January 9, 2018 Night

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 25 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a northwest breeze at 6 mph. The current wind chill is 13. Cool yes, but compared to recent nights not too bad. I mean I walked down to Stewart’s to buy milk this evening and didn’t even wear anything besides my hoodie. Like a hoodlum but in blaze orange. I don’t want to get shot, I’ve heard from another hunter that lead poisoning sucks. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 17 degrees at 5am. Three degrees above normal. Mild!  Maximum wind chill around 9 at 6am; West wind 3 to 6 mph. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 17 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1968.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 37% illuminated.The moon will rise tomorrow at 1:27 am. The New Moon is on Monday night with a slight chance of freezing rain then chance of rain/freezing rain. The Wolf Moon is in 3 weeks. The sun will rise at 7:24 am with the first light at 6:53 am, which is 15 seconds earlier than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 42 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 23 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 33 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees above normal. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the morning. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 38 degrees. The record high of 55 was set in 2016. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 1984.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Saturday, rain likely before 4pm, then rain and snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 41. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 21. Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

That’s pretty mild, although Sunday will be fairly cold especially up north and even colder for Martin Luther King Day. But I still might try to get camping. I could camp locally but I think I’d rather head up north. I should think about my options some more. I do like going up to the Adirondacks. 

I hooked up the Max7219 module I bought, and flashed several messages across it. I think it will be a lot of fun, especially combined with a HC-5 Bluetooth chip so I can control from my phone or maybe laptop if I ever get Bluetooth working in Linux on it. A real time clock chip like the DS3231 would make it easy to flash messages based on the time and day, and countdown clocks. That chip also has a temperature sensor which compensates the crystal to get accurate time readings and can provide the inside temperature easily. Lots more electronics projects to build before the end of the winter. I’ll probably order more of the max7219 modules from China, so I can get them for only a few bucks making it cheaper to make more projects and give them away. 

Went down to the library for a short while, mostly just for the walk. 

In four weeks on February 6 the sun will be setting at 5:16 pm, which is 35 minutes and 3 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 33 and 25 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. The record high of 55 degrees was set back in 1991.

Looking ahead, National Pie Day is in 2 weeks, Lame Duck Day is in 4 weeks, Independence Day is in 25 weeks, Election Day 2018 is in 43 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 147 weeks.

Only 135 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!

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