Good morning! Happy Thursday. Rain with a bit of snow mixing in and 40 degrees in Bethlehem, NY. ☔ For a while it was pouring out. If it was the olden days, I am sure it would have a big snow storm. Days like this I don’t mind working in the dungeon. 🐲 Breezy, ️17 mph breeze from the west 🌬 with gusts up to 28 mph 💨💨💨. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 6 pm. ☃️

With the rain outside and a bit of sniffle 👃 I’m off to work. My eyes are a bit irritated 👀 but that’s not uncommon in the winter on damp days like this. That said after recovering from the Lyme this past December I’ve been quite healthy, maybe because I’m not exposed to so many people like when I worked in the Capitol. 😷 Depending on how I feel after work I might call 📞 John up about his files 📂 but we will see.

Today will rain likely before noon, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between noon and 1pm. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a high of 41 degrees at 8am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 7th. Breezy, with a west wind 17 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became light snow by afternoon. The high last year was 15 degrees. The record high of 61 was set in 1997. 3.6 inches of snow fell back in 2019.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:09 pm with sun having an altitude of 38.9° from the due south horizon (-31.9° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 7.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. Not that you will see your shadow today unless maybe you are talking about the shadow a roof casts to the rain. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:04 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (253°). 📸 The sunset is in the west (259°) starting at 5:39 pm and lasts for 2 minutes and 57 seconds with dusk around 6:10 pm, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the west-southwest (240°) at an altitude of 36° from the horizon, 251,004 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:43 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 34 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 22. ☃️ Breezy, 24 mph breeze ⛅ from the west with gusts up to 41mph. I am glad I won’t need my umbrella in such conditions. Today will have 11 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 22 degrees at 6am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 4th. Maximum wind chill around 8 at 6am; Breezy, with a west wind 17 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. In 2019, we had light snow in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 10 degrees. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1950.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. 😕 Saturday, a slight chance of snow showers after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 28. West wind 8 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. Definitely seems like a good day to do projects around the house. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 35. Typical average high for the weekend is 38 degrees. Maybe Sunday I’ll go hiking again. Maybe Five Rivers bright and early than Thacher Park OSI parcel although this time of year I might want to wear my farm muck boots 👢 for hiking there. Like I thought I’d need for Partridge Run last week but turned out to be a reasonable amount of snow.

🌹🌻🌼Only 21 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼

Two months 📅 from now will be Arbor Day 🌳 when the sun will be setting at 7:51 pm with dusk at 8:21 pm (Daylight Savings Time). By then the evenings will be long enough should I decide to go to the Adirondacks after work for the weekend.