November 2024
January 2025
[2025] January
The First Month
In the evening sky Perseus is high overhead in the Northeast, while Orion lords over the Southern Sky. The Milky Way is seen spread from the
Northeast to the Southwest. During the early morning hours, Virgo lounges in the
Southern sky, following Leo. On the 1 st , the crescent moon will be low on the horizon,
with Saturn to its upper left and a very bright Venus beyond Saturn.
The Quadrantids, a moderate meteor shower, can best be seen on the predawn Morning of the 4 th , looking North. On the 10 th the moon is in conjunction with Jupiter. On the 13 th , an occultation occurs with the Moon and Mars (at its brightest!) in the Eastern sky between 7 and 8
PM.
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Moon Phases
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First Quarter 6 th day
Full Moon 13 th day Animals lose their fat
moon (O’odham)
Last Quarter 21 st day
New Moon 29 th day
Moon Signs
Best Time To:
Bake: Jan 12,1
Brew: Jan 21-23
Begin diet to lose weight: Jan 19,24
Plant above ground crops: Jan 3-5,31
Plant belowground crops: Jan 21-23
Best Fishing Days (moon between new and full): Jan 1-13, 29-31
January has 31 days.
“January is the quietest month in the garden. But just because it looks quiet doesn’t
mean that nothing is happening.” Rosalie Muller Wright
January Weather
“The cold of January keeps you inside so that you have time to dream.” Unknown
Tucson Weather Averages For January(1991-2020)
Record High 88 (1/4/1927)
Record Low 6 (1/7/1913)
Record Daily Precipitation 2.63 (1/19/1916)
Record Daily Snow 4.3 (1/16/1987)
January Flora and Fauna
Normally dry washes may have short-lived floods in heavy rains. Desert Plants are sucking up as much water as they can from winter rains.
Woody plants are preparing to bud. Annual desert wildflowers and grasses are growing.
Fremont cottonwoods start budding and may bloom. Packrats begin their breeding
season. White tailed deer are mating. Harris hawks are laying eggs.
Notable January Dates:
January 2, 1909: Birthday of Barry Morris Goldwater, politician, businessman and author who was a five-term Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States in 1964 (d. 1998).
January 8, 2011: Attempted assassination of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona at a Safeway grocery store kills 6 and wounds 13, including Giffords.
January 10, 1837: Birthday of Larcena Pennington Page was a 23 year old American pioneer who was kidnapped, wounded, and left for dead by Apache natives in Arizona. Unable to stand, she crawled 15 miles (24 km) over the next sixteen days to reach safety. She later became a founder and president of the Arizona Historical Society. (d. 1913).
January 12, 1923: Birthday of Ira Hayes, Pima Native American soldier, born in Sacaton, Arizona (d. 1955).
January 17, 1917: Birthday of Ulysses Simpson Kay, American composer (Jubilee, Frederick Douglas), born in Tucson, Arizona (d.1995).
January 18, 1905: Birthday of Joseph Charles Bonanno Sr., Italian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family and lived it Tucson (d.2002).
January 20, 1929: 1st talking motion picture shot outdoors, "In Old Arizona."
January 24, 1875: Birthday of Maynard Dixon, an American painter whose body of work focused on the American West. He was married for a time to American photographer Dorothea Lange and spent most of his later years in Tucson (d. 1946).
January 29, 1927: Birthday of Edward Paul Abbey, author (Desert Solitare, The Monkey
Wrench Gang) and essayist who lived in Tucson (d.1989).
January 29, 1947: Birthday of Samuel Pearson “Terry” Goddard III, an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the Mayor of Phoenix from 1984 to 1990, on the Central Arizona Water Conservation District from 2001 to 2003 and as the 24th Attorney General of Arizona from 2003 to 2011.