February 6, 2023 Evening

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Good night, Irene ! Been listening to some dangerous music tonight 🎶, namely the Weavers. So dangerous it was black listed for nearly a decade. I don’t get involved in politics but I do like folk music and how naughty it can be when you really listen to the lyrics. 📃 Not that I’m ever naughty on this blog, or play the hillbilly on the internet that I’m not when I’m the stone cold sober all businessperson at work. 👨‍⚖️ But I still wear my cowboy 🤠 hat up at camp.

Mostly clear and 30 degrees for my evening walk on this clear moon lit night under the full moon. There is a north-northwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃 with gusts up to 21 mph 💨💨💨. There is a inch of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 11 am. 🌡️

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 18 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 15th. Maximum wind chill around 19 at 5am; North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light northwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 21 mph. In 2022, we had clear skies in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 10 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1995.

Tonight will have a Full 🌝 Moon with 98% illuminated. Surprisingly brilliant this evening. At 7 PM, the moon was in the east-northeast (77°) at an altitude of 9° from the horizon, some 250,435 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by August 15th. Buckle up for safety! 💺

The darkest hour is at 12:10 am, followed by dawn at 6:36 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:05 am in the east-southeast (111°) and last for 3 minutes and 7 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 10 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:46 am with sun in the east-southeast (118°). Tonight will have 13 hours and 44 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 31 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have increasing clouds ☁, with a high of 40 degrees at 3pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 28th. Light and variable wind becoming south 11 to 16 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 26 degrees. The record high of 48 was set in 2005. 12.4 inches of snow fell back in 1983.❄

In four weeks on March 6 the sun will be setting in the west (263°) at 5:52 pm,🌄 which is 35 minutes and 31 seconds later then tonight. In 2021 on that day, we had cold weather, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 25 and 14 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 42 and 23 degrees. I’m looking forward to March mostly because I know April come after that and it starts to get nice out. The record high of 63 degrees was set back in 1974.

Looking ahead, Presidents Day 👴 is in two weeks, 8 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 9 weeks, May 🕊 is in 12 weeks, 8:30 PM Sunset ️⛱️ is in 17 weeks, Average High is 80 🏖 is in 19 weeks, World Mosquito Day 🐞 is in 28 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 30 weeks, September 11th 🇺🇸 is in 31 weeks, 7 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 32 weeks, Average Night Below Freezing 🌌 is in 40 weeks, Cyber Monday 🛍️ is in 42 weeks, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 43 weeks, Saint Nicholas Day 🎅 is in 10 months, Bake Cookies Day 🍪 is in 45 weeks and Christmas 🎅 is in 46 weeks.

Frozen

Creek

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Little creek that runs from the pond down along Copeland Hill Road.

Taken on Saturday February 8, 2020 at Holt Preserve.

Longest Winter Periods Above Freezing

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I was a bit surprised that there isn’t more time periods in winter that are above freezing, but then again the climate normals for Albany are still quite warm, so such runs are uncommon to this days.

Longest Winter Periods Above Freezing
Number of days when the low temperature was 32 degrees or above from December 21 – March 21.
Days Start End
10 Mon, Mar 12, 2012 Wed, Mar 21, 2012
10 Fri, Jan 13, 1995 Sun, Jan 22, 1995
10 Mon, Mar 7, 1983 Wed, Mar 16, 1983
10 Tue, Feb 17, 1981 Thu, Feb 26, 1981
9 Tue, Feb 23, 2010 Wed, Mar 3, 2010
9 Sat, Mar 10, 1990 Sun, Mar 18, 1990
7 Wed, Jan 18, 2017 Tue, Jan 24, 2017
7 Mon, Dec 21, 2015 Sun, Dec 27, 2015
7 Thu, Mar 15, 1945 Wed, Mar 21, 1945
6 Wed, Mar 16, 2022 Mon, Mar 21, 2022
6 Mon, Mar 9, 2020 Sat, Mar 14, 2020
6 Sun, Mar 13, 2016 Fri, Mar 18, 2016
6 Wed, Feb 23, 2000 Mon, Feb 28, 2000
6 Tue, Feb 20, 1996 Sun, Feb 25, 1996
6 Wed, Feb 15, 1984 Mon, Feb 20, 1984
6 Fri, Mar 2, 1979 Wed, Mar 7, 1979
6 Sat, Mar 16, 1968 Thu, Mar 21, 1968
5 Thu, Feb 23, 1961 Mon, Feb 27, 1961
5 Wed, Feb 28, 2018 Sun, Mar 4, 2018
5 Thu, Mar 11, 2010 Mon, Mar 15, 2010
5 Sun, Mar 4, 1973 Thu, Mar 8, 1973
5 Tue, Jan 6, 1998 Sat, Jan 10, 1998
5 Fri, Dec 22, 1972 Tue, Dec 26, 1972
5 Fri, Mar 6, 1992 Tue, Mar 10, 1992
5 Sun, Feb 18, 1951 Thu, Feb 22, 1951
5 Fri, Dec 27, 1940 Tue, Dec 31, 1940
Andy Arthur, 2/6/23.
Data Source: National Weather Service Records, June 1938 to Present, Albany Airport.

This data can be obtained from the National Climate Data online. An easy way to extract this data and create the table would be to use the new version of dplyr with group_by(consecutive_id(FIELD)).

library(tidyverse)
library(lubridate)
library(gt)

wx <- read_csv('~/Downloads/3059447.csv')

wx %>% 
  mutate(
    NumericDate = month(DATE)*100 + day(DATE),
    AboveFreezing = (TMIN > 31 & (NumericDate < 322 | NumericDate > 1220))) %>%
  select(DATE, AboveFreezing) %>%
  group_by(consecutive_id(AboveFreezing)) %>%
  summarise(days = n(), AboveFreezing = first(AboveFreezing), start = first(DATE), end = last(DATE)) %>%
  filter(AboveFreezing) %>%
  select(Days = days, Start = start, End = end) %>%
  slice_max(Days, n=20) %>%
  arrange(-Days, rev(Start)) %>%
  gt() %>%
  tab_header('Longest Winter Periods Above Freezing','Number of days when the low temperature was 32 degrees or above from December 21 - March 21.') %>%
  tab_footnote(html('Andy Arthur, 2/6/23.<br /><em>Data Source:</em> National Weather Service Records, June 1938 to Present, Albany Airport.')) %>%
  opt_stylize(style=3, color = 'red') %>%
  opt_row_striping() %>%
  fmt_date(2:3,date_style="yMMMEd") %>%
 gtsave('/tmp/AboveFreezing.html')