Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Two weeks to First Day of Winter ☃️. Partly sunny and 27 degrees in Delmar, NY. 🌅 There is a west-northwest breeze at 11 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at around 11 am. 🌡️

Kind of a cool Monday but the sun ☀ helps when it’s out pretty decently warm. Out for the morning walk 🚶🏻. It certainly a decent day for December. I kind of had a sluggish start this Monday but I did my walk and will sit down with breakfast and my second cup of coffee ☕ as I get my work day started from home today. 🏡 Later in the week I’ll be heading downtown for meetings.

Yesterday was kind of a quiet and cold ❄ day, but went out to my parents house for a while. I thought they’d be going into lock down 🔒 but apparently not yet. I looked at the statistics and it’s obvious that it’s only a matter of time before the pamademic gets a bit out of hand in Upstate NY although hopefully this time we will have the vaccine to slow it down a bit. 🥘

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 34 degrees at 1pm. Five degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 20th. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 31 degrees. The record high of 65 was set in 1998. 5.5 inches of snow fell back in 2003.❄

Cold but sunny today it looks. ☀️ That’s to be expected for December. No snow today but maybe some on Thursday. I don’t care that much although I’d like to get one more trip in before the end of the year.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:48 am with sun having an altitude of 24.7° from the due south horizon (-46.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13 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 (232°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 22 seconds with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 4 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 33 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 8 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 9 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute over yesterday.

Tonight will have isolated snow showers between 9pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 23 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 10th. Maximum wind chill around 17 at 12am; Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 1 degrees. The record low of -3 occurred back in 1902.

Today in 1787, Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. 📃 And for football fans in 1963, Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.🏈 1972 today marked the end of an era — Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. 🌎 The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.

I bought two more face masks from Lynne Jackson. 😷 I kind of like the one I bought from her earlier in the year and I think at some point I’ll be working downtown more 🏙 and need more masks. Even if we turn the corner on the virus it’s going to be bad for a while – and maybe wearing a mask occasionally even when the pandemic is over is a good way to avoid getting or spreading a cold. 🤮 Lynne’s masks are quite comfortable plus it’s a great way to support a local activist. While I mostly wear the bandana outside when I’m downtown it’s good to have a good mask.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, a chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 37 degrees.

I was hoping to get out of town this weekend ⛺ but despite the snow melting warmth not much sun. Maybe for Christmas or New Years. It looks like December will be pretty mild for a change. I guess that’s good during a pandemic.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until First Day of Winter ☃️ when the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm. On that day in 2019, we had cold, partly cloudy and temperatures between 24 and 8 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 62 back in 2018.