star, and author of The Circus of Dr. Lao, winner of the National Book Award in 1935 (d.1984).
December 8, 1971: Tucson Snowfall Record one-day 6.8 inches
December 23, 1855: Birthday of George Emory Goodfellow, physician and naturalist in the 19th-century American Old West (Tombstone, Tucson, San Francisco) who developed a reputation as the United States' foremost expert in treating gunshot wounds (d.1910).
December 24, 1916: Birthday of Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero a Mexican-American guitarist, singer and farm labor activist best known for his strong influence on todays Latin musical artists (d. 2005).
December 30, 1918: Birthday of William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist. He spent his last years in Tucson (d. 1978).
December 31, 1920 Birthday of Rex Elvie Allen, American film and television actor, singer and songwriter, known as "the Arizona "Cowboy" and as the narrator of many Disney nature and Western productions (d.1999).
December 31, 1943: Birthday of John Denver, (Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.) American
singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor (d.1997).