Good morning! Happy Thursday after the Snow Storm. 🌨 Thanks to the Corona there are no more snow days but also no more buses to tromp through 👢 in the snow Next Thursday is Christmas Eve 🎅. Snow and 17 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ There is a north breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 4. Things will start to thaw out at Sunday around noontime. 🌡️Long cold period ahead but my apartment is eaem

Honestly I am not impacted by the storm 🌨, as I don’t have to go anywhere today as I’ll work from home. 🏡 I do dig out my truck. I did knock the snow off my truck and later on today I’ll pull off the tarp and shovel off the truck. 🚚 This evening I’ll probably go out for my walk once the sidewalks are plowed. It’s a lot of snow but so be it. The Adirondacks didn’t get a lot snow although more than expected but I don’t think I’ll get up there for camping 🏕 at least not until Christmas Day. 🎄🎅🏻❄

Work has been busy the past few days 📝, but I’ve been getting good at moving files 📂 between my phone and laptop. I actually prefer using my phone over the computer because I can carry it around in my hand 🖐🏻 and I’m not forced to be chained to a desk. 🔗 Next week I have to renew my phone 📱 plan and I’m going to month to month and I will then have 20 gb of Hotspot data for things I can’t do through my phone. 📶 I expect another busy day, I have an afternoon meeting and more plans to review.

Today will snow, mainly before noon. The snow could be heavy at times. 🌨 High of 23 degrees at 12pm. 12 degrees below normal. North wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 59 was set in 1984. 11.1 inches of snow fell back in 1970.❄

Going to be cold the next few days. ❄ But except for digging out my truck and my morning and evening walks 🚶🏻 I don’t have to leave home. My heat is working well this year, and that little heater I bought the other day quickly takes the chill off the room and when used occasionally it doesn’t cost that much to operate – according to my Kill-a-Watt meter. Obviously it wouldn’t work with my inverter or solar power but when I have my own land I’ll have a woodstove for heat. ♨

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:53 am with sun having an altitude of 24° from the due south horizon (-46.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (230°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 4:55 pm, which is 20 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the south-southwest (210°) at an altitude of 20° from the horizon, 238,365 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:32 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 22 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 18 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy ☁️, with a low of 11 degrees at 6am. Nine degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around 3 at 5am; North wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2019, we had light snow in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 14 degrees. The record low of -9 occurred back in 1919.

I am continuing to experiment with the 3D mapping 🗺 feature of QGIS. I’m thinking about doing some snow ❄ depth maps. Among other things that I can do with the technology. I kind of wish I had regular internet at home for WMS streams 🌐 so I could do more renderings using aerial photos

The other day I downloaded the first volume of the Foxfire Book 📙 and have been reading it on my phone. I actually like reading books on my phone – the pages flip like a book but my phone is lightweight and fits in a single hand.

Today in 1777 during the American Revolution, France formally recognizes the United States. 🍟 Now we celebrate 🎉 with freedom fries in PFOA lined containers although not for much longer.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 28. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.

As previously noted, next Thursday is Christmas Eve 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm with dusk at 4:58 pm. On that day in 2019, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 42 and 25 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 72 back in 2015.