February 7, 2017 Evening

|

“Pretty darn wet out there this evening. But I got out of work by six, so I can’t complain. And I have frozen onion rings at home and they’re awesome. So I really can’t complain. And tomorrow is Hump Day and then it will be cruising along to the weekend in Direct Drive.”

Good evening! Fairly heavy rain and 33 degrees in City of Albany. There is a north-northeast breeze at 8 mph. The skies will clear tomorrow around 6 pm.

Tonight will continue to have periods of rain, mainly before 3am. Temperature rising to around 42 by 5am. Northeast wind 8 to 11 mph becoming south after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 25 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -16 occurred back in 1950.

Waxing Gibbous Moon tonight with 80% illuminated. The moon will set around 5:59 am. The Full “Snow” Moon is on Saturday night with mostly cloudy. The sun will rise at 7:00 am with the first light at 6:31 am, which is 1 minutes and 14 seconds earlier then yesterday. That extra light in the mornings is nice. Tonight will have 13 hours and 42 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 35 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have scattered showers, mainly before 7am. Mostly cloudy, with a temperature rising to near 48 by 9am, then falling to around 37 during the remainder of the day. Southwest wind 11 to 16 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 36 degrees. The record high of 52 was set in 1925. 14 inches of snow fell back in 1895.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. Saturday, a chance of snow before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, a chance of rain and snow before 1pm, then a chance of rain between 1pm and 4pm, then a chance of rain and snow after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 50%.Typical average high for the weekend is 34 degrees.

Once a get home, I look forward to cooking up those onion rings and watching the PBS Newshour. I probably won’t go down to the library tonight, although I guess it will depend how I feel at 7:30 and how heavy the rain is. I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs a bit. 

In four weeks on March 7 the sun will be setting at 5:52 pm, which is 35 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 52 and 31 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 41 and 22 degrees. The record high of 62 degrees was set back in 1974.

Looking ahead, Valentines Day is Next Tuesday, Spring is in 6 weeks, Average High is 50 is in 7 weeks, Tax Day is in 10 weeks, Average High is 70 is in 14 weeks and Independence Day is in 21 weeks.

Still Want to Get Camping

|

I still want to get camping, but the weather doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. I’m not going to go out on a frigid winter’s night, nor on a cloudy, dark depressing day. There needs to be enough snow that I can either drag my gear back in woods or I can drive my pickup back to some campsite. I need to make sure I get enough time to get started, to make sure I have the propane up and working, and warm enough so I can light the heater.

Morning at camp

Winter camping is just tough. It requires so much gear and a lot of variables. It can be done, and with proper planning can be quite successful – as witnessed from my Christmas Day trip. But so far, I’ve not been able to make all the conditions meet. Maybe the Ground Hog will prove to be wrong, and things will be mild enough, so I can get out camping some weeks in March. We will see.

February 7, 2017 – The Next Sixteen Weeks

|

We are still in the cold of winter, but it won’t last. You have probably been noticing how much later the sunsets have gotten later. But the mercury hasn’t been moving much. But once we get into the second half of February, mercury will be starting to climb as spring approaches.

After many weeks of mercury only increasing a degree a week, we will be see jump two degrees a week in late February, three degrees in early March then four degrees come the first week of spring. Average temperatures always rise most steeply around the first day of spring. The same is true with increases in daylight and time of sunset. Daylight Savings Time begins March 12th.

Week Date Dawn Sun-
rise		 Sun-
set		 Dusk Day Avg High Avg Low Record Hi Record Low
0 February 7 6:31 am 7:00 am 5:17 pm 5:46 pm 10:16 33 16 48 (2005) -18 (1995)
1 February 14 6:22 am 6:51 am 5:26 pm 5:55 pm 10:35 34 17 63 (1946) -13 (2016)
2 February 21 6:12 am 6:41 am 5:35 pm 6:04 pm 10:54 36 19 65 (1981) -10 (2015)
3 February 28 6:02 am 6:30 am 5:44 pm 6:12 pm 11:14 38 20 63 (1903) -10 (1950)
4 March 7 5:50 am 6:18 am 5:52 pm 6:20 pm 11:34 41 22 62 (1974) -6 (1950)
5 March 14 6:38 am 7:06 am 7:01 pm 7:29 pm 11:54 43 25 75 (1946) -6 (1948)
6 March 21 6:26 am 6:54 am 7:09 pm 7:37 pm 12:14 46 27 78 (1921) -1 (1956)
7 March 28 6:13 am 6:42 am 7:17 pm 7:45 pm 12:35 50 30 85 (1945) 3 (1923)
8 April 4 6:01 am 6:30 am 7:25 pm 7:53 pm 12:55 53 33 79 (1950) 14 (1954)
9 April 11 5:49 am 6:18 am 7:33 pm 8:02 pm 13:15 56 36 82 (2011) 20 (1874)
10 April 18 5:37 am 6:06 am 7:41 pm 8:10 pm 13:34 60 38 90 (1976) 21 (1948)
11 April 25 5:26 am 5:56 am 7:49 pm 8:19 pm 13:53 63 41 89 (2009) 23 (1965)
12 May 2 5:15 am 5:46 am 7:57 pm 8:28 pm 14:10 65 43 88 (2001) 29 (1974)
13 May 9 5:06 am 5:37 am 8:04 pm 8:36 pm 14:27 67 45 93 (1979) 27 (1956)
14 May 16 4:57 am 5:30 am 8:12 pm 8:44 pm 14:41 70 47 89 (1991) 33 (1980)
15 May 23 4:51 am 5:24 am 8:19 pm 8:52 pm 14:54 72 49 93 (1964) 36 (1967)
16 May 30 4:46 am 5:20 am 8:25 pm 8:59 pm 15:05 73 52 92 (1987) 33 (1967)

Springtime