Good evening! Cloudy, occasional rain showers and damp from the severe thunderstorms that came down earlier, now around 69 degrees in Delmar. There is a southwest breeze at 9 mph. The dew point is 64 degrees. Much cooler now. The skies will clear tomorrow around noontime.

I survived the Corporation Challenge. Traffic wasn’t as much grid lock as years past, but the bus was running about 15 minutes late but I made it home by 6 pm. 

I had a quick dinner and went to the lecture by Applied Environmental Services about the $30 million landfill mitigation project they are administering for the city. They are claiming amazing results with all this wildlife coming back since they’ve planted diverse natural species in the former trailer park. The regional director for AES flashed all kinds of impressive stats on the screen but he didn’t have much background on the restoration. Certainly this has been a very profitable project for his company and its good they’re trying to restore the trailer park but I’m skeptical but we will see. Still it’s good that the trailer park is being added to the preserve. 

The Discovery Center really wreaked of smoke, from the control burn they did right up to the building. They said they shut off the air handling equipment before the burn but the smoke still made it into the building and its pungent. Smelled like my winter coat after spending a cold night hovering over a smoldering campfire in the middle of winter. It will provide a wonderful example of a controlled burn for the thousands who come to the Lupine Festival on Saturday. Hopefully it won’t be so pungent then.

The thunderstorm driving home was quite neat with tons of lighting but the viability was bad and I accidentally blew through a traffic light that was without power. I saw the road flares and the cops car but in the heavy rain I didn’t notice the light was out. I didn’t get a ticket or in a crash so it’s not a big deal but the driving conditions were poor even if the lightening was impressive. I am going to post a YouTube video tomorrow of the lighting from my dash cam. Very cool.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before midnight, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 63 degrees at 5am. 15 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 10pm. Southwest wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2016, it got down to 49 degrees with rain and partly cloudy skies. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1981.

Last Quarter Moon tonight with 48% illuminated. The moon will rise around 12:13 am. The New Moon is next Thursday. The Full “Strawberry” Moon is on Friday, June 9th. The sun will rise at 5:28 am with the first light at 4:56 am, which is 55 seconds earlier than yesterday. I am going to draw the curtains again so I don’t wake so early. Tonight will have 9 hours and 12 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 54 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high of 73 degrees at 12pm. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 6am. West wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had rain, partly cloudy skies and a high of 70 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 1989. There was a dusting of snow in 1976.

An almost picture perfect weekend on tap but maybe a bit cool. Saturday, sunny, with a high near 69. North wind 3 to 6 mph. Maximum dew point of 40 at 8pm. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 71. Maximum dew point of 45 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 71 degrees. A bit cool for me but summer will be here before you know it. 

It will be great weather for the lupine festival, but really a bit chilly up in the Adirondacks. Next weekend I will be out camping for Memorial Day Weekend but that also looks cool with some showers but not a wash out. But the forecast could change better or worse in the next ten days.  If it continues to look so cold, I’ll bring the heater to warm myself up. We have a Save the Pine Bush Hike on Sunday that I will attend, along with packing my gear. I’m glad that I don’t have to go to New York City this weekend. Sometimes luck just works out. 

In four weeks on June 15 the sun will be setting at 8:35 pm, which is 20 minutes and 40 seconds later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 83 and 51 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 78 and 57 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1988.

Looking ahead, June 1st is in 2 weeks, Father’s Day is in 1 month, Average High of 80 is in 5 weeks, National Fried Chicken Day is in 7 weeks, Hottest Day of Year (83 Average) is in 8 weeks, Ugly Truck Day is in 9 weeks, State Fair Opens is in 14 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset is in 15 weeks, Average High is 70 is in 18 weeks, Hunter’s Moon is in 20 weeks and Thanksgiving is in 27 weeks. I still like turkey.