July 24, 2017 Night

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 63 degrees at the Finger Lakes National Forest outside of Watkins Glen. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. The dew point is 60 degrees. The skies will clear Wednesday around noontime. 

It almost feels a bit cooler with the breeze. The lower dew point and the mostly dry evening is making up for the deluge we got yesterday. 

Maybe there is some hope for some sun during vacation but so far I haven’t seen blue skies or sun for more than five minutes at any period. It hasn’t been that wet except for that deluge we got Sunday evening that was so wet that for a while water was flowing into the truck cap past a seal like one of those cows piss. One of the seals leaks by one of the drains in heavy rain and I’ve not figured out the leak. I through a tarp over the truck cap so I can hopefully block that leak again tonight should we get a severe storm. 

The campsite I camped in the first two nights at the Finger Lakes is still underwater from last evening. I guess that site up on Burnt Hill is not well drained despite being at one of the highest elevations in the Finger Lakes, near the microwave radio tower, now cellphone tower overlooking the big hill as you head into Watkins Glen from the east om NY 79. The campsite, at least the road and cow pasture had great views of Dundee and Glendora Winery, especially at sunset and after dark with all the distant lights on houses and farms. But I didn’t like how you couldn’t back all the way into the site but instead had to park in the driveway which was shared parking with the Interlaken Trail.

Sunday I went to the Watkins Glen Pool which was nice but not as much landscaping or at least not as many flowers I’m bloom at the Terrace Garden. I think they are doing more native landscaping this year which is nice but I missed the colors. At least everything isn’t so dried out this year. The flowers in parts last year looked like they were struggling with the drought despite regular watering. The pool was a nice temperature but I wish there was more sun. Made bisquick biscuits for dinner with chilli which was good and finished up before the deluge. I did have a campfire for a while but I didn’t dare use the electric lights at all with standing water everywhere. I suspect that the a short in the water would probably trip the reset on the inverter but it really doesn’t take much 120 volt current to kill. Only maybe 100 milliamps and my big inverter can put out 9,000 milliamps or so. I had a campfire from the dry wood I salvaged from the flood but I quickly retired to bed when I realized how lame it was to be sitting in the one section that wasn’t a giant puddle by the fire pit and that’s the way the smoke kept blowing. 

I took down some of camp before the flood and continued more on Monday. Nothing serious got wet but I ended up sleeping in late in my truck because I could see rain on the radar and didn’t want to get caught in a big rain storm with the tarp only covering the flooded section of the campsite. 

Moved back to my old favorite campsite on Chicken Coop Road. Now vacant I could set up my permanent base for the rest of the week. This campsite is much better sloped so flooding is not likely to be a problem, however we did have a relatively quick down burst and a few of the wetter sections did pool up but nowhere I set up gear. As this will be my home base through Thursday or Friday – and maybe the weekend, I pitched a tent for empty boxes and dirty clothing storage and removed the kayak from the roof of my truck. I want to go kayaking once it’s nice but I also don’t want to drive around town with the kayak on the roof if I could avoid it.  

Went down to Foster Pond for fishing. Didn’t catch a think just like one of the locals said would happen. Still it was a nice walk and Foster Pond is quite scenic even if it’s just a pretty generic pond. Plus I have better cellphone reception up there than at camp and I wanted to check my email. 

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly after 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 61 degrees at 4am. Two degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 61 at 10pm. Northwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 67 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1953.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon. The First Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with mostly cloudy skies. The Strugeon Moon is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 5:52 am with the first light at 5:20 am, which is 58 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 9 hours and 18 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 55 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a chance of showers, mainly before 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 64 degrees at 3pm. Cold day. 19 degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 8am. Northwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. The high last year was 89 degrees. The record high of 97 was set in 1963.

Cool this weekend with temperatures running 8 degrees below normal but otherwise sunny. Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 73. Maximum dew point of 60 at 5pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Maximum dew point of 63 at 8pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 82 degrees.

In four weeks on August 21 the sun will be setting at 7:58 pm, which is 36 minutes and 30 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 85 and 66 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 80 and 59 degrees. The record high of 98 degrees was set back in 1916.

Looking ahead, Mutts Day is Next Monday, Strugeon Moon is in 2 weeks, State Fair Opens is in 1 months, Labor Day is in 6 weeks, September 11th is in 7 weeks, More Night Then Day in Albany is in 9 weeks, Columbus Day is in 11 weeks, Christmas is in 22 weeks, January 1, 2018 is in 23 weeks and 35th Birthday is in 27 weeks.

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