“Taking the 9:45 PM bus home this evening, listening to Steve Miller’s Jet Airliner, thinking you got to go through hell to get heaven. At least I got out of the office by 9:45 PM. Had to run a bit to the bus stop though. I feared it would be later, and I almost thought about taking Big Red Downtown. But I didn’t because I hate driving my big jacked up truck in the city.”

Good evening! Partly cloudy and around two degrees freezing point in City of Albany. Calm wind.The skies will clear around 8 pm. Not a terrible evening, not too cold for early February.

I know I say this every night I work late, but the best thing the city has done this century was fix the damn streetlights downtown. Not standing in darkness at the bus stop makes you feel less likely to be mugged after dark. Not only did the city replace all the many bulbs that were out, they replaced many of the dim bulbs. And the bus authority added bright solar lamps into the bus stop.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 26 degrees at 4am. 10 degrees above normal. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2016, it got down to 24 degrees under partly cloudy skies. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1995.

Waxing Gibbous Moon tonight with 72% illuminated. The moon will set around 4:59 am. The Full “Snow” Moon is on Saturday night with chance of rain/snow then chance of snow. The sun will rise at 7:02 am with the first light at 6:32 am, which is 1 minutes and 12 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 13 hours and 44 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 33 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will snow before noon, then freezing rain between noon and 2pm, then rain after 2pm. High of 36 degrees at 6pm. Three degrees above normal. Kind of a sloppy mess. I’ll let the professionals do the driving. Northeast wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Little or no ice accumulation expected. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies and a high of 46 degrees. The record high of 48 was set in 2005. 12.4 inches of snow fell back in 1983.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. More cloudiness and storms this weekend. Saturday, a chance of snow before 1pm, then a chance of rain between 1pm and 4pm, then a chance of rain and snow after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 36. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, a chance of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 50%.Typical average high for the weekend is 34 degrees.

In four weeks on March 6 the sun will be setting at 5:51 pm, which is 35 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had partly sunny skies and temperatures between 43 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 40 and 22 degrees. The record high of 63 degrees was set back in 1974.

Looking ahead, Presidents Day is in 2 weeks, Patriots Day is in 10 weeks, May Day is in 12 weeks and Memorial Day is in 16 weeks.