John Boyd Thacher State Park, is situated along the Helderberg Escarpment, one of the richest fossil-bearing formations in the world. Even as it safeguards six miles of limestone cliff-face, rock-strewn slopes, woodland and open fields, the park provides a marvelous panorama of the Hudson-Mohawk Valleys and the Adirondack and Green Mountains. The park has volleyball courts, playgrounds, ball fields and numerous picnic areas with nine reservable shelters. Interpretive programs are offered year-round, including guided tours of the famous Indian Ladder Trail. There are over 25 additional miles of trails for summer hiking and mountain biking, and winter cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, and snowmobiling.
Watching the live feed of Ground Hog Day, I am convinced that Punxsutawney Phil was actively encouraged to choose the Shadow scroll by the Ground Hog Club. Clearly it was cloudy and no shadow today.
As Americans, we should rise up against such a stolen prediction. I sure hope President Biden asks the US Supreme Court to review the actions of Punxsutawney Phil and overturn the results of his prediction for spring in six weeks. Americans deserve a fair prediction of how many weeks of winter remain.
Good morning! Yeah, it’s a Frigid Friday! Mostly because that’s all the radio news wants to talk about. Dress in layers, avoid exposed skin and you’ll be fine. Mostly sunny and 10 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☀ Breezy, ️20 mph breeze from the northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 32 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is -9. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Sunday around 11 am. 🌡️
Bye, bye America Pie. 🥧 Do you recall what was revealed the day the music died? 🎶 That was 64 years ago today, which means there are fewer and fewer people can remember that day. But it’s still a good song by Don McLean. It’s a song that one can sing along withand it opened up the then new Empire State Plaza during the bicentennial. It’s amazing to think America 🇺🇸 turns 250 in 2026.
Okay, it’s winter. ❄ But I left the heat turned up so it was plenty warm inside. Too warm for my tastes but along with leaving the cabinets open I wanted to prevent the pipes from freezing. Come Sunday I’ll back the heat down to 48 degrees. I have gas heat so it’s not really expensive but I’ve grown to like the cold. Skipped my morning walk 🚶 in favor of taking the time earlier express bus 🚍 and walking laps in the Concourse. I’m going to try to get as many steps as possible inside the Concourse today.
Today will be mostly sunny, with a temperature fallivng to around 3 by 5pm. ☀ Breezy, with a northwest wind 20 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph. A year ago, we had light snow. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 2016. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 2004.❄
Yesterday I did 17,000 steps as I visited a friend at the hospital 🏥 midday. It’s different now with the COVID, you get screened before entering and are given a paper muzzle. I’ve never worn a paper muzzle 😷 only a cloth one though I stuck it under my cloth one.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 30.8° from the due south horizon (-40° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:30 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (248°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:11 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 5:40 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east-northeast (77°) at an altitude of 26° from the horizon, 252,110 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:15 pm.
At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 3 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be -20. ☃️ Breezy, 25 mph breeze ⛅ from the west-northwest with gusts up to 44mph. Today will have 10 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 24 seconds over yesterday.
What can I say, it’s going to brutally cold ❄ this evening. I might actually take up the express bus 🚍 drivers option to get dropped off closer to home. And I might not do the evening walk 🚶 though I am thinking about walking 📚 down to the library for a while. That said, so much of it is hype because people aren’t used to the cold. It would be a warm day in Wisconsin.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of -10 degrees at 4am. 25 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -32 at 1am; Blustery, with a northwest wind 17 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph. In 2022, we had partly cloudy skies. It got down to 15 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1978.
I checked the voltage and my truck starting battery 🔋 is happy with the cold. ☺ The solar panel is dumping the excess voltage into the starting battery. When it’s very cold out, it’s almost always sunny out and the trickle charge keeps things floating along at a nice voltage ⚡.
Tomorrow will have increasing clouds ☁, with a high of 13 degrees at 3pm. 21 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -31 at 6am; Northwest wind 6 to 15 mph becoming south in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light snow. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1991. 15.5 inches of snow fell back in 1926.❄
I was planning on going to John’s house for Saturday and maybe a very frigid hike in the Pine Bush 🌲but plans change. I might stay home and brave a hike out to Five Rivers. 🐦 With the full face mask, gloves 🧤 and maybe thermal underwear I should be good. Or so I tell myself.
