Good morning! A pretty nice start to an August morning. Mostly sunny and 70 degrees in Albany. There is a south breeze at 5 mph. The dew point is 62 degrees.

One month from now will be Labor Day. Where did the time go? 

Today will be sunny, with a high of 91 degrees at 4pm. Nine degrees above normal. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Maximum dew point of 64 at 10am. The record high of 99 was set in 1955. The sun will set at 8:09 pm with dusk around 8:40 pm, which is 1 minutes and 17 seconds earlier than yesterday. Today will have 14 hours and 16 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 2 minutes and 20 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 11pm. Increasing clouds, with a low of 69 degrees at 4am. Eight degrees above normal. South wind around 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Maximum dew point of 67 at 6am. The record low of 45 occurred back in 1994.

Cloudy periods:
Sat. 12am to Sat. 11am – rain and thunderstorms expected

Rain expected:
Fri. 8pm to Sat. 1pm – 0.31 inches

Muggy periods:
Fri. 8pm to Fri. 9pm – Max Temp: 79, Heat Index: 79, Dew Point: 65
Sat. 1am to Sat. 4pm – Max Temp: 84, Heat Index: 86, Dew Point: 70
Wed. 1pm to Thu. 8pm – Max Temp: 86, Heat Index: 88, Dew Point: 67

There are 1 week until First Day of Sunset Before 8 PM in Albany when the sun will be setting at 7:59 pm with dusk at 8:30 pm. The average high temperature is 81 degrees, with a record high of 99 in 1944. Slight drop in the temperature and a major drop in daylight.

Today in 1882, Standard Oil of New Jersey is established. One of the seven sisters, it became known as Esso in 1912, and sixty years later was renamed Exxon after Esso merged with Humboldt Oil in 1972. Later on Exxon merged with ExxonMobil, creating an even larger oil company. Some places still use the Esso and Exxon trademarks. While not often reported in the news, petroleum is still the most important substance in the world. Without petroleum, there would be a mass die off of humanity.

One year ago was the  Gold King Mine waste water spill which releases 3 million gallons of heavy metal toxin tailings and waste water into the Animas River in Colorado. An EPA remediation project for an abandoned mine, it went tragically wrong when a man-made pond failed dumping some rather nasty chemicals in the Animas River. Conservatives found a good way to bash the incompetence of the EPA.

I’m not seeing a wash out this weekend. Assuming the forecast remains true, I’m heading out to Schoharie County to swim and fish on Saturday and Sunday. Camp at Burnt Rossman, soak up some rays at Mine Kill State Park and fish from the recently reopened fishing area at the Mine Kill Reservoir. Maybe hike some of the trails. Sunday looks absolutely beautiful and Saturday afternoon into the evening should be quite nice.