January 17, 2017 Evening

Good evening!Β Rain and 32 degrees in City of Albany. There is a north-northeast breeze at 7 mph. The skies will clear Thursday around 4 pm. The rain is cold but things at this point aren’t that icy. Β A few minutes ago I switched on the new social media connector, which is working, but it still a bit buggy, causing things to be posted that shouldn’t be. But I think it’s fixed, or so I hope. It’s a Tuesday, hopefully things will be getting better as the week goes on.

Tonight will be icy. Look for rain showers, freezing rain, and sleet before 9pm, then freezing rain between 9pm and midnight, then rain showers and sleet after midnight. Low of 32 degrees at 6pm. 18 degrees above normal. But still cold enough to be slip sliding away. North wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100%. The good news is that little or no ice accumulation expected. Total nighttime sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 15 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1957.

Waning Gibbous Moon tonight with 61% illuminated. The moon will rise around 9:11 pm. The Last Quarter Moon is on Thursday night with mostly cloudy skies expected. The Full β€œSnow” Moon is on Saturday, February 11th. The sun will rise at 7:20 am with the first light at 6:49 am, which is 34 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 29 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 1 minutes and 50 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of rain showers, snow showers, and sleet before 7am, then a chance of rain and snow showers between 7am and 10am, then a chance of drizzle after 10am. Cloudy, with a high of 39 degrees at 2pm. Nine degrees above normal. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming light and variable. Should melt away a lot of the ice. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New snow and sleet accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 28 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1973. 7.9 inches of snow fell back in 1891.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap, but relatively warm. Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 42.Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

In four weeks on February 14 the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm, which is 36 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had sunny skies and temperatures between 8 and -13 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 34 and 17 degrees. The record high of 63 degrees was set back in 1946.

Looking ahead, Valentines Day is in 4 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day is in 2 months, Spring is in 9 weeks, Average High is 50 is in 10 weeks, Patriots Day is in 3 months, Tax Day is in 13 weeks, Average High is 70 is in 17 weeks and Independence Day is in 24 weeks.

China’s War On Coal Continues β€” The Country Just Canceled 104 New Coal Plants.

China’s War On Coal Continues β€” The Country Just Canceled 104 New Coal Plants.

Because China is such a behemoth, its energy decisions absolutely dwarf anything any other country is doing right now. Case in point: Over the weekend, the Chinese government ordered 13 provinces to cancel 104 coal-fired projects in development, amounting to a whopping 120 gigawatts of capacity in all.

To put that in perspective, the United States has about 305 gigawatts of coal capacity total. The projects that China just halted are equal in size to one-third of the US coal fleet. It’s potentially a very, very big deal for efforts to fight climate change.

Bubbling Up Old Posts

I’ve been debugging the new social media connector for my blog for about three weeks now, and it seems like there is some bugs in it — as witnessed by all these old photos bubbling up. Hopefully the bug is fixed now, but sorry for spamming people’s feeds.

I’m deleting as many of the incorrect posts as possible.

January 17, 2017 Afternoon

Fans of the big sun ball over head won’t be a fan of the latest forecast for the Albany-area, but the salt from tonight’s rain/sleet mix will make the tin worm hungry come the second half the week.Β Friday is our best chance for sun.Β We are creeping closer to the fabled 5 PM sunset which will occur a week from Wednesday.

Weather Summary
This Afternoon. Wintry Mix and 34 degrees , 4:51 sunset.
Tonight. Rain/Sleet and 33 degrees , 7:20 sunrise.
Wednesday. Chance of Wintry Mix then Chance of Rain and 38 degrees , 4:51 sunset.
Wednesday Night. Slight Chance of Rain/Snow and 32 degrees , 7:19 sunrise.
Thursday. Slight Chance of Rain/Snow then Slight Chance of Showers and 43 degrees , 4:52 sunset.
Thursday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 29 degrees , 7:18 sunrise.
Friday. Partly Sunny and 43 degrees , 4:54 sunset.
Friday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 30 degrees , 7:17 sunrise.
Saturday. Mostly Cloudy and 41 degrees , 4:55 sunset.
Saturday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 31 degrees , 7:17 sunrise.
Sunday. Mostly Cloudy and 42 degrees , 4:56 sunset.
Sunday Night. Mostly Cloudy and 31 degrees , 7:16 sunrise.
Monday. Chance of Rain/Snow then Chance of Showers and 43 degrees , 4:57 sunset.