August 1, 2017 11 AM Update

Good morning! Can you believe it’s already August? Already into the “Overdrive” of Summer. 81 degrees with haze and humidity, on our way up to 87 degrees later. Definitely feels like a summer day out there. Dew point is a sticky 66 degrees this morning.

Office picnic later, so I won’t be stuck in the stuffy office all day. I drove out to Stanton Fuera Farm and bought sweet corn and tomatoes this morning, and I have my big propane camp-stove and griddle, butter, and hot sauce to cook it all up. I also have my kayak so I may go for a paddle later.

The sun will set at 8:14 pm with dusk around 8:46 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly clear conditions and 79 degrees. The dew point will be 65 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 26 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 12 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have isolated showers and thunderstorms before 9pm. Patchy fog after 5am. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low of 65 degrees at 5am. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 10pm. Light and variable wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1976.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Altamont Fair Opens when the sun will be setting at 7:55 pm with dusk at 8:26 pm. On that day in 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 83 and 66 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 81 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1959.

Thousands of pigs roamed the streets of New York City in the 1800s, until gentrification drove them away. — Quartz

Thousands of pigs roamed the streets of New York City in the 1800s, until gentrification drove them away. — Quartz

"On his first visit to America in 1842, Charles Dickens found plenty to ridicule—America’s money obsession, their manners, their tobacco chewing habits. But the biggest target of Dickens’ humor was New Yorkers. Specifically, their pigs."

"Stepping onto Broadway, New York’s biggest commercial thoroughfare, Dickens encountered “two portly sows” and “a select party of half-a-dozen gentlemen hogs” among the brightly dressed ladies and a bustle of coaches. Even more than this strange sight of pigs roaming the city’s streets, Dickens was captivated by the free and easy swine lifestyle—a “roving, gentlemanly, vagabond kind of life.” Scavenging curbside trash in droves, New York’s wandering pigs were on “equal, if not superior footing” with humans—a model of self-sufficiency."

August 1, 2017 Morning

Good morning! August 1st. Two weeks to Altamont Fair Opens. Mostly sunny and 67 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. The dew point is 62 degrees.

Today will have isolated showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly sunny, with a high of 86 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 11am. Light northwest wind. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 74 degrees. The record high of 101 was set in 1933.