Afternoon NYC Blue Hour in January (Flatiron with Downtown Brooklyn in the Distance)

Here in the northern hemisphere, we find ourselves on the section of Earth’s orbital path around the sun where daylight is once again lengthening in duration, day by day. This is great news for people who thrive on the promise of changing seasons. It means that the literal darkest days of winter are in the rear view mirror and we are steadily inching toward spring. Science not withstanding, here in NY we still have at least a solid 8 weeks of cold grim weather. We have entered a phase of the calendar that I unlovingly refer to as ‘ugly winter.’

Starting around Thanksgiving or so, the cold weather invokes tones of coziness. This is prompted by the abundance of bright, sometimes colorful lights from holiday decorations, anticipation of spending time with loved ones, actually spending time with loved ones, the novelty of the glowing fireplace, newly lit for the first time in six months, and– I could go on indefinitely. You get my point. People get excited at the sight of any snow, even passing flurries. Outfits with multiple layers (including outerwear) are carefully chosen in advance, based on the forecast and how much time one might be spending outdoors that day.

Hazy Urban Winterscape on a January Morning

Christmas comes and goes. Then New Year’s does the same. By the time that the street sweepers are vacuuming up the last bits of of aftermath from the New Year celebration in Times Square, ugly winter is already starting to set in. Within a week, most of the lights and decorations have been decommissioned for the season, removed and stored away. Christmas trees leave trails of dead pine needles in every elevator and hallway from the Boogie Down to Staten and back, making their way out to the curb, where their browning carcasses litter the sidewalks. Instead of glee, groans are elicited by any hint of snow in the forecast. The wind feels colder, making our bones ache as we drone toward the subway for the evening commute.

Ugly winter peaks somewhere around the first week of February. Things start to look up from there. For the stalwart self-improvers, comes the satisfaction of having stuck with their new year goals for an entire month. Looking at the calendar and seeing less than 28 days until March somehow assuages the trauma of ugly winter and slogging through it for a few more weeks starts to feel very doable. March will bring cherry blossoms and budding leaves back to the barren trees. It’s a very nice mental image. For now, we’ll put our heads down and soldier on through the bitter cold bleakness that is ugly winter.