Day: January 21, 2020

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Back to work after the long holiday weekend. Presidents Day is four weeks off and maybe by then the cold and snow will moderate although that’s probably not likely to happen as it’s been a pretty warm winter so far and that’s subject to change in the sense that it needs to balance out. Three weeks to Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day . Just hose it on down and spread it on the fields. Sunny and 8 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. With the sun and lack of breeze doesn’t feel real cold outside but it will probably be windy downtown as it always is. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around noontime.

Despite the cold, I didn’t wear a suit jacket under my outer-coat, as I left one in the office last week. Feels kind of strange not to be wearing it, but you wouldn’t know under the overcoat. I figured why have two in the office right now, the one I have at work is clean enough, and I can wear it home tonight after work. Last year I left a jacket at work and had one I rode back and forth on the bus and to after work receptions, but I don’t think that’s necessary until it’s warm enough that I’m wearing the suit jacket back and forth on the bus without the outercoat, then I’ll reserve the suit jacket for that time of year.

Today will be sunny , with a high of 26 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. Northwest wind 3 to 5 mph. Cold compared to later in the week but not terribly cold for mid to late January. Warm enough, I turned the heat back a bit because with the sun it will override, and I don’t need to be heating an empty building too much, especially if it’s warm enough come the evening. Gotta save money where you can. A year ago, we had light snow in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 5 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 2006. 7.2 inches of snow fell back in 1990.

Solar noon is at 12:07 pm with sun having an altitude of 27.4° from the due south horizon (-43.4° vs. 6/21). The golden hour starts at 4:11 pm with the sun in the southwest (236°). The sunset is in the west-southwest (243°) starting at 4:51 pm and lasts for 3 minutes and 15 seconds with dusk around 5:24 pm, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. The best time to look at the stars is after 5:59 pm. At sunset, look for partly sunny skies and temperatures around 26 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 34 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 55 seconds over yesterday. We are gaining sunlight quickly.

Tonight will be partly cloudy , with a low of 13 degrees at 6am. One degree below normal. Maximum wind chill around 19 at 9pm; Calm wind. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 0 degrees.  That’s no temperature, right? Lol. Or is there something broken in my software that reads the temperature records? I should investigate. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1984.

This evening after work I’ll run to the store and get more drain solvent as the drain is clearing but still much too slowly. Annoying that I forgot to buy it as I hate driving on weekdays but the store ain’t more than a five minute drive from home. Been keeping water out of the drain, capturing it in a bowl so that when I add solvent it won’t be too diluted. With all the sun today, I expect that relay will be activated and both the starting and accessory batteries will be fully charged when I go to turn the key. The voltage switch works well, but often I find the shadows of the trees with the low sun angle don’t make up for the losses when charging a cold battery.

Rain and snow this weekend but generally quite mild with temperatures feeling more like March than January. Saturday, a chance of rain and snow after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Sunday, rain and snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

Pine Bush Hike is Saturday as is the March for Peace downtown against Iran. Might lead the hike and catch a bus downtown. It would be fun to join the protest and I could use my peace flag, that I don’t display all that often but might have more of a chance in the coming year. I wish they would do the vigils later at Four Corners, but they’re now at 4 PM on Monday due to the early sunset, so I don’t get out of work in time to join them. Standing up against the war in Iraq is important.

Only 58 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day when the sun will be setting at 5:21 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. On that day in 2019, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 33 and 18 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1981.