December 13, 2016 Night

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Well, good evening. How was your day? Mine was good, I had dinner at the Asian Tea House bistro with the parents then went out to Capital Lights in the Park. Definitely got a lot more lights there in the park then years past. Makes me want to walk over to the park and down to the Lake House and walk around the lake to photograph them.

Cloudy and 36 degrees now in Delmar. Light breeze from the south. Went for my evening walk around the block and it’s not a bad evening out there. Full cold moon is not visible behind the clouds. Shoveled around the driveway to clean up a bit around my truck, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the landlord had plowed the driveway. A low around 27 is expected tonight. Much colder tomorrow night, so I’m glad I did my evening walk today. 

I was hoping to tape the PBS Newshour but that was not to be, as the power strip that the DTV converter box was plugged in was unplugged. Tomorrow I’ll catch the News Hour. Tonight I’ll just listen to the BBC News as I go to bed on New England Public Radio. 

If we are lucky with the sun by 1 pm tomorrow, we may reach 30. But otherwise look for a cold temperature with that arctic blast coming in with temperatures dropping to 15 by evening. Sunrise tomorrow is at 7:17 AM in Albany. 

A few special days to look forward to in the coming weeks include Valentines Day is in 9 weeks, Spring is in 14 weeks, Average High is 50 is in 15 weeks, Tax Day is in 18 weeks, Average High is 70 is in 22 weeks and Independence Day is in 29 weeks.

Give Trump a Chance

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I get annoyed by the constant attacks on President-elect Donald Trump on social media and in the mainstream media. Many are totally unnecessary and unfair to judge a man who has not even yet been formally sworn into office – and just suggests an unwillingness on the part of some liberals to change and try different ideas to solve our nation’s problems.

We had eight years of a fairly successful run by President Obama. He got a lot done, but there is a lot of unfinished businesses. We should give the President-elect a chance to address these concerns and put his stamp on the presidency. I don’t know if his ideas will work out – many of his positions differ from my own – but it’s worth a chance to see what he can accomplish. Many of the problems our nation faces aren’t going to be solved by purely a liberal or conservative solution, but will addressed by a variety of solutions creatively applied.

Change is a good thing. While I think my preferred candidate for the president, Jill Stein, would have been a better chief executive for our country, I’m open to see what President-elect Donald Trump can get done – and I’m not willing to reject his alternative ideas simply because he has different solutions to our nation’s problems then what my own political party, the Democrats, have  proposed.

December 13, 2016 Evening

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Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 37 degrees in Delmar. There is a south breeze at 6 mph. The skies will clear tomorrow around 5 am.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy, with a high of 37 degrees at 5pm. Two degrees above normal. South wind around 6 mph. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 61 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1901. 12.5 inches of snow fell back in 1956.

The Full Cold Moon is tonight at 12:05 am. We will have a chance of snow before 1am, then a slight chance of snow showers between 1am and 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 27 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. South wind 6 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2015, it got down to 44 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -5 occurred back in 1898.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. That’s an understatement. Saturday, snow before 4pm, then sleet. High near 35. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Sunday, rain and snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 44. Chance of precipitation is 60%.Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.

Traffic is all jammed up going north bound on the 787. Southbound doesn’t seem that bad. Lately it hasn’t been so bad, probably because a lot of state workers take time off around the holidays. 

Going out to dinner with my parents this evening then to see the lights in the park. Should be a nice evening. Not too cold and hopefully the flurries will hold off until later. 

December 13, 2016 11 AM Update

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In four weeks on January 10 the sun will be setting at 4:42 pm, which is 20 minutes later then today. In 2016 on that day, we had fog, rain, thunderstorm and temperatures between 55 and 37 degrees. That is the warmest it’s ever been recorded on that day in January. Typically, you have temperatures between 30 and 14 degrees.

October 2016 minus October 2015 Unemployment Rate

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Has unemployment gotten better or worse in the past year in most communities in our state? This map tries to answer that question. In most regions of the state the unemployment picture has gotten better with fewer people looking for work, but growth is uneven. The bright spots are Montgomery County/Amsterdam and Riverhead in eastern Long Island. On the other hand, Johnstown has seen it's unemployment rate increase, and unemployment has ticked up slightly in Niagara Falls, North Tonawada, and Lewis County.

December 13, 2016 8 AM Update

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Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Mostly cloudy and 33 degrees in Delmar. There is a west breeze at 6 mph. Looking at the Heldebergs from the Park and Ride, with the clouds and snow, looks very wintery. A bit of sun is peaking out now, more is expected to push through later, before clouding up with snow showers in the evening.

Figured I better walk down to the Park and Ride today,  as with the cold that is coming tomorrow, I suspect today will be last day of the week I’ll be walking down there. Maybe not. I’ve done the walk in 12 below, but the wind is the big question. I must prefer to walk down to the express, just for the exercise and the smoother ride on the express bus, but I won’t do it if the weather is too miserable or I have to wear my suit to work. Wore the blaze-orange Thermaline hoodie that I love, not because it’s pretty, it’s not, but it’s so warm. Really too warm for today, but I didn’t want to wear my fancy over coat, and still haven’t gotten my winter coat yet.

Today will have a slight chance of snow showers after 3pm. Partly cloudy, with a high of 38 degrees at 1pm. One degrees above normal. But enjoy it while it lasts. Frigid weather comes this evening. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming south in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 52 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1984. 14 inches of snow fell back in 1915. By any standard, that’s a lot of snow.

The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 13 seconds later than yesterday. Now a minute later, at least in the sense of the minute hand for the sunset. No longer 4:21 pm sunset. Today will have 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 32 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly before 10pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal. South wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. In 2015, it got down to 44 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -5 occurred back in 1898.

Looking ahead to February, there are 9 weeks until Valentines Day when the sun will be setting at 5:27 pm with dusk at 5:55 pm. On that day in 2016, we had sunny skies and temperatures between 8 and -13 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946. Tuesday holidays are pretty rare, although Valentines Day really isn’t a holiday in the sense you don’t get it off from work.

Very happy about the second laptop charger that I got for my laptop. I ordered it on Friday and it was at my door yesterday afternoon, mailed from California. Pretty nice. Like the ad said on Ebay, it’s clearly a genuine HP charger just like the on it came with. Supposedly refurbished but it was packaged like it was brand new. Fit and works perfectly. Now I don’t have to bring the charger back and forth to work.