Good morning! Happy Saturday. Get out and enjoy it before the clouds take over! 🌥 Next Saturday is Snow Moon 🌕 . Partly cloudy and 21 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. There are 9 inches of snow on the ground. ☃

Picked up a few inches of snow yesterday morning, and now it’s quite sunny. Been cool and dry enough that the roads are clear, although there was a car smashed into a tree the last night when I was out for my walk. Didn’t seem that icy on the asphalt but maybe the driver was speeding, distracted or maybe they did hit a patch of ice. They were already in the process of towing it away when I was out walking.

Yesterday, was a pretty quiet work from home day. Things have been working well with the hotspot on my phone, I’ve managed the data well and actually have extra data I’ll probably end up wasting when my plan resets on Monday. But I also don’t want to run out in advance, so I’ve been careful, especially last week after I accidentally used mobile data when I thought I was on the Wi-Fi. On the whole though, I think this is way to go in the future when I own my own land, although I probably won’t keep the hotspot in the mean time once the library re-opens for in-person use and I’m working downtown again where they have Wi-Fi internet in the office. That said, in the mean time, between my unlimited phone data for video conferencing and legislative session streaming I can pretty much work from anywhere in the woods. I learned I can set a custom virtual background on the phone app

Today will have isolated snow showers after 1pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 32 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 5th. Northwest wind 9 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, which became partly cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 31 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1930. 11.2 inches of snow fell back in 1977.❄

This morning looks pretty nice. But with clouds expected later, I think my plan will be to walk out to Five Rivers and then the Van Dyke Preserve like I did last week. Always a nice walk, and it doesn’t involve motoring. Figure save the miles and wear and tear on my truck for the summer when I can be actually up in the woods drinking beer and burning things. I also haven’t touched a beer since December 31st. I figure save my limited funds and it’s healthier to not drink. There is enough snow for skiing, but I’d rather walk out there, and not take my skis. If the snow is too deep for walking there, I’ll just stay primarily on the roads. It’s fun seeing the cows chew their cut on Meads Lane too.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 36.6° from the due south horizon (-34.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:55 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (250°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (256°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:34 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 59 seconds with dusk around 6:02 pm, which is one minute and 16 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon in the south-southeast (150°) at an altitude of 68° from the horizon, 249,818 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:36 pm. At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 28 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 11 mph with gusts up to 21mph. Today will have 10 hours and 49 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have isolated snow showers before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear 🌧, with a low of 15 degrees at 6am. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 5th. Maximum wind chill around 6 at 5am; Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 11 degrees. The record low of -10 occurred back in 2015.

I thought a little bit about heading up to the Adirondacks this weekend, but there is a ton of snow up north. I am thinking I might go up there next weekend or in March, as even if the snow is still there, I can probably shovel out a place to park and camp. If we can get a weekend in the mid-20s and is sunny, then definitely. Of course, spring isn’t that far way. While I don’t like the black flies, there always is a few weekends in late April and early May that don’t have such issues. Plus trout fishing opportunities. I need to my renew my fishing license soon.

Depending if I do go up to the Adirondacks, I have to decide if I should unpack my camping gear and inventory it now, or wait. At some point I need to clean out my truck so I can take a big ol’ load of bottles and cans — and now paper to the recycling center. I’ve accumulated a lot of the past winter, especially now that free paper recycling is no more. In the summer months, I’ll probably just go back to using the paper for starting campfires, but the winter it just accumulates. Usually do my trip to the transfer station in March, so my bins are empty come the start of camping season, so have plenty room for beer cans and other cans and glass that I’m saving for deposits and recycling. Eat a lot more in cans in summer months, as they can be taken to camp without refrigeration.

🌹🌻🌼Only 4 weeks remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼 As we get closer to spring, the average high temperature is expected to increase quite quickly, day by day. Some years by March we can be quite snow free, althoguh that isn’t ever year.

As previously noted, next Saturday is the Snow Moon 🌕 when the sun will be setting at 5:42 pm with dusk at 6:10 pm. On that day in 2020, we had snow showers and temperatures between 42 and 26 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 38 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1997.