Good evening! Mostly clear with the full moon and 67 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 6 mph. The dew point is 60 degrees.

Today has a pretty quiet day. Until about an hour ago, I stayed home, did some reading, working on my computer, writing some code, and studying some different things. The weather was so unstable I didn’t really want to plan on anything outside, lest I get caught in a severe thunderstorm along way. We had on and off downpours today until almost dusk. If it had been nicer I might have gone somewhere but I decided with the bad weather it wasn’t worth it. I  am also trying to avoid going out, burning gas or buying things in the grocery store, until I can get my budget a little bit more in control, and I get paid next Tuesday. I have a lot of miscellaneous food at home that I have bought for camping and at home, I should eat before I spend more money on food. I went down to the park for a while so I could upload some maps and now I’m sitting out back enjoying the moonlit skies. I kind of wished that it had cleared earlier because it would have been a a fun night at the Harvey Mountain Leanto which I had been thinking about doing earlier on this weekend before I saw the forecast. 

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 58 degrees at 6am. Three degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 10pm. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1963.

July’s Buck Moon tonight with 100% illuminated. The sun will rise at 5:26 am with the first light at 4:52 am, which is 43 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 8 hours and 52 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 9 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be sunny, with a high of 82 degrees at 3pm. Typical for mid July. Maximum dew point of 57 at 6pm. Light west wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high that day was 68 degrees. The record high of 103 was set in 1936.

In four weeks on August 5 the sun will be setting at 8:09 pm, which is 24 minutes and 49 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 86 and 66 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 61 degrees. The record high of 99 degrees was set back in 1955.

Tomorrow I may head out hiking somewhere. Maybe the Catskills, I’m thinking about it. I haven’t done all that much hiking lately so it might be fun. Kayaking or fishing might also be quite fun. Or maybe I’ll stay local and hike like the Holt Preserve and save the gas for a future weekend. That might be a good idea although I should get out and do stuff before it gets cold out again. 

Cracked phone screen is annoying as shit. I decided to buy a LG Sunset Smartphone to replace my broken Moto E. I’ve always hated that Moto E, because it has so little memory, so half the time I don’t get emails or messages, unless I delete the cache. I had to remove Facebook App and Facebook Messenger, so I have a minimal amount of free memory, and could only access Facebook via the webbrower. But I really did like the FM Radio tuner, as I use it non-stop at night to listen to the radio (as I don’t have WiFi at home) and when I’m at camp. And the camera phone with it’s fixed lens sucks for taking even the most basic pictures and uploading them to instagram. 90% of the pictures I took with the Moto E were out of focus and generally crappy.

The LG Sunset phone has as FM Radio Tuner which seems stupid but that’s a big reason why a bought it. It also is a 4G LTE phone, so it will be much faster then my 3G phone, and it’s has an autofocus lens, so it should take much better pictures, at least quick snaps along the way for Instagram. I look forward to once again sharing my adventures in real-time. So I’m looking forward to picking up FedEx early next week. They require a signature to get it, so I will end up driving up to Colonie, but that’s fine, because I want to see if I can get a few more dress shirts at the Sears Going Out of Business sale, assuming they’re still open. If not, maybe it’s an excuse for a wonderful walk at the Albany Pine Bush in the evening?

Definately going to buy a screen protector and case for the Smartphone so I hopefully won’t break this one so quickly. I am tough on phones, so I never spend more then $50 on them. But I get so much use out of them, listening to music, using them as my primary device to access the Internet at home and when I’m out and about. It also provides navigation in the wilderness and a way to update my blog, when I don’t have WiFi service at home.

Looking ahead, Cow Apprechiation Day (Moo?) is Next Saturday, Hottest Time of Year Ends (83 Average) is in 2 weeks, National Lasagna Day is in 3 weeks, Last Sunset After 8 PM is in 5 weeks, National Dog Day is in 7 weeks, Lowville Cream Cheese Festival is in 10 weeks and Beaver Moon is in 17 weeks.

We are now just past the longest nights of the year and the warmest weather of the year typically comes next week. And in another 8 weeks we are into September and we start to slip into autumn with greatly shorter evenings and dropping temperatures, accelerating around September 21st…

Get out and enjoy the summer while it’s still here.

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! Next Saturday is Cow Apprechiation Day. Times of clouds and sun and 68 degrees in Delmar. There is a south breeze at 6 mph. The dew point is 67 degrees. The skies will clear around 1 pm after the front comes through.

Today will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 9am. Some of the storms could produce small hail, gusty winds, and heavy rain. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, after the front comes through mid-day it will become partly sunny, with a high of 81 degrees at 2pm. One degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 9am. Dew points in the fifties by afternoon. South wind 6 to 13 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had rain, mist, mostly cloudy skies and a high of 83 degrees. The record high of 100 was set in 1936.

I have made no real decisions on today but I’m inclined to stay in town today and go hiking maybe tomorrow. Maybe head down to the Catskills tomorrow for North South Lake. Then maybe do some fishing from the kayak and hike North Mountain. Or maybe not, the trail may be very saturated. I could also decide to go fishing tonight and maybe hike somewhere locally or camp somewhere in the woods tonight. I’ll figure it out as the day progresses. 

The sun will set at 8:34 pm with dusk around 9:08 pm, which is 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly clear conditions and 74 degrees. The dew point will be 63 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 7 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 59 degrees at 5am. Two degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 6pm. West wind 6 to 11 mph becoming light after midnight. In 2016, it got down to 64 degrees with thunderstorm and thunderstorm rain and rain and drizzle and mist and cloudy skies. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1963.

As previously noted, next Saturday is Cow Apprechiation Day (Moo?) when the sun will be setting at 8:30 pm with dusk at 9:04 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain, patches of fog, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 91 and 69 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 83 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1997.