November 18, 2018 Night

Good evening! Light snow and 31 degrees in Delmar. ❄ A very fine snow, not really accumulating on the ground as the air is very dry. Calm wind.There is 3.5 inches of snow on the ground. β˜ƒ With the dry air and warmer temperatures it was melting fast today, in the burbs it’s not expected to last until we get more snow tomorrow. ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 2 am as temperatures warm over night. 🌡️

Tonight will be periods of snow before 3am, then a chance of rain, snow, and sleet between 3am and 4am, then a chance of rain after 4am. 🌨 Low of 31 degrees at 10pm. Typical for tonight. Calm wind. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total nighttime snow and sleet accumulation of around an inch possible. In 2017, we had light rain in the evening, remaining overcast into the early morning. It got down to 33 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 82% illuminated. The moon will set at 2:35 am. The Beaver Moon 🌕 is on Thanksgiving night with scattered snow showers for your turkey trotting. The sun will rise at 6:51 am with the first light at 6:21 am, which is one minute and 14 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 22 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and one second over last night. That’s depressing as we get closer to winter, not that you wouldn’t notice with all the cold weather and predicted snow in the forecast. Wednesday and Thursday will be nice, just very cold.

Tomorrow will have a chance of rain and snow, mainly before 9am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 41 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical day around December 1st. Always like to keep it in context. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1921. 4.2 inches of snow fell back in 1914.❄

I went out to a my parents house for Sunday dinner. Mom made her world famous lasagna and like usual it was pretty good. 🍝 I mean I probably could make something similar like that if I wanted but probably not as good as mom makes it. I also did my wash and sheets, the first time my sheets have been done since September, but I was gone for nearly two months.

Went for my evening walk. 🏃At first my the sleet hitting my face was cold but in the end wasn’t that bad. I also stepped on a thumb tack earlier today which hurt a bit now but wasn’t so bad for most of the day. It was in deep and a bit difficult to pull out but I think it will be good although I really should get my MMP booster or whatever it’s called especially when you hear about the kids getting whopping cough from school and getting very sick.

I worked up some scripts on my computer tonight that allows me to mark YouTube videos and then download them in the background, so I can take them home from the library with ease. 🎥 This way I can watch them at home without an internet connection. My script is simple enough to use – I copy the video location into my clipboard, hit meta – c and it will mark the address in a file then ask if I want to download all the marked video into my home watching folder. Works well. If I hit yes, it uses the YOUTUBE-DL script to scrape the page and download the video then once all the marked videos are downloaded it opens them up in vlc player. No advertising this way and I can watch them at home whenever without internet.

Tomorrow night I want to start building the permanent board for my Lolin32 based sign display board driver and maybe start working on the warm white led strip lamp that will set above my bed and eventually provide light for reading and waking up on the dark winter mornings. I still need to get a power supply for that but ultimately I expect it will be Arduino Nano controlled and use a Bluetooth connection to communicate with the colored lights on the other side of the room to control timing and turning it on and off. I’ll use the infrared TV remote I bought a while back for both with the bright warm white led light coming on automatically each morning to help make dark mornings more pleasant to awaken in.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. πŸ˜• Saturday, a chance of rain and snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Sunday, a chance of rain and snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 39. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Typical average high for the weekend is 44 degrees. It’s going to be another cold and gray week, I will probably stay in town again. I do need to get my truck inspected at some point.

In four weeks on December 16 the sun will be setting at 4:23 pm,🌄 which is 6 minutes and 39 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, cloudy skies and temperatures between 31 and 11 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 36 and 21 degrees. The record high of 55 degrees was set back in 1971.

Looking ahead, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 2 weeks, Earliest Sunset of the Year βŒ›οΈ is in 3 weeks, St. Patrick’s Day 🍀 is in 17 weeks, 7:30 PM Sunset 🌇 is in 20 weeks, Palm Sunday 🌴 is in 21 weeks, Average High is 60 🌼 is in 5 months, Easter 🐰 and Earth Day 🌎 is in 22 weeks, Cinco de Mayo 🤠 is in 24 weeks, Mothers Day 👩‍ is in 25 weeks and Fathers Day 👨 is in 30 weeks.

Welcome to Potter County

Next Time – Sunday November 18

Today’s sunrise was at 6:51 am. The next time the sun will rise earlier then today 🌄 is in 90 days on Saturday, February 16, 2019.

The average high for today is 47 degrees. 🌡 The next time it will be on average warmer then today is in 126 days on Sunday, March 24, 2019 when the average temperature will be 48 degrees.

Today’s sunset will be at 4:29 pm. The next time the sun will set later then today 🌆 is in 41 days on Saturday, December 29.

The average low for today is 31 degrees. 🌡 The next night it will be on average warmer then tonight is in 134 days on Monday, April 1, 2019 when the average temperature will be 32 degrees.

Dry Grass at Hang Gliders Cliff

No snow camping for now

I have been looking at the snow depth charts for the North Country and doubt I’ll be doing any snow camping anytime soon. They say there is over two feet of snow along the East Branch of the Sacandaga River, meaning that the snow banks are likely in excess of four feet high in many places. Last weekend there was much less snow up there, I think I missed my opportunity to get up there before the heavy snow came.

Now the question becomes what is next? Maybe a night or two of snow camping. There are local favorites like drag my tent on a sled back to Cole Hill State Forest. I’ve done that the past two winters. It’s relatively easy but still kind of work set up and take down and I so miss the colorful lights from truck cap camping.

NY 8 along the East Branch isn’t a bad thing if I can get several sunny, not so cold, not so snowy days up north there. But that’s easier said than done in the winter. If I plan early enough I can dig out a parking spot, drag my gear back. It’s kind of noisy with the traffic but it’s nice to get away.

I’ve always had my eye on going to Balsam Swamp State Forest in Chenango County as that campground road is maintained and plowed all winter for ice fishing so it would mean all I would have to do is dig out a campsite and I could camp and fish there.

I’ve also had a lot of interest in the Finger Lakes National Forest as I believe Potomac and Picnic Area Roads are plowed year around. Again I’d have to dig out the campsite but it’s very doable. I’d probably hot tent but I’d also have the solar from the truck to keep things fully charged.

It looked like one year Brown Road was plowed to the old school house but I don’t know if Brookfield does that every year and how often they plow. It’s also still a bit of a distance from the road to the campsites at Cherry Ridge but if we got a heat wave and some rain the lake effect snow could disappear in December. Latest models offer little hope for this but as warm weather saturates the mid west some could push east, and warm things up here.

Most other locations are difficult to access if the snow is deep. Honestly even when I pitch a tent, I like having my truck nearby for power and ease of loading and unloading gear. Sure I can drag gear back but it’s a lot of work, especially if the snow is deep.

Science Lake