August 31, 2017 Morning

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Good morning! Tonight is the first 7:30 PM sunset of autumn season. August is basically done. And in only three weeks to Average High is 70. Autumn is really coming quickly. Overcast and 62 degrees in Albany, NY. There is a west-southwest breeze at 6 mph. The dew point is 57 degrees. The skies will clear around 1 pm.

Today will have isolated showers. Partly sunny, with a high of 72 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 59 at 10am. Northwest wind 6 to 11 mph increasing to 12 to 17 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. It was sticky. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1953.

The sun will set at 7:30 pm with dusk around 7:59 pm, which is one minute and 42 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly clear conditions and 65 degrees. The dew point will be 50 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 9 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 46 degrees at 5am. 11 degrees below normal. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 41 occurred back in 1967.

This morning I got my hair cut, and let me landlord into the apartment. The dripping faucet in the tub is being fixed today.  That’s one less thing to worry about for me. I won’t have to keep things as clean, as I await the landlord. The hair cut is done so I won’t have long hair to get all icky if I decide to head out of town for the long weekend — which seems increasingly unlikely with the rain expected on Sunday. If it was Saturday or Labor Day, I might just do a two day trip, but now it looks like all day rain on Sunday. Or maybe I will go out to the Green Mountains for just Friday into Sunday. I’d rather get away before it gets cold out.

On this day in 1965, Super Guppy took it’s first flight. The Aero Spacelines Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft that is used for hauling outsize cargo components. It was the successor to the Pregnant Guppy, the first of the Guppy aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, which in turn was named for its resemblance to a pregnant guppy. Five were built in two variants, both of which were colloquially referred to as the “Super Guppy”.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Average High is 70 when the sun will be setting at 6:53 pm with dusk at 7:21 pm. On that day in 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 80 and 58 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 70 degrees. We hit a record high of 95 back in 1895.

August is Closing Out

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Duly Noted:

1) Today is the final day of August.
2) Labor Day is Monday.
3) Tonight the sun will set at 7:30 PM
4) Three weeks from now the average high will be 70 degrees.
5) Three weeks from Friday will be Autumn.

Yellows

Major Chemical Plant Near Houston Likely to Explode, Facility Owner Warns

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Harvey Danger: Major Chemical Plant Near Houston Likely to Explode, Facility Owner Warns

Don't worry, be happy!

"One of the world's largest chemical companies warned Wednesday that its flooded plant near Houston will likely catch fire and explode in the next few days — and there's nothing the company can do about it."

"Arkema Group's plant in Crosby, Texas — about 20 miles northeast of Houston — was inundated by more than 40 inches of rain by Hurricane Harvey and has been without electricity since Sunday, the company, based in Colombes, France, said in a statement."

"The plant manufactures organic peroxides commonly used in everyday products like kitchen countertops, industrial paints, polystyrene cups and plates and PVC piping. The materials must be kept very cool, but refrigerators for the plant's low-temperature containers are out of commission, and backup generators were also swamped, meaning "the potential for a chemical reaction leading to a fire and/or explosion within the site confines is real," the company said."

PCB removal project did not work

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DEC: PCB removal project did not work

"The EPA has failed New York."

"Those were the words of state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos Wednesday. He was on the banks of the Hudson River, where he says General Electric has come up woefully short of cleaning up PCB contamination."

"It wasn't just the DEC commissioner who was blasting the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental leaders and elected officials up and down the Hudson River were shooting seething salvos across the bow of the nation's top environmental watchdog."

August 30, 2017 Evening

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Good evening! Mostly sunny and 75 degrees in Albany. There is a west-northwest breeze at 7 mph. The dew point is 51 degrees. Not a terrible evening. Sunset is too early though to go to the library. Going to relax tonight then decide tomorrow if I’m going out camping this weekend. 

A little bit of traffic on 787 tonight but it will be really bad come next week. Once school is back in session, traffic will be really heavy getting out of the city, although since the traffic light timing was improved it seems like things are going a lot better. 

The sun will set at 7:31 pm with dusk around 8:00 pm, which is one minute and 42 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for mostly clear conditions and 70 degrees. The dew point will be 52 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 6 mph.

Tonight will be mostly clear, with a low of 57 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. Maximum dew point of 55 at 11pm. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming south after midnight. In 2016, we had partly cloudy skies. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 37 occurred back in 1965.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon with 76% illuminated. The moon will set tonight at 1:42 am. The Full Moon is on Tuesday night. The sun will rise at 6:18 am with the first light at 5:49 am, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 10 hours and 48 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 46 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be scattered showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 10am. Partly sunny, with a high of 74 degrees at 3pm. Four degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 58 at 10am. Southwest wind 5 to 13 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1953.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Saturday, sunny, with a high near 72. Maximum dew point of 48 at 8pm. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 61 at 2pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 77 degrees. Definitely going to be a cool weekend for the long Labor Day Weekend. The real question is how things will play out with the hurricane. I don’t want to get soaked camping. 

In four weeks on September 27 the sun will be setting at 6:42 pm, which is 49 minutes and 24 seconds earlier then today. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, heavy fog, fog, shallow fog, patches of fog, mist, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 72 and 52 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 68 and 47 degrees. The record high of 84 degrees was set back in 1998.

Looking ahead, Harvest Moon is Next Wednesday, 6:30 PM Sunset is in 5 weeks, Coldest Day of Year (Avg. 14-30 degrees) is in 19 weeks and Inaugeration Day 2021 is in 177 weeks.