Mild winter
I've said in previous posts that we've been having an above-normally warm December thus far, and it's mainly because there is no snow on the ground. When we have snow on the ground, the ground albedo is very high (albedo is the percentage of solar radiation that reflects off the surface), thus there is little melting because the solar radiation that does reach the ground is then reflected by the snow. Because the snow isn't able to melt, the air near the snow stays cold. This creates a temperature inversion, which is when the air temperature is warmer aloft (normally it cools with increasing altitude). Inversions are quite stable and stick around until a relatively large storm system blows through and mixes it up. We get terrible inversions in the winter because we're often dominated by a ridge, or area of relatively high pressure, resulting in few storm systems that "blow out" the inversions. Inversions are associated with really bad air quality because the pollutants aren't able to "mix out" due to the stable layer.
Anyway. I basically just told you all of that so you know why my outfits aren't that wintery yet! We usually have some snow on the ground to give us an inversion and the cold temperatures associated with it, but we haven't had a big storm yet. I'm perfectly happy wearing some of the fall outfits I hadn't gotten to! I've been obsessed with this outfit since I thought of it a few months ago. Ivory, olive green, and cognac are a winning color combination! :) And I've been wearing this sweater pretty much nonstop the past few weeks.
