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 with and 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.