Good afternoon! Happy Easter. Beautiful weather for a nice Easter hike, and will it be for barbecues outside. Much colder tomorrow. Partly cloudy and 84 degrees on Wolf Hill in New Scotland. Breezy, 22 mph breeze from the west-southwest with gusts up to 33 mph. The dew point is 49 degrees. Definitely not too humid.

This afternoon will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high of 84. 20 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 49 at 3pm. Breezy, with a southwest wind around 22 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had partly sunny skies and a high of 66 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 2012. 5.3 inches of snow fell back in 1983.

I’m hiking this afternoon at the Kehler Preserve on Wolf Hill in Clarksville. It’s a really nice afternoon. A bit more clouds now that the four o’clock hour is rolling around and maybe thunderstorms for five but so is life. You can’t complain about eighty degrees and sunny on Easter, even if this is the latest possible day of the year for Easter. 

The sun will set at 7:39 pm with dusk around 8:09 pm, which is one minute and 8 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 13 hours and 28 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over yesterday. Tomorrow means 13 1/2 hours of daylight. Won’t be long until 15 hour days. Summer is nice. 

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers between 11pm and 2gam. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 50 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees above normal. Maximum wind chill around 44 at 6am; Breezy, with a west wind 16 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2016, it got down to 36 degrees under mostly clear skies. The record low of 21 occurred back in 1971.

I’m increasingly starting to think my April trip isn’t going to happen in account of the cold and wet weather expected but I will continue to monitor the forecast. I am not going shopping for camp until I am certain of my plans. I’m not going camping if it’s going to be cold and wet. My best guess at this point is my camping trip will be an extended weekend in the Southern Adirondacks rather than a longer trip to the North Country. But I’ll keep watching the weather. I plan to take those days off even if I stay home to avoid camping in the rain. It’s hard to know what the weather is going to be a month out when you request those days. I actually wouldn’t mind staying home on Wednesday, maybe heading out to Rensselaerville or the Catskill Creek in search of trout. Would be good weather for that. I really want to go to the Save the Pine Bush Dinner to hear metrologist Hugh Johnson speak on climate change. I like my Big Jacked Up Truck but I know as a society we must do something about the increasing levels of carbon emissions that are accumulating in our atmosphere. 

Got done rewiring all the lights on my truck cap. All of the accessory loads are now controlled by the low voltage disconnect which will prevent the battery from getting below 12.1 volts. This will greatly extend the life of the battery maximizing run time. I have a fresh battery installed and all of the lights are now controlled by the dimmer with additional USB ports and cigarette outlets. I left switches and wires available for future expansions. I’m going to buy a 12 volt powered fan but it won’t be hardwired but instead will plug into a cigarette outlet. This was it will maximize battery life as many of low voltage fans use under one amp, and don’t waste power running through the step up of the  inverter. 

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Mother’s Day when the sun will be setting at 8:11 pm with dusk at 8:43 pm. On that day in 2016, we had fog, rain and temperatures between 73 and 46 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 69 degrees. We hit a record high of 93 back in 1900.