August 7, 2017 10 PM Update

Good evening! Light rain and 62 degrees in Delmar. There is a east-southeast breeze at 6 mph. The dew point is 60 degrees. 0.16 inches of rain is expected before it ends.

Tonight will be scattered showers before 5am, then patchy drizzle after 5am. Cloudy, with a low of 60 degrees at 5am. Two degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 10pm. Southeast wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 59 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1948.

Tonight is the Sturgeon Moon. The Last Quarter Moon is next Monday with partly cloudy skies. The Harvest Moon is on Tuesday, September 5th. The sun will rise at 5:54 am with the first light at 5:23 am, which is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 9 hours and 48 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 23 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have patchy drizzle before 9am, then isolated showers after 9am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high of 74 degrees at 3pm. Seven degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 8am. Northwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 95 was set in 1983.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. Saturday, a chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 66 at 4pm. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 65 at 5pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 81 degrees.

In four weeks on September 4 the sun will be setting at 7:23 pm, which is 43 minutes and 53 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 80 and 54 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 77 and 56 degrees. The record high of 97 degrees was set back in 1929.

Looking ahead, Labor Day is in 4 weeks, September 11th is in 5 weeks, More Night Then Day in Albany is in 7 weeks, Columbus Day is in 9 weeks, Election Day 2017 is in 3 months, Christmas is in 20 weeks, January 1, 2018 is in 21 weeks and 35th Birthday is in 25 weeks.

What Are Those Squiggles of Tar on the Road?

What Are Those Squiggles of Tar on the Road?

"Spend a good amount of time driving, especially in rural areas, and you've probably noticed those messy-looking black squiggles that cut across asphalt road surfaces in what seems like haphazard fashion. But rest assured that they're not simply the result of some sloppy tar work by a road crew that decided to have a few beers before the end of the shift."

"Instead, what you're noticing is crack sealing. It's a time-honored technique for remedying the damaged road surfaces, without inflicting even more pain upon taxpayers by tearing up and repaving the entire road."

Why Global Warming Is Making It Worse

The Nitrogen Problem: Why Global Warming Is Making It Worse

"It t is a painful lesson of our time that the things we depend on to make our lives more comfortable can also kill us. Our addiction to fossils fuels is the obvious example, as we come to terms with the slow motion catastrophe of climate change. But we are addicted to nitrogen, too, in the fertilizers that feed us, and it now appears that the combination of climate change and nitrogen pollution is multiplying the possibilities for wrecking the world around us."

"A new study in Science projects that climate change will increase the amount of nitrogen ending up in U.S. rivers and other waterways by 19 percent on average over the remainder of the century β€” and much more in hard-hit areas, notably the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (up 24 percent) and the Northeast (up 28 percent). That’s not counting likely increases in nitrogen inputs from more intensive agriculture, or from increased human population."