March 24, 2016 Night

Good evening. Thursday evening about 45 degrees and cloudy. With the coming front that is bringing rain it was blustery and cold earlier in the evening when I went down to the park for a while. I ended up leaving before dark as I was getting chilled through. Regardless, the days are getting longer and warm weather can’t be far away. Already many of the trees locally are starting to bud up. Might drop to 31 in city tomorrow night but other than that the next week will be above freezing.

The rain is moving slowly to the east but it’s expected to reach us by most certainly by 6 AM and maybe at 3 or 4 AM. Sunrise was at 6:47 AM, and the rain will taper off some time between noon and 3 pm. Gradual clearing in the evening. A high around 58 tomorrow.

I am thinking of going camping tomorrow, somewhere local in the woods, in a tent or lean-to where I have good cellphone reception as I’m on call this weekend. It should be a nice weekend but a bit chilly, so I’ll end up hauling my propane heater in the woods to stay warm. But that’s fine, I’m not looking to go that far back.

March 24, 2016 Evening

Good evening. What a surprisingly delightful evening with temperatures around 59, dropping about a degree from the high of 60. Mostly clear this evening although there are some high clouds that give the sky a hint of gray. Definitely going down to park for a while this evening. Clouds creep in around 9 or ten, and rain comes in around 11. There is a 90% chance of rain by morning. But the sun will be back by mid afternoon on Good Friday.

Tonight sunset is at 7:13 pm with darkness around 7:41. The days are getting longer quickly. The Waning Gibbous Moon will rise around 8 pm, although tonight it will still appear largely full. I think the Waning Gibbous Moon is creepy because the shadow is on the opposite side then you would expect it to be.

I got out of work a bit early, so I went down for a walk to Albany’s Corning Preserve. It worked out well, I was able to catch the bus down by the old Union Station without much waiting.

Talk about a nice spring evening in late March…

March 24, 2016 midday

As I noted yesterday, by mid-day today we would see some blue skies. We do have some blue in the sky but also a lot of haze and some high clouds, giving the sky a grayish hue. 55 degrees in Albany currently. The air is dry with a 29 degree dewpoint. I could see us reaching 58-59 degrees by 4 or 5 PM today and maybe even a bit more blue skies before clouding up and rain showers late in the evening. I expect similar conditions tomorrow — cloudy and maybe of a chance of rain tomorrow — then some blue skies mid-day, except tomorrow I think we will have mostly clear skies by evening.

Six weeks from now will be Cinco de Mayo. Which has nothing to do with mayonnaise, but a lot to do with good Mexican drinks and food. Darkness that night, when sipping your cold springtime beverages, is 8:05 PM. With an average high of 57 degrees, it will be nice out on the patio or out back. Cinco de Mayo was toasty back in 1977, when people where listening to Abba and Elton John on an 87 degree afternoon.

Have a great afternoon!

March 24, 2016 Update

How is your morning going? Mine fairly well, although I was running a few minutes late, so my walk down to the Park and Ride was more of a sprint then a walk. We are now up to 34 degrees as we head up to 53 degrees around 4 or 5 pm. That’s 5 degrees above average. Still cloudy out this morning and the breeze is more northerly than motherly as my earlier post suggested. Auto correct.

Transit of the sun is at 1:01 pm again today and sunset is at 7:13 pm. 12 hours and 23 minutes of daylight. Waning Gibbons Moon, 96% illuminated, rising around 8:30 pm in the southeast. I don’t know how much we will see of the moon with clouds and rain showers expected this evening. But very mild, around 47.

Today in 1989, the Exxom Valdez ran aground in Alaska, setting off one of the worse oil spills in history, permanently coating vast sections of the Alaska wilderness. They spent billions cleaning it up but the disaster continues to impact the ecosystem and haunt people about the dangers of oil extraction and transportation.

Happy Birthday to the late Governor Thomas Dewey, the organized crime fighting prosecutor who went on to be governor until his retirement in 1954. He is most remembered for the NYS Thruway, which is names after him and was a priority of his administration. He also created what would become SUNY under Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

March 24, 2016 Morning

Good morning. Another cloudy and dark start to a day. 33 degrees with a light northerly breeze. 30% chance of rain showers this morning then mostly cloudy this afternoon. 53 degrees for the high. Then rain comes for the evening with a low around 47. Rain for the first half of Good Friday then gradual clearing.

You can’t control the weather but you can control your attitude towards it.