March 19, 2016 Night

As we head into the 10 o’clock hour, we are right about freezing on this moonlit night. Despite the moonlight, the stars are pretty nice. There is a slight northwest breeze this evening but really quite pleasant for mid-March. About 3/4rd of the Waxing Gibbous Moon is visible tonight until around 3:30 in the morning. The low tonight is expected to be around 19 degrees which is about 8 degrees below normal. 11 hours and 48 minutes of darkness tonight.

Tomorrow will start out sunny but with increasing clouds as the day progresses. Sunrise tomorrow is around 6:55 AM but darkness will fade away about an half hour earlier. Cool day on tap tomorrow, the mercury is expected only to reach 40 degrees, which is about 7 degrees below for the first day of spring. Temperatures back in the fifties for the second half of the week. The snow storm heading up the coast may bring some clouds and maybe a flurry to Albany, but for the most part I think it will be a non event for us.

Save the Pine Bush Hike is tomorrow at 2 pm. I’m leading it from Blueberry Hill East at 13 Columbia Circle near the Kiddie Academy. It’s at 2 pm. It should be a nice hike, even if the clouds start to prevail by later in the afternoon.

So tomorrow is the first day of spring. 30 days left until tax day which happens to be April 18th this year due to a federal holiday. I’ve done my taxes but I owe the state $200. But on a more positive note, April 18th has an average high of 60 degrees which would be nice after the recent frigid weather. Civil twilight aka full darkness doesn’t come on that day until 8:11 pm. Day length grows quickly around that first day of spring.

Decided to dump the blog post templates I’ve been using in recent months to get back to a more free-form blogging style. They were convenient but didn’t really save much time, and just seemed literally scripted, because they were. I did put together an internal portal, so I could easily reference the weather data I needed for my blog posts.

Went for my evening walk. While not real warm out, it still is pretty pleasant. I can’t complain about the weather and the later sunsets but I still wish summer would be here sooner than later.

Left my laptop at my parent’s house, which means I can’t upload the photos I took today. Kind of annoying. I don’t use my laptop that much anymore now that I have my Smartphone, but I do need it to transfer photos from my camera to my phone and for map creation purposes. Oh well. It’s much more devastating to not have a working phone. That said, I had a pretty nice St. Patrick’s Dinner at my parents house. I did Sunday dinner a day early due to the possibility of snow tomorrow evening.

All and all I think it was a pretty good Saturday, even if it got off to a lazy start.

March 19, 2016 Afternoon

Good afternoon.Β It has warmed up a bit this afternoon to about 42 degrees, but that windchill is still a little bit cool around 35. There is a west-northwest wind around 13 mph. Tonight will be mostly clear and around 18 degrees. Cooler then recent, about 10 degrees below normal.

This afternoon the sun will be setting around 7:08 PM which is 1:09 later this yesterday. Tonight we lose about 2:54 in darkness compared to yesterday. Should be a good evening for looking at the moon if you bundle up, with about 75% of the Waxing Gibbous Moon illuminated until 3:48 AM. The Full Worm Moon is on Wednesday.

It was a nice afternoon hiking, a bit somewhat cool.Β The good news is warmer butΒ rainierΒ weather isΒ expected for the second half of the week.Β 

Have a great evening!

Holt Preserve

This afternoon I’ve been exploring the Holt Preserve. Nice little preserve, some nice broken views of surrounding lands. Sometimes these little obscure preserves are nice, especially for leg stretchers and observing wildlife.

34 degrees and a stiff wind, pushing the windchills into the upper 20s. But lots of sunshine.

I’ll be posting some pictures later on today.

March 19, 2016 morning

Good morning, Happy Saturday. Cold start to this morning, around 26 degrees but clear. Later today look for a high of 42 with a few clouds creeping in, which is about 4 degrees below normal. Sunset tonight is at 7:07 pm, which is 1 minute and 12 seconds later then yesterday. Civil twilight when it gets hard to see outside is 7:38 pm tonight. 12 hours and 8 minutes total of daylight today.

The latest models show the winter storm pushing further off the coast, so continued cool but sunny weather for Sunday with a high only around 40. Some clouds may push in during the evening but precipitation seems increasingly unlikely. Winter has mostly kicked the bucket, the first day of calendar spring is Sunday.

13 years ago today was the start of the Iraq War. It seems like it was just yesterday. How quickly things change. Fortunately, it seems like this chapter of American history has rapidly come to a close but it reminds us to be wise towards selection of our president.

No real plans for today, but I’m thinking about going for a walk along the new Normans Kill bike trail for a bit. Or I might go somewhere in the hill towns for a hike. We will see.