While it’s been pretty cloudy lately, as we head into February we are going to see more sun and blue skies, although don’t expect many crystal clear days — clouds will be mixed in the blue skies. We will be running a few degrees below normal compared to temperature normal, but I would rather have more then cloud but mild days.

Thursday we will have the first sunset after 5:10 PM in Albany of the year, and by Sunday, dusk won’t come until quarter of six. We are putting on more then two minutes of daylight every day now, and come Wednesday, we will have 10 hours of daylight and 14 hours of night.

Weather Summary
This Afternoon.	Partly Sunny and	31 degrees	,	5:08 sunset.
Tonight.	Partly Cloudy and	16 degrees	,	7:08 sunrise.
Tuesday.	Chance of Light Snow and	29 degrees	,	5:08 sunset.
Tuesday Night.	Light Snow is likely and	22 degrees	,	7:07 sunrise.
Wednesday.	Chance of Snow Showers then Chance of Rain/Snow and	38 degrees	,	5:09 sunset.
Wednesday Night.	Mostly Cloudy and	22 degrees	,	7:06 sunrise.
Thursday.	Partly Sunny and	30 degrees	,	5:10 sunset.
Thursday Night.	Partly Cloudy and	13 degrees	,	7:05 sunrise.
Friday.	Partly Sunny and	26 degrees	,	5:12 sunset.
Friday Night.	Partly Cloudy and	13 degrees	,	7:04 sunrise.
Saturday.	Partly Sunny and	27 degrees	,	5:13 sunset.
Saturday Night.	Partly Cloudy and	11 degrees	,	7:03 sunrise.
Sunday.	Partly Sunny and	28 degrees	,	5:14 sunset.

Twenty seven degrees as I catch the local that I almost missed downtown. Sun peaking out a little to the east.The bus was running early and me late but the driver waited for me so I didn’t have to make 9:30 walk of shame into the office. I’m hopeful that we will see more sun as the day progresses on our Monday. Still thinking we will have temperature around thirty by later. 

Tomorrow I promise myself I’ll do more get going at an earlier hour. That said I got a pretty good night’s sleep last night. Little groggy this morning at first but now I feel fully rested. Hopefully the Ground Hog will say early spring this year, so I can have those windows open for a good night’s sleep but we won’t know until Thursday morning. As the sign in Punxsutawney says, the Punxsy has a legendary 100% accuracy. I know that the weathermen disagree but who do you believe? A scientist or a Western Pennsylvania farm pest? We know which one Donald John Trump would trust. Those scientists have an agenda. Ground hogs just want to rooting around in the plowed fields sunning themselves on a sunny day like hopefully today. 

The sun will set at 5:07 pm with dusk around 5:37 pm, which is 1 minutes and 19 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 57 minutes of daylight, an increase of 2 minutes and 19 seconds over yesterday. Wednesday will have ten hours of daylight. Nights are getting shorter as we head towards spring. Still in the next eight weeks, we need to pick up another two hours of daylight as the spring equinox occurs. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 16 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. In 2016, it got down to 36 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The record low of -26 occurred back in 1948.

Looking ahead,  there are 3 weeks until Presidents Day when the sun will be setting at 5:34 pm with dusk at 6:03 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain, snow and temperatures between 62 and 35 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1930.

“Always identify your target and what is beyond it.”

With that advice, let’s kick off our Monday. Good morning. The sun, that yellow circle of heat, rarely seen, is peaking out to the south and it’s twenty four degrees. There is a west-northwest breeze at 5 mph.

Cool but pleasant weather to kick off the last week of January… 

Today will be mostly sunny, with a high of 29 degrees at 12pm. One degree below normal. Northwest wind 5 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies and a high of 40 degrees. The record high of 56 was set in 2013. 11 inches of snow fell back in 1966.