January 5, 2017 10 PM Update

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Good evening! Snow flurries and 27 degrees in Delmar. There is a south-southwest breeze at 6 mph. The skies will clear tomorrow around 10 am.

Tonight will be light snow picking up  between 1am and 3am. Cloudy, with a low of 20 degrees at 5am. Five degrees above normal. Southwest wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 5 degrees under mostly clear skies. The record low of -19 occurred back in 1996.

First Quarter Moon tonight with 53% illuminated. The moon will set around 2:24 am. The Full “Wolf” Moon is next Thursday. The sun will rise at 7:25 am with the first light at 6:53 am, which is 7 seconds earlier then yesterday. Sunrises are finally starting to get earlier. Tonight will have 14 hours and 47 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 1 minute and 8 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of light snow before 11am, then a slight chance of snow showers between 11am and noon. Partly sunny, with a high of 27 degrees at 1pm. Four degrees below normal. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies and a high of 34 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 2007. 12.7 inches of snow fell back in 2002.

A nice weekend coming up with slightly below average temperatures. Saturday, a slight chance of light snow after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 24. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 22. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

In four weeks on February 2 the sun will be setting at 5:11 pm, which is 34 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had partly sunny skies and temperatures between 46 and 29 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 15 degrees. The record high of 53 degrees was set back in 1981.

Looking ahead, Ground Hog Day is in 4 weeks, Cinco de Mayo is in 4 months and Start of June is in 21 weeks.

Normal January Weather Ain’t Great for Camping

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While this will shock nobody, I’ve come to the realization that normal January weather ain’t great for camping. There is a lot of snow, it is cold, and the nights are very long – nearly 15 hours of the day.

Last winter was exceptional. There was relatively little snow, what snow we had was more ice then snow. Camping when you have snow measured in inches rather then feet is a whole different beast. Many days last year in January had temperatures close to November or March norms then that of January.

I like spending nights out in the woods. I like having fire, looking up at the stars in the woods. I like traveling to different places. But with more typical January weather then last year, I recognize this may be a month where camping is not to be. That doesn’t mean I won’t take some day trips, but I also won’t spend tons of time camping in the backcountry.

But come March or maybe early to mid April, depending on how harsh the winter will be, I do plan to be back out. And certainly be May things will start getting nice, assuming the black flies aren’t that bad. There is bug spray for that. Eventually the backwoods road will open come June, and it should be a quite nice summer once again.

I kind of lucked out last year with the weather. But I guess a good cold, snowy winter isn’t that bad of a thing. It gives my truck a chance to relax, and for me to have more time at home to work on my blog and other things not in the wilderness.