I was quite happy about that. I missed riding into work this week and wasn’t looking forward to having to get another one.

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Finally the weekend! Sunny and 22 degrees at the Black Creek Marsh WMA. 🌞 Calm wind. Frosty for sure with the mercury not expected to reach above freezing, at least here in Voorheeesville. 🥶 Things will start to thaw out at Monday around 8 am. Brr.

As I had mentioned previously, I decided I would go out early today to search 🔎 for my bike 🚲 lock 🔒. I was very happy that I found it. Truth is though I wasn’t completely disappointed about not riding in this week – the trail would be rough with all the ice ⛸️ on it plus it’s super dark in the evening for riding back to the bus stop 🚏 downtown. And cold. 🥶

Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 31 degrees at 1pm. Light and variable wind. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, becoming cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was also 31 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1901. 12.5 inches of snow fell back in 1956.❄

I kind of miss having the almanac data 🧭 so I decided to bring it back at least for today. It’s kind of fun to look at life, considering the weather. I’m not sure if I’ll always do it, sometimes the National Weather feed breaks and I can’t use it. 🤷‍♂️

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:52 am with sun having an altitude of 24.1° from the due south horizon (-46.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. Sun is low this time of year. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:24 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 13 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full Cold 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (64°) at an altitude of 13° from the horizon, 231,775 miles away. 🚀 Maybe you’ll see a drone. The best time to look at the stars is after 5:31 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 30 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 31 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 12 degrees at 5am. 11 degrees below normal. Calm wind. Another cold night ahead. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 16 degrees. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1874.

Today in 1994, started construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river. 🏞️ The Three Gorges Dam has been the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW) since 2012. In 2014, the dam generated 98.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) and had the world record, but was surpassed by the Itaipú Dam, which set the new world record in 2016, producing 103.1 TWh. Also, today was a notable date in civil rights history, with the release of the Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U.S. 241 (1964), ♥️ a landmark United States Supreme Court case holding that the Commerce Clause gave the U.S. Congress power to force private businesses to abide by Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations. ⚖️

While today is cold, next Saturday is officially First Day of Winter ☃️ when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm. We’ve already gained some time in evening. On that day in 2023, we had mostly sunny and temperatures between 34 and 16 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 37 degrees. We hit a record high of 62 back in 2018.