Looking ahead to Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. ☀ South wind 13 to 16 mph. The cold will have broken but it will be still cold with the wind. Still I plan to wash Big Red 🛻 in the evening after seeing the folks. Turning the heat way back down though. Typical average high for the weekend is 34 degrees.
Looking ahead, next Friday is Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 when the sun will be setting at 5:21 pm with dusk at 5:49 pm. On that day in 2022, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 25 and 12 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1955.
Python, the State Geocoder and Outputting Assembly Districts
Python code, takes a list of addresses, runs them through NYS Address Management system, then uses GeoPandas to calculate the municipality and Assembly district from GeoPackages then writes out to a CSV file. Nothing fancy, but it does a job. I could use it with any other shapefile I want. GeoPandas is nice because it’s fast and doesn’t require loading QGIS.
#!/usr/bin/python
import requests,sys,json,os,csv
import pandas as pd
import geopandas as gpd
lines=[]
# read list of addresses
with open(sys.argv[-1], newline='') as csvfile:
for line in csv.DictReader(csvfile):
lines.append(line)
# build address query
query = '{"records": ['
i=0
for line in lines:
query += '{ "attributes": { "OBJECTID":'+str(i)+', "SINGLELINE": "'+line['Address'].rstrip()+'"} },'+"\n"
i+=1
query += ']}'
post = { 'f':'pjson', 'outSR': 4326, 'addresses': query }
url = 'https://gisservices.its.ny.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Locators/Street_and_Address_Composite/GeocodeServer/geocodeAddresses'
# send request to state geocoder
req = requests.post(url, data = post)
locations = json.loads(req.text)['locations']
# parse response
for loc in locations:
i = loc['attributes']['ResultID']
lines[i]['y'] = loc['location']['y']
lines[i]['x'] = loc['location']['x']
lines[i]['Match_addr'] = loc['attributes']['Match_addr']
# hackish, might cause problems but keeps joins from erroring
if (lines[i]['x'] == 'NaN'):
lines[i]['x'] = 0
lines[i]['y'] = 0
# convert to pandas
locPd = pd.DataFrame(lines,columns=lines[0].keys())
locPd = gpd.GeoDataFrame(locPd, geometry=gpd.points_from_xy(locPd.x.astype('float32'), locPd.y.astype('float32')))
# add county municipality column
cosub = gpd.read_file(r'/home/andy/Documents/GIS.Data/geocode/cosub.gpkg')
locPd = gpd.sjoin(locPd, cosub, op="within")
del locPd['index_right']
# add ads column
ad = gpd.read_file(r'/home/andy/Documents/GIS.Data/geocode/ad.gpkg')
locPd = gpd.sjoin(locPd, ad, op="within")
del locPd['index_right']
# add sd column
sd = gpd.read_file(r'/home/andy/Documents/GIS.Data/geocode/sd.gpkg')
locPd = gpd.sjoin(locPd, sd, op="within")
del locPd['index_right']
# add cd column
sd = gpd.read_file(r'/home/andy/Documents/GIS.Data/geocode/cd.gpkg')
locPd = gpd.sjoin(locPd, sd, op="within")
# remove added geometery and index columns
del locPd['geometry']
del locPd['index_right']
# write pandas back to out csv
locPd.to_csv (os.path.splitext(sys.argv[-1])[0]+'-output.csv', index = False, header=True)
Good morning! Happy Ground Hog Day. 🐻 He didn’t see his shadow, six more weeks of winter. Though maybe NOAA does not agree 👎 as they’re talking about the upper forties and maybe even fifty come mid next week. But tomorrow in the mean time will be cold. ❄ Didn’t turn the heat down today before work and will turn it up a bit and leave the cabinets under the sink before bed 🛏.
