Five Rivers Environmental Education Center

Five Rivers Environmental Education Center is a living museum comprising over 450 acres of broad fields, towering forests, and tranquil wetlands. Five Rivers offers people of all ages a rich variety of guided and self-guided opportunities to encounter nature directly. Stimulating interpretive programs and guided school lessons promote awareness, knowledge and appreciation of New York State’s environment year ’round. With over 10 miles of trails for self-guided exploration, Five Rivers fosters discovery, spiritual refreshment and physical fitness through wholesome outdoor recreation.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/education/1835.html

A lot of people grumble about the time change and how it makes the mornings dark again ☀

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A lot of people grumble about the time change and how it makes the mornings dark again ☀

But it’s really not that bad as we are adding a lot of daylight this time of year and by 6:30 this morning the sky was already brightening.

Some facts to consider about the time change and the mornings:

  • Sunrise today was at 7:15 with dawn at 6:40.
  • Today’s sunrise was equal to around January 29th sunrise
  • The sunrise will be earlier than March 11, the last day before the time change come April 15

And that ignores all the benefits of extra daylight in the evening with sunset at 6:58 pm tonight and dusk not until around 7:30. And we gain daylight quickest this time of year.

March 12, 2023 Morning

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Good morning! Mostly sunny and 29 degrees at the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center. There is a north breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. There are 1.5 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️

Got a fairly early start this morning 🌅 to walk out to Five Rivers Environmental Education Center to embrace as much of the time change as much as possible. I don’t want to get into the habit of sleeping in 🛏 but continuing to get up early and doing my walk. Plus it’s a nice morning with a giant sunrise about a half hour after I started my walk at 6:45 after having a good pan 🍳 of eggs 🥚 and lots of vegetables. I’m mostly out of fruit so it was eggs today. Little less healthy then recent days but I’ll get plenty of steps today. 👣

I figure it’s best to walk early before the woods is soft and muddy, 🌞 as I’m sure the case will be by afternoon. Yesterday afternoon was nicer than expected but I stuck to my plan of going to the library 📚 in the afternoon because with the melting snow and mud it wouldn’t be a good day to go to Five Rivers plus this morning looked so nice.

Today will have increasing clouds ☀ ➡ ☁, with a high of 45 degrees at 4pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 15th. North wind around 5 mph becoming east in the afternoon. A year ago, we had heavy snow in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 42 degrees. The record high of 69 was set in 2012. 30.4 inches of snow fell back in 1888.❄

Red winged black birds 🐦 are out but not in real big numbers yet as are the morning doves 🕊 and red headed woodpeckers. It was early enough this morning that Meads cows 🐮 were all piled up in the cold sleeping and chewing their cud. No spring peepers 🐸 yet though ice is mostly off the ponds at this point.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 1:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 44° from the due south horizon (-26.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 6.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:21 pm with the sun in the west (260°). 📸

The sunset is in the west (266°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:58 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:26 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:59 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 41 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 11 hours and 48 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of snow after 3am. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 31 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 30th. Light and variable wind becoming south 5 to 10 mph in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2022, we had light snow in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of -6 occurred back in 1885.

Maybe snow 🌨 or rain ☔ come Monday night into Tuesday but I think it might be too warm in the city to add up to much. Plus it’s March and if it’s pushing fifty with rain come Friday it will be gone come the weekend. I’m fine with that. I have a family 👪 event to go to next weekend so I can’t get out of town this weekend but maybe the following weekend. My truck is due for service fairly soon – oil change, transmission fluid and tire rotation come April before I start doing any big trips but Rennselearville isn’t too far for a weekend trip.

Today in 1933, was the first of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats. 📻 Back when everybody listened to the radio for their news and entertainment. You can still listen to them on the interwebs if you are curious.

As previously noted, next Sunday is Last Day of Winter 🏂 when the sun will be setting at 7:07 pm with dusk at 7:34 pm. On that day in 2022, we had cloudy, warm, rain showers and temperatures between 63 and 43 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 46 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 2012.

Lean To at Setting Sun