Good evening! Cloudy with mist and 38 degrees in Johnsburg. There is a west-southwest breeze at 6 mph. Not fantastic weather for camping but it sure beats being home. Route 8 is a bit noisy but most of the rain stayed west. I got a tarp up and a pretty warm campfire but I’ll be the first to admit that I wish it still was summer with much longer nights and warmer temperatures. Well, six months from tonight will be Memorial Day Weekend. So I’m happy about that. 

Tonight will have a slight chance of rain showers before midnight, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between midnight and 2am, then a slight chance of snow showers after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 29 degrees at 6am. One degrees below normal. Northwest wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2016, we had patches of fog and mist in the evening with a few breaks in clouds by early morning. It got down to 35 degrees. The record low of -11 occurred back in 1938. That was 

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon with 45% illuminated with the moon setting at 10:45 pm. The moon will rise tomorrow at 12:43 am. The First Quarter Moon will be tomorrow with partly cloudy skies. The Cold Moon is on Sunday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 7:03 am with the first light at 6:32 am, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 42 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 44 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of snow showers before 11am, then a slight chance of snow showers after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 32 degrees at 2pm. 12 degrees below normal. Northwest wind 9 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had light rain and mist in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 43 degrees. The record high of 67 was set in 1979. 9.6 inches of snow fell back in 2014.

All and all it was a pretty nice day. It was a bit cool and west in Spectulator so I headed back to camp on the East Branch, where it had clouded up and we had some mist, but at least it wasn’t raining. I was thinking about hiking that fairly new trail to Indian Lake but not in the rain. I also decided against camping at Mason Lake because I remember that road being fairly steep and I didn’t want to go down it when it ices up come morning. The campsite on NY 8 is nice, and it’s only a short flat drive back to the road. Cooked more pizza up, set up tarp and gathered a bunch of firewood for the long cold night ahead. It’s not as cold as I feared as the valley where this campsite is well protected from the wind but based on the forecast by morning I expect it to be fairly cold. Hopefully I will have enough propane come morning. I didn’t set up a a tent because I think the back of my truck will be plenty warm and I’m not how much propane is left in the tank. 

In four weeks on December 23 the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm, which is 53 seconds later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 45 and 29 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 19 degrees. The record high of 64 degrees was set back in 1990.

Looking ahead, Christmas is a month away, The Day the Music Died is in 10 weeks and Memorial Day Weekend Starts is in 5 months.