Good morning! The cold returns on this Sunday morning. Sunny and 29 degrees at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. 🌞 There is a north-northwest breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. When the wind picks up it gets cold. Things will start to thaw out at around 11 am. 🌡️

This morning is a painful reminder that winter is not done. 🦁 It’s cold but sunny this morning with the breeze. I walked out to Five Rivers. 🐦 I’m making some progress on breaking the new boots 👢 in. Helps when their not laced up so tight. Like most things in life. Some people out at Five Rivers but not super crowded at this hour. Probably see more as I head home.

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 37 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 18th. Northwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 24 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 2008. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1923.❄

I’ve been thinking more about Mission Fifty. One area I want to explore is what kind of skills I want to master before age 50. 🚀 One is in the field of software development. I really want to learn more about writing software libraries, GUI programming and more advanced techniques for development, so I can read and improve things. 🤖 Maybe I need to find an open source project I can cooperate with to learn. But I don’t really like playing with kids. 👨‍💻 I really should learn to give in and be more flexible in my thinking, but I’m not good at that. It’s just one of many angles I’m thinking about for the mission. Certainly this is a fairly low bar compared to many other goals I have for the next ten years as I head into my fiftieh birthday.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:03 pm with sun having an altitude of 25.1° from the due south horizon (-45.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.8 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:55 pm with the sun in the southwest (232°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (240°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:40 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 22 seconds with dusk around 5:10 pm, which is one minute and 2 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:46 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌃 and temperatures around 35 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 17 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 13 seconds over yesterday.

After Five Rivers, it’s off to see John Wolcott and the crew up in Colonie. 👴 And then to find at least one or maybe two dress shirts at one of the big box stores. 👨‍💼 Then I’m hoping to hike in the Pine Bush until it  gets dark out. 🌲 Then probably should go to the laundromat, or maybe I’ll wait to Monday. Usually on the weekdays it’s less crowded.

Tonight will have increasing clouds ☁, with a low of 25 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 11th. Calm wind. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light freezing rain by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1968.

I am watching the weather for next week, and it’s improving. 🏕 I am starting to think a trip out to Brookfield next week is a realistic option. Probably won’t be for skiing. ⛷ Not enough snow. But it will be cold enough that it shouldn’t be all mud. I would love to get out to Madison County 🚜, it’s been over a year since I’ve been out to that rural, farming part of the state. 😎 Sunday and Martin Luther King Day look amazing for this time of year. But I wonder how the roads will be on Saturday, especially in the higher elevations. I guess old Rensslearville State Forest is still an option.

Looking ahead, next Sunday starts that typically is the Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 when the sun will be setting at 4:48 pm with dusk at 5:18 pm. Based on the weather outlook and La Nina that seems unlikely. On that day in 2022, we had mist, showers, partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 38 and 19 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 65 back in 1995.