Good morning! Happy Bake Cookies Day 🍪! A good cold snowy ☃ day for baking cookies. Next Friday is Christmas 🎅. Partly cloudy and 9 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a north-northwest breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is -2. There are 21 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Sunday around noontime. 🌡️

I am up early but it doesn’t seem likely I’ll be going for my morning walk ❄, but I guess that’s okay as it’s cold outside. Hopefully by the evening. I can be cranky about the incompetence of town leaders but what can I do about it, a less than humble boy 🧒🏻 from the sticks. Maybe I’ll ride my exercise bike 🚲 later and go for the walk around 5 pm, by when hopefully most of snow will be cleaned up.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 30 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal. North wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 36 degrees. The record high of 60 was set in 1921. 17.0 inches of snow fell back in 1887.❄ Seems small after yesterday’s snow storm.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:53 am with sun having an altitude of 24° from the due south horizon (-46.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.5 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:39 pm with the sun in the southwest (230°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (238°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:25 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 26 seconds with dusk around 4:55 pm, which is 23 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (199°) at an altitude of 27° from the horizon, 241,320 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:32 pm. At sunset, look for mostly sunny skies 🌃 and temperatures around 27 degrees. There will be a north breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 3 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 10 seconds over today.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 4 degrees at 6am. 16 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -3 at 4am; Northwest wind 3 to 7 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 6 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1973.

Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite 🛰 is launched today in 1958. Didn’t do much communicating compared to satellites today. A decade or so before the first GPS satellites. 💫 Of course it’s hard to imagine a modern economy today without satellite data or GPS technology to provide both timing and location data.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 30 degrees at 2pm. Five degrees below normal. Light and variable wind becoming south around 5 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 18 degrees. The record high of 54 was set in 1895. 7.8 inches of snow fell back in 2008.❄

I am thinking about going skiing 🎿 at Schodack Island State Park tomorrow with the binoculars and look at the winter birds. 🕊 Then maybe pick up some supplies at Aldi’s. 🛒 I should try to get an early start tomorrow while the sun is still shining.

Looking ahead to Sunday, a slight chance of snow showers before 1pm, then a chance of rain and snow showers between 1pm and 4pm, then a chance of snow showers after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. ⛅ Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.

As previously noted, next Friday is Christmas 🎅 when the sun will be setting at 4:27 pm with dusk at 4:59 pm. At least we are getting more sunshine in the afternoon. On that day in 2019, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 39 and 20 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 33 degrees. We hit a record high of 66 back in 1889.

Not sure if I’m getting up to the Adirondacks next weekend. 🎄 I want to but I’m not sure if that’s a realistic goal with the weather. Maybe Christmas Day through Sunday. But it’s going to be real cold. ❄ I don’t know.