A week out from the coldest on average week in Albany, days have started to get longer, especially in the evening. Slowly but surely the temperature will start to rise out of the cold of winter, especially once February and March get underway, with much warmer weather the norm come the spring months of April and May. The news in the next few weeks may be depressing, but it’s certain to get better.

Good morning! Today is the Latest Sunrise of the Winter 🌄! Six weeks to Valentines Day or as I used to call it Valente’s Day. ❤️ Snow showers, partly cloudy  around 34 degrees in Delmar. ❄ There is a southwest breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. Not a terrible morning, actually quite mild for January. As usually is the case in winter, temperatures will drop below freezing at around 8 pm. ☃️

This morning was pretty dark, but somehow I managed to eat breakfast relatively quickly, 🥞 shower, 🚿 and make it down to the express bus 🚌 this morning. It was a bit tight time-wise but it got done. Having that clock in the kitchen makes it much easier to keep track of time while I’m making breakfast. I know I probably should have put a clock in my kitchen a long time ago, but finally I done it. I feel like it will last for a long time, and was a good use of $4.

Today will have a chance of rain and snow before noon, then a slight chance of rain between noon and 1pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 41 degrees at 12pm. 10 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 7th. Southwest wind 8 to 16 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had sunny skies and a high of 22 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1913. 12 inches of snow fell back in 2003.❄

The sun will set at 4:34 pm with dusk around 5:06 pm, which is 55 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 38 degrees. There will be a west-northwest breeze at 13 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 9 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 55 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 27 degrees at 6am. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 19th. West wind 5 to 9 mph becoming south after midnight. In 2018, we had clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 14 degrees. The record low of -15 occurred back in 1904.

Yesterday was a late night at work, doing plan edits. 🗒 But that’s fine as it meant I avoided the evening rush hour traffic going home. 🚏 Made for a real easy commute, and I got home and made some fish and onion rings, then went for my evening walk, then to bed. I was kind of tired, as it seems like I’ve had a low-grade cold for a while. Speaking of that, I really should get my flu shot this weekend. I keep putting that off, but it takes a few weeks to be effective, and I saw an ad for that on the bus this morning.

Might also look at getting a hair cut because my hair is getting shaggy and starting next week, dress up time returns to work.🕴 I also need to think about getting some new dress shoes.👞 I’ve been looking at Zappos and online ordering, because it’s a bit cheaper then Supershoes or a similar brick and mortar retailer, and you have much more selection, and don’t have to burn gasoline to get there.

Looking ahead, there are 6 weeks until Valentines Day ❤️ when the sun will be setting at 5:26 pm with dusk at 5:55 pm. On that day in 2018, we had mostly cloudy and temperatures between 45 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 63 back in 1946.