Good morning! Happy Saturday. Why so negative? ❄️ I mean it’s a beautiful day, just cold as shit. I think it was about negative eleven when I woke up, but it’s warming up fast I tell myself. My bedroom was only 45 degrees at six o’clock when I awoke though I didn’t notice it at all until I actually looked the thermometer in my bedroom. 🛏 I am just used to the cold, after all this winter camping and because I keep my heat low as I like to keep my heating bills down. I left the cabinets open under the sink, and there were no issues with frozen pipes, though the water was cold coming out of the sink for a few seconds before hot water arrive from the hot water heater. I have to admit I probably let the water run more washing dishes then I should have 🍽 but the warm water was nice. Probably won’t take a shower 🛀 until tomorrow, just because I’m not going anywhere, and it would be cold getting out of the shower.

Sunny and -9 degrees in Delmar. 🌞 There is a northwest breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is -26. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 10 am. 🌡️ I am waiting a little bit on my morning walk, until it’s at least zero degrees on and I can put on the face mask, gloves and thermal underwear. I don’t think it’s as windy as they say from looking at the trees, though there was some good good gusts for a while yesterday. Going to be in the 40s tomorrow, and most of the week.

Things warmed up quickly though inside ♨️ when I turned on the portable electric space heater. Technically my bedroom has baseboard electric heat to supplement that gas radiators downstairs, but I never use them. They smell so bad until the dust burns off, are expensive to run, and don’t put the heat right where I want it like a little electric space heater. Electric heat is much quicker then gas for sure, especially with the 220 volt 40 amp circuits or whatever they are. Maybe I could make it even warmer in here, but I don’t want to pay for the heat in this cold weather. I did patch up more air leaks around the door, it seems pretty good now. What can I say, it’s an inexpensive, run down apartment.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 15 degrees at 3pm. 19 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -26 at 8am; Northwest wind 7 to 10 mph becoming south in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with sunny skies in the afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1991. 15.5 inches of snow fell back in 1926.❄

Until it warms up, 🤖 I am working on some maps and data analysis using my laptop. Already the wind is slowing, so I am hopeful to get out in a bit. But I have some interesting ideas of maps and data I can extract. I noticed that NYSUT has posted electronic spreadsheet versions of the school aid runs, 🤖 so I can use it to make maps. Also, I want to do some things with sunset and length of day and make some interesting maps. But I am hoping it will be warm enough, I won’t be spending all day inside. That would be a bummer for a Saturday. But it’s so cold right now.

While my plans aren’t set in stone, 🥌 I am leaning towards a hike out to Five Rivers today, 🐦 assuming it gets warmer, the wind remains calm and I can bundle up. I want to get my steps in. I did go to library last night to work on some projects for a while, and I don’t like going there on the weekends when it’s crowded, but I’ll see how cold it is later on. Maybe at least I can go for a walk 🚶‍♀️ around the superblock, and get 2 1/2 miles if I wear gloves 🧤 and my full-face mask. 🫠 Maybe Meads Road, I like seeing the farm country and cows at that way. 🐃

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 31.1° from the due south horizon (-39.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 9.9 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:32 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (242°). 📸

The sunset is in the west-southwest (249°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:13 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 7 seconds with dusk around 5:42 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (73°) at an altitude of 16° from the horizon, 252,240 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:16 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 15 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 9 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 25 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 13 degrees at 9pm. Three degrees below normal. But a warm up! Maximum wind chill around 4 at 6pm; South wind 7 to 13 mph. Cold but not nearly as cold as this morning. And warming up throughout the night. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 17 degrees. The record low of -15 occurred back in 1918.

Looking ahead, next Saturday is Don’t Cry over Spilled Milk Day 🥛 when the sun will be setting at 5:23 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 26 and 12 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. That will feel like a heat wave compared today, though the 8-14 day outlook looks even warmer then average. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1981.