Good evening! Light rain and 52 degrees in Albany. There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. The dew point is 49 degrees. 0.09 inches of rain is expected before it ends around 9 pm. 

Definitely a wet evening, but I guess it could have been snow had it been quite bit colder. I’m fine with waiting for snow for a while. 

Tonight will have periods of rain, mainly before 8pm. Areas of fog before 9pm, then areas of fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low of 41 degrees at 5am. 14 degrees above normal. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2015, it got down to 22 degrees under partly clear skies. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1875.

Our weekend continues to look very nice with lots of sun and seasonable temperatures. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 42. Sunday, partly sunny, with a high near 42. Typical average high for the weekend is 41 degrees. Still chewing over possibly going to the Adirondacks this weekend. There may be quite a bit of snow up there. Maybe dig out the cross country skis? Don’t need to camp that day far back in the woods. I don’t have a lot of vacation time to burn up left in the year for an extended weekend trip. 

In four weeks on December 27 the sun will be setting at 4:28 pm, which is 6 minutes later then tonight. In 2015 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 51 and 35 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 17 degrees. The record high of 60 degrees was set back in 1895.

Traffic is quite backed up heading north out of the city tonight. I’m glad I’m not heading that way, although traffic is quite heavy going southbound too. Probably the rain and drivers either taking their time or more likely getting into crashes. I’ll make it home eventually. 

What gets me is all the motorists who have smart phones in their laps. If you’re going to have a phone, have it mounted by the windshield so at least you can be seeing what’s ahead of you when traffic starts moving again. Set your phone up so messages either pop up in big letters for an extended period of time or read to you. Only briefly touch your phone with your pinkey only rarely, don’t type detailed messages. Common sense and moderation is lacking in our society today. Next up, Donald Trump. 

At one level, I’m hopeful that Trump can change things in our country. But he keeps saying such stupid things on Twitter. I wish that the president on down could be more respectful. Maybe Trump will be at least successful about limiting the cost of health insurance in our country. Like many Americans even after selling back time, it seems like I’m paying more and more insurance I only occasionally use. I wish he would be a reasonable voice on climate change like Obama has been, unlike some liberals who have gone full nutcase on climate change. We need to take action on climate change but we shouldn’t destroy the economy or what is nice in the world. The ends don’t justify the means. 

It’s Tuesday evening and I’m dead tired. I stayed up too late last night watching the PBS Newshour. I need to a battery for my TV remote, so I can tape the earlier showing and not be staying up to 11 pm. I feel it’s important to keep up with the news of the day. I really want to learn more about Donald Trump as so much of the man is a mystery to me. 

Back in the map making business. I hope to post some new maps to the blog this evening so stay tuned.