Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Next Friday is 7 PM Sunset 🌆. Partly cloudy and 30 degrees at the Elm Ave Park & Ride – CDTA. ⛅ There is a east-southeast breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. A pretty decent morning although clouds are already pushing in.

Taking a well running but old hybrid bus 🚍 to work today. I really like it when they run the hybrid buses on the express route as they ride really smoothly in highway speed driving 🚥 especially when they slow at the traffic lights. It’s not a hard stop ⛔ like with the normal air brakes. Looking forward to seeing more electric buses in the future.

Today will have a chance of light rain, mainly after 5pm. Mostly cloudy 🌞, with a high of 47 degrees at 3pm. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 22nd. Northeast wind 5 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 22 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1974. 10.5 inches of snow fell back in 1887.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:07 pm with sun having an altitude of 42° from the due south horizon (-28.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.7 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:14 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (257°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (264°) starting at 5:49 pm and lasts for 2 minutes and 55 seconds with dusk around 6:19 pm, which is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east (100°) at an altitude of 42° from the horizon, 230,904 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:53 pm. At sunset, look for rain showers 🌧 and temperatures around 45 degrees. Not a half bad Friday night – although next week will be Daylight Savings Time so the evenings will be even nicer. There will be a northeast breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over yesterday. Not long before more day than night.

Tonight will have a chance of rain and snow showers before 9pm, then a chance of snow showers between 9pm and 1am. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 24 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 11th. North wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2019, we had light snow in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 4 degrees. The record low of -6 occurred back in 1950.

Today in 1857, Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. 🏫150 years later the Republicans still talk about it and Democrats just point out what a terrible decision it was in the context of slavery, that particular institution that lead to a war. I can see both sides of the debate, I think sometimes people aren’t as open minded about at is as they should be.

Tomorrow will be partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny 🌞, with a high of 40 degrees at 3pm. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 5th. North wind 10 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 26 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1974. 10.3 inches of snow fell back in 1967.❄

Tomorrow I plan to hike out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center 🐸 bright and early. ☀ Then organize my camping gear. 🏕Then maybe go to Schodack Island State Park and finally buy groceries at Aldis in the evening 🛍 and wash my truck 🧽 and do some cleaning at home.

Looking ahead to Sunday, sunny, with a high near 57. South wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west in the morning. Don’t forget to set your clocks back, Sunday will fly by especially with such spring like weather. Typical average high for the weekend is 41 degrees.

Sunday morning I am joining some people for a walk in the Albany Pine Bush. 🚶 I might go right after that up to Thacher Park for another walk, maybe wearing my muck boots so my feet don’t get totally soaked up there, although they aren’t all that great for any kind of hiking, but they do keep my feet dry. Then out to the folks house for Sunday dinner. I wonder if they are doing barbecue? 🍔 Might be nice enough for that.

🌹🌻🌼Only 13 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼 Less then two weeks until it’s officially the equinox and we can start thinking about mud 🐽 and nicer weather maybe.

As previously noted, next Friday is 7 PM Sunset 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 6:59 pm with dusk at 7:27 pm (Daylight Savings Time). On that day in 2019, we had partly sunny, sleet and temperatures between 44 and 21 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 43 degrees. We hit a record high of 70 back in 2012.