It’s such a glistening and beautiful winter day here at the State Forest. I wish I had cross country skis after mine got worn out, snapped, then chopped up burnt last winter. So much fiberglass in those skis, and they held up for 20 years, but like all things, they don’t last forever.

Good afternoon! Partly cloudy and 26 degrees at the Rensselaerville State Forest. ⛅ There is a north breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. The trees are still covered with snow and there is something we haven’t seen in a long time — blue skies. There is a 6 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Wednesday around 1 pm. 🌡️

It is remarkably beautiful out today. 😀 Cold but beautiful. Yet that’s to be expected camping in the winter up in the mountains. The good news is the road is nice and solid this time for camping, so not playing in the mud or getting wet. The snow is frozen fairly solid, but also is light in fluffy. If I had skis, this would be almost ideal weather for skiing. 🚲 After lunch and finishing setting up camp 🏕 and gathering firewood 🪵 I plan to ride some of CCC Road and maybe go down to the OSI Parcel 📸 to look at the snow covered mountains. Then come back to camp and have a good fire. 🔥

This afternoon will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 29 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. North wind around 11 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 2016. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 2004.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 30.8° from the due south horizon (-40.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:31 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 5:13 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 5:42 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:16 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 27 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 23 seconds over yesterday.

One thing that’s nice about this time of year 🌆 is we are definitely picking up more daylight in the evening, which makes it not as long at camp. That’s good as the nights can drag on. Going to be fairly cold but not super cold by the campfire for tonight, and I will have a nice fire.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 18 degrees at 4am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 15th. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 1am; Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 13 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1978.

Looking ahead to next weekend, the following Saturday is Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 when the sun will be setting at 5:23 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy, mild, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1955.