Good morning! So this morning the president’s got me thinking what a “Stable” Genius would say. Probably, “hay, girl”. I know that is terribly politically incorrect in the era of the Me Too Movement. Horses eat a lot of hay, they gotta be fed.  Moving right along, next Monday is Martin Luther King Day. Comes early this year because New Years Day was a Monday so third Monday of the month is January 15th. I’m still hoping to get up north for at least part of the long weekend.

Rather gray and 19 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a south breeze at 9 mph. The current wind chill is 8. The skies will clear tomorrow around 7 am. The salt and mud combined with the low temperatures have made for a pretty mucky morning in the city. Some snow this afternoon may make the landscape purtier, especially because I live in the city and don’t have to deal with the slippery roads. Rain and temperatures in upper 50s later in the week should help melt away a lot of the snow at least in the city. And the good news is…

Only 71 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!

Today will snow likely, mainly between 3pm and 5pm. Cloudy, with a high of 30 degrees at 3pm. Typical for today. We are on the coldest week on average for winter.   South wind 9 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 23 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 2008. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1923.

The sun will set at 4:40 pm with dusk around 5:11 pm, which is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. At sunset, look for light snow and conditions and 30 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 19. There will be a south breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 15 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 16 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of snow before midnight, then a slight chance of snow showers between midnight and 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 23 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum wind chill around 15 at 5am; South wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 4 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1968.

So I’m looking at going north for at least part of the weekend to camp and ski. Obviously I will have to watch the weather and plan well in advance for my trip. It might be nice to get away, as I haven’t spent a night in the wild since early December. Maybe Sunday into Martin Luther King Day.

All that road salt is nasty. I think once it warms up again later in the week, I will run to the car wash. I would wash my truck sooner but I would get covered by the time I got home. Plus last night was nine degrees so I would have froze working the pressure washer at the car wash to clean things off.

As much as I hate road salt, I do appreciate the town spraying brine on the sidewalks. It’s a sticky brine so it lasts for a long time and really is helping to keep the town sidewalks free of snow and ice. I wish the city could adopt the same snow removal practices as the town.

As previously noted, next Monday is Martin Luther King Day when the sun will be setting at 4:48 pm with dusk at 5:19 pm. On that day in 2017, we had partly cloudy skies and temperatures between 36 and 14 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 30 degrees. We hit a record high of 65 back in 1995.