Enjoy the warm weather around 31 degrees, because for the next few days it’s only going to get colder but sunnier. One degree on Friday morning. Next Wednesday is First Day of Winter. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. It will certainly feel like that for the next week.

Walked down to the express bus today. I was a bit concerned when the bus didn’t show up by 8:26 AM, but it was there just a few minutes late. I didn’t check the real-time bus info until after the 8:26 time, and that point they had no information on the location. The driver, running late, probably didn’t type his ID into the GPS system for the bus that provides the Real Times Bus Info.

Today will be sunny, with temperatures declining to the twenties by later afternoon into the evening. The polar vortex is going to start to bear down upon us, as they would call normal winter weather that has long hit Albany from time to time. West wind 7 to 10 mph. Mild compared to what is coming. A year ago, we had rain and a high of 61 degrees. The record high of 63 was set in 1901. 12.5 inches of snow fell back in 1956.

I swear I’m going to get a winter coat for casual use finally. This winter is going to be quite cold and my old Carhartt’s zipper is totally broken. I will need a warm coat for winter camping, that is if we finally get a decent weekend without the threat of storms and not so frigid. My hope is to get out camping Christmas Day through the Monday after Christmas. I’m leaning towards camping in a local state forest, or maybe I’ll head up to the Adirondacks.

The sun will set at 4:22 pm with dusk around 4:54 pm, which is 15 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 4 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 28 seconds over yesterday. The decline in daylight is rapidly shortening, as we get ready to throw the sun into reverse, as the days get longer, as we approach the first day of summer after the winter solstice.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow showers after 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 17 degrees at 6am. Five degrees below normal. An even colder as the day progresses. Southwest wind 6 to 11 mph. Again not so bad but picking up as the night progresses.  Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2015, it got down to 42 degrees with periods of rain. The record low of -8 occurred back in 1874.

As previously noted, next Wednesday is First Day of Winter when the sun will be setting at 4:25 pm with dusk at 4:57 pm. On that day in 2015, we had rain and temperatures between 48 and 33 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 34 degrees. We hit a record high of 59 back in 1957.

Today in 1972, Eugene Cernan is the last person ever to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission. After several manned missions to the moon, it was decided in an increasingly tight fiscal environment, that manned space missions were no long affordable or necessary in the public interest. It’s been 44 years since the last man has walked on the moon.

Tomorrow marks the 49th anniversary of the tragic collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River in West Virginia. A massive suspension bridge, it’s suspension eye bars which were used instead of steel rope lacked redundancy and when one eye bar failed the bridge went critical and all spans went plunging into the ice filled Ohio River, killing 45 people stuck in rush hour traffic.  More about that on the blog tomorrow.