Weather Review: Aberdeen, Maryland; Baltimore; New York, and points between, January 2, 2022

MIST HAD STAYED on through the night from the day before, clinging in the spaces between the trees in a new year still awaiting its first bright morning. Above St. Paul Street, a white smudge showed where the sun might be. Car tires hissed on the lingering wet pavement in the mostly empty streets. By the time rehearsal and church were over, there were open patches overhead, and squeegee guys were out on Moravia Road as if the time for wipers were safely over. But the sunlight didn’t last past lunch, and chunks of gray cloud like cobblestones weighted the sky over the Turnpike. A brooding ink-blue spilled over the late afternoon; the children in the back seat tried to place the oppressive gloom: Blade Runner, Avengers: Endgame, the siege of Gondor. The sky was not so low as to touch the city proper, sharp and twinkling in the distance in its layer of clear air. The wind at the Vince Lombardi rest stop was gathering strength. It was time to swap the rain jacket for the parka while unloading the suitcases, before bringing back the rental car. Fat and widely scattered raindrops found the windshield.