Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Five weeks to Epiphany. Partly cloudy and 36 degrees in Delmar. There is a west-southwest breeze at 10 mph. Some sun this morning but it’s not expected to last. More sun on SUNday. The skies will clear tomorrow around 8 pm.

Taking the yokel local bus to work today, because I couldn’t get an early start. Which kind of sucks, because next week I’ll have to dress up and will be taking the local most of the week. I guess it really doesn’t matter because my phone keeps me entertained on the bus. 

Today will have a slight chance of showers after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees above normal. West wind 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 50 degrees. I guess depressing early December weather is not unusual.  The record high of 66 was set in 1998. 6.2 inches of snow fell back in 1949.

The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 14 seconds earlier than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 14 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 1 minutes and 16 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain showers before 11pm, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 34 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees above normal. West wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. In 2015, it got down to 38 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The record low of -1 occurred back during the spirit of 1976.

As previously noted, there are 5 weeks until Epiphany when the sun will be setting at 4:38 pm with dusk at 5:09 pm. On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 34 and 5 degrees. Cold day even for late December. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 71 back in 2007. So it’s not always that cold in late December. 

Today in 1970, the law went into effect that created the US Environmental Protection agency. Much like the creation of the state’s DEC it was a reorganization of various federal agencies to consolidate many environmental functions into one agency based on increased concern and awareness of industrial pollution. 

29 days and 15 hours left in 2016. Make the most of it. Have a great Friday, we are almost to the weekend…