January 13, 2008 - Bottoming Out Welcome to the Nature Notebook. Even though the hours of daylight have been increasing since late December it is still winter. Since mid-July when we reached the hottest days of the year, daily temperatures have been in a steady decline. Starting late this week temperatures bottom out as we experience what are normally the coldest days of the year. This cold spell usually lasts from the 18th through the 29th. After that the thermometer creeps slowly upward to warmer times. With the long cold spell in January, it is no wonder Native Americans referred to January as the month of the ice or cold moon. Even without thermometers, they were well aware of icy cold days this time of year, a time when the world was locked in ice and snow. And like us, they knew warmer days were coming. This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.