October 9, 2017 10 PM Update

Good evening! As we close out our Indigenous People and Columbus Day, it’s pretty hot and muggy out. But in the past hour the breeze has picked up and the mercury dropped a bit, making it a bit more bareable. Mostly cloudy with a handful of stars and 68 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west breeze at 10 mph. The dew point is a muggy 66 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 1 am.

Columbus Day Weekend came and went pretty quickly. The weather just sucked for most of the weekend, so I didn’t get out and do as much hiking, hunting, camping or fishing as I would have liked. Had I had my druthers about it all, I would tonight be camping in West Virigina. Maybe next week at this time. All depends on the weather and if I can get the time off from work.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 61 degrees at 4am. 19 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 10pm. Definately leave your windows open tonight. Northwest wind around 10 mph. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 39 degrees. The record low of 25 occurred back in 1980. Not tonight for sure.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon with 75% illuminated. The moon will set tomorrow at 12:21 pm. The Last Quarter Moon is on Thursday night with a chance of showers. The Beaver Moon is on Friday, November 3rd. The sun will rise at 7:02 am with the first light at 6:34 am, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 12 hours and 42 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 50 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 75 degrees at 3pm. 13 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 59 at 6am. Northwest wind 7 to 9 mph. Should be a nice day, with a touch of humidity. But bearable. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 59 degrees. The record high of 89 was set in 1939. 0.8 inches of snow fell back in 1925.

The weekend forecast continues to look quite nice, but maybe a chance of showers on Sunday. A touch of humidity for the weekend. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 74. Maximum dew point of 60 at 2pm. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 75. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 60 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 61 degrees.

I am going to take a wait and see approach about taking next week off. Ultimately I may decide taking a West Virigina trip in favor of some shorter trips to various places. It all depends on the weather. But for now, the weekend and next week is starting to look pretty good.

In four weeks on November 6 the sun will be setting at 4:41 pm (Standard Time), which is one hour, 40 minutes and 40 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 51 and 35 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 52 and 34 degrees. The record high of 73 degrees was set back in 2015. November will be here before you know it.

Posted a bunch of new content graphs that I made up over the long weekend, and will have even more content to post over the week. Stop by check frequently for new and interesting data and maps I will be posting.

Decided I didn’t like the polarizer I got for my dashcam, so I removed it for now. The problem with the polarizer, like all of them is if they aren’t set right in front of the camera they can cause part of the image to be dark, and make shadows work. The polarizer does make the skies really blue and can help the colors pop, but honestly, I think prefer the natural, unpolarized landscape better. I might use it more in the winter when there is a lot of snow kicking up reflections on the landscape.

Looking ahead, Christmas is in 11 weeks, January 1, 2018 is in 12 weeks and 35th Birthday is in 16 weeks.

I am getting tired, so I probably should retire to bed. Good night!

Bennett Hill Overlook

A little bit but not a lot of color looking out from Bennett Hill Preserve Overlook.

EPA Chief Announces Reversal Of Obama-Era Curbs On Coal Plants

EPA Chief Announces Reversal Of Obama-Era Curbs On Coal Plants

"The Trump administration will scuttle an Obama-era clean power plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, made the announcement in Hazard, Ