On December 16, 2015, Ward Stone, former NYS Wildlife Pathologist, spoke at the Save the Pine Bush dinner. You can listen below, or visit the Save the Pine Bush Website for details.
September 20, 2017 Morning
Good morning! What day is it? A rather gray and cloudy Hump Day, of course. But warm and somewhat humid. Two weeks to 6:30 PM Sunset. Mostly cloudy and 64 degrees in Albany. There is a north breeze at 10 mph. The dew point is 61 degrees. The skies will clear around 6 pm.
Big articulated bus to take us downtown today. No bus yesterday, because the driver said he was quite delayed due to an accident blocking Interstate 90. Apparently he got the station but after I got a ride in with Colleen. So that’s fine.
Today will be mostly cloudy, with a high of 79 degrees at 4pm. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 4pm. North wind 10 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 84 degrees. The record high of 90 was set in 1946.
The sun will set at 6:54 pm with dusk around 7:22 pm, which is one minute and 47 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly cloudy conditions and 76 degrees. The dew point will be 64 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 12 hours and 13 minutes of daytime, an decrease of 2 minutes and 51 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 62 degrees at 5am. 12 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 6pm. North wind 6 to 9 mph. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1973.
The weekend still looks pretty nice, but really warm. I would like to see some of the colors in the Adirondacks, but I also think I may want to find some place that’s good for swimming. I’m thinking about taking Monday off, but I haven’t made the decision on that. I’ll decide tomorrow. Definitely going to be Indian Summer to kick off calendar autumn. Maybe Moose River Plains, but if I do that, I will have to pack and go shopping on Thursday night, so I can at least drive to Warrensburg not in the pitch black. I would like to spend a long weekend enjoying the colors. It will suck going the rest of the way in the dark, but I can drive slowly. I rather get up there late on Friday night then drive up in Saturday,
I still need to swap the wires on the CB radio, so that the 87A pin works to power the floor lights in the truck but it’s difficult with the sun setting so early. Last night I got stuck in the city until well after dark due to a family issue, and I was pretty tired by the time I got home. Maybe today I should run up to Advanced Auto at lunch, to get the crimp connectors, heat shrink, and more wire tires. I am also pretty low on food at home, as I didn’t go shopping last night, because I got home so late. Transferring buses to get home is a pain, but I didn’t want to walk in the dark down Holland Avenue, which even in the day time, can be quite empty.
Tonight is the Save the Pine Bush Dinner. Amanda Dillon, Field Ecologist from the the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission will speak about Wild Bee Species and Insects in the Pine Bush. It should be a good dinner, especially with a new cooks who make some very tasteful lasagna. Everybody liked the lasagna that Reszin made since before I was born some 35 years ago, but time had to move on, and Reszin going on her ninth decade needed a break.
As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until 6:30 PM Sunset when the sun will be setting at 6:30 pm with dusk at 6:58 pm. On that day in 2016, we had cloudy skies and temperatures between 69 and 53 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 65 degrees. We hit a record high of 86 back in 1891.
Indian Summer
"An early American writer described Indian Summer well when he wrote, "The air is perfectly quiescent and all is stillness, as if Nature, after her exertions during the Summer, were now at rest." This passage belongs to the writer John Bradbury and was written nearly an "eternity" ago, back in 1817. But this passage is as relevant today as it was way back then. The term "Indian Summer" dates back to the 18th century in the United States. It can be defined as "any spell of warm, quiet, hazy weather that may occur in October or even early November." Basically, autumn is a transition season as the thunderstorms and severe weather of the summer give way to a tamer, calmer weather period before the turbulence of the winter commences."
"The term "Indian Summer" is generally associated with a period of considerably above normal temperatures, accompanied by dry and hazy conditions ushered in on a south or southwesterly breeze. Several references make note of the fact that a true Indian Summer can not occur until there has been a killing frost/freeze. Since frost and freezing temperatures generally work their way south through the fall, this would give credence to the possibility of several Indian Summers occurring in a fall, especially across the northern areas where frost/freezes usually come early."
Thisel
Sun Rises Over Camp
Mitchells Pond Mountain
Harmful algal blooms plague Owasco, Skaneateles, Cayuga lakes
"Prestigiacomo said the hub is looking at temperature, light availability, nutrients, salinity, pH and other kinds of data to try and determine what might be triggering the blooms. He referred to storms in July, which created "episodic pulses of nutrients followed by long, warm, kind of stagnant conditions like we're seeing now," a good formula for creating blooms. The forecast for at least the next week looks much the same."