Partly sunny and 18 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☀ There is a south breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at around noontime. 🌡️
After a fairly cold start for the morning walk 🚶 it is warming up slowly but surely. But that certainly won’t be the case come Friday. I plan to walk tomorrow but maybe not in the evening if it’s too cold. Might instead try to maximize my lunch time walk inside at the State Museum.
Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 36 degrees at 2pm. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 14th. South wind 6 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had light snow. The high last year was 27 degrees. The record high of 53 was set in 1981. 11.9 inches of snow fell back in 2015.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:10 pm with sun having an altitude of 30.5° from the due south horizon (-40.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:29 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (248°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:10 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 9 seconds with dusk around 5:39 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇
At dusk you’ll see the Full 🌝 Moon in the east (83°) at an altitude of 35° from the horizon, 251,314 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:14 pm. At sunset, look for clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 33 degrees. There will be a south-southwest breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 4 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 23 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a chance of snow showers, mainly between 11pm and 3am. Partly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 7 degrees at 6am. Eight degrees below normal. Haven’t heard that phrase in a long time. Maximum wind chill around -6 at 6am; South wind 9 to 17 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. In 2022, we had light snow. It got down to 24 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1955.
Saturdaycold and sunny, Sunday mild and cloudy. Worse of both worlds. 😕 Saturday, mostly sunny, with a high near 16. West wind 7 to 15 mph. Going to call Mr. Wolcott to see if he will be around in the afternoon. Then maybe a maul walk with the muzzle on and toons playing to get in steps and experience the uoou. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. Sunday I think I’ll wash my truck after seeing the parents. Typical average high for the weekend is 34 degrees.
As previously noted, next Thursday is Average High is 35 ☀️ when the sun will be setting at 5:20 pm with dusk at 5:48 pm. On that day in 2022, we had snow, mostly cloudy and temperatures between 24 and 8 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 57 back in 1925.
Sometimes I wish I had studied cartography and remote sensing in college 📡🌎
Truth be told, it wasn’t really a serious option some 20 years ago. While a handful of colleges offered classes in GIS and remote sensing, it was very much in it’s infancy …
Back then computers had very limited memory, hard drive and processing power — hard drives were rated in gigabytes and memory in hundred megabytes — and no ultra-fast solid-state hard drives
With large GIS files, it would have been impossible to download them over a dial-up internet
The quality of GIS data back in 2000 was rather poor as sensors were crude, GPS recorders were a new and expensive technology, the Census TIGER/Line files were rather geographically inaccurate
In 2000, a lot of now-freely available on the Internet data was only available for purchase, and it was expensive and came on multiple CD-ROMs
While there was rather cryptic but powerful GRASS back then, there was no Quantum GIS, which has become a very powerful open-source GIS program in the past twenty years
The disadvantage to not having formal training, is one doesn’t see things in an ordered, formal way. I learned how to make maps and use GIS data in a hands-on-way, and only learned the minimal terminology and methods required to get desired output. I understand the doings of map making, but not so much the theory. I have been reading open college textbooks to pick up some more of the formal theory behind maps, but a lot of methods are crude and just based on experience of what works.
But I am kind of glad that I don’t do map making professionally. It really frees me up to do my own thing, on my own time, not having to worry about conflicts with work. If I do a map or GIS research for an activist group, nobody can say I’m utilizing work equipment, skills or data I acquired from my job. Instead, I am doing it totally on my own based on my own studies and knowledge.
I’ve looked a bit at college classes nowadays, but they’re rather expensive, and I’m not sure how much they would benefit me. I guess it would be something to put on a resume, but I am generally happy with my current career, and the cost is high for getting a certification in something I am fairly familiar with at least on a practical perspective. Plus, I often think any classroom learning would be out of date, compared to what I am using nowadays with Quantum GIS and other open source tools and data.
Good evening! Mostly clear and 23 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west breeze at 7 mph. 🍃. There are 2 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around noontime. 🌡️
Cold evening for the walk 🚶 but actually pretty normal for winter but after the January that was it feels even colder but truth is that I’m just not used to it. But by next week things will be pushing 50 again. 🏢 Ever since I stepped out of the office this evening it was so cold out, even though I feel comfortable inside as I turned on the space heater then the electric blanket.
Tonight will have increasing clouds ☁, with a low of 17 degrees at 12am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 11th. Maximum wind chill around 15 at 8pm; West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming south after midnight. In 2022, we had snow in the evening, which became light snow by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 20 degrees. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1961.
I had a rough day 😕 though I realize my problems are all inside my head. It’s a tough world out there, I have to do the best I can to navigate it and invest in my own future 🔮 and not take on other people’s problems. A lot of things are unfair and I often think I’m getting a raw deal 🤝 but I have it a lot better off then many people.
I watched somebody run a stopped school 🚸 bus this morning and then I found out that the state tightened who could free file this year, so I’m left studying my options for how to file my taxes. 📂 Maybe I’ll do paper 📄. But it made me angry 😡 especially after hearing how state leaders want to expand benefits for migrants. I think our state should encourage immigration but people should be working and encouraged to open businesses. Taxed enough already, especially when I’ve worked so hard and the government is handing out freebies left and right.
I never understood the anger 💢 of my dairy farming friend over government welfare benefits to the poor but when you work your ass off at 5 am, 🐮 and pay a shit ton of taxes on your land, you can understand the anger. Farms pay remarkably high taxes in New York even after all the programs. I know the feeling.
Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous 🌔 Moon with 88% illuminated. At 7 PM, the moon was in the east-southeast (107°) at an altitude of 58° from the horizon, some 249,989 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. 🚀 At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by August 10th. Buckle up for safety! 💺.
The Snow ❄ Moon is on Sunday, February 5. The darkest hour is at 12:10 am, followed by dawn at 6:41 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:11 am in the east-southeast (113°) and last for 3 minutes and 9 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 2 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:52 am with sun in the east-southeast (120°).Tonight will have 13 hours and 56 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 22 seconds over last night.
Tomorrow will be partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny 🌞, with a high of 37 degrees at 4pm. Four degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 18th. South wind 6 to 11 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 27 degrees. The record high of 53 was set in 1981. 11.9 inches of snow fell back in 2015.❄
The truth is I’m just bitter about the cold today. 🌬️ The sun was nice but it was just such a nasty reminder about winter. I really want to get away from the long cold winters of New York but everything just takes so much longer financially and on my life then I would hope. I keep saving for a better tomorrow but I always feel like I’m treading on thin ice, if not falling through the ice gasping 😲 for air. Somehow at age 40 I thought I would be farther along in life, be more financially secure and have my own land 🚜. I just work so hard, and it’s such a slap in the face. But I’ll keep pushing, as I understand the power of compounding.
In four weeks on March 1 the sun will be setting in the west (261°) at 5:45 pm,🌄 which is 36 minutes later then tonight. In 2021 on that day, we had mostly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 41 and 17 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 40 and 22 degrees. The record high of 66 degrees was set back in 2017.
Looking ahead, March 🌨 is a month away, Ides of March ✝ is in 6 weeks, April Fools Day 🤡 is in 2 months, May 🕊 is in 3 months, Average High is 70 🐮 is in 14 weeks, Pack Rat Day 🐀 is in 15 weeks, 9 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 4 months, June 🍹 is in 4 months, Summer ️⛱️ is in 20 weeks, July 🏊🏿 is in 5 months, Hottest Time of the Year 😅 is in 22 weeks, Dog Days of Summer 🌻 is in 22 weeks, August 🌻 is in 6 months, Average High Falls To 79 ️Degrees ⛱️️️ is in 30 weeks, Average High 70 🎑 is in 7 months, September 🍎 is in 7 months, Labor Day Weekend Begins 👨🏭 is in 7 months, More Night then Day 🌌 is in 34 weeks, October 🎃 is in 8 months, Last Sunset After 6:30 PM 🌆 is in 35 weeks, Average High is 55 🍂 is in 9 months, November 🥧 is in 9 months, Day After Election Day 🛀 is in 40 weeks, December 🎄 is in 10 months and Saint Nicholas Day 🎅 is in 44 weeks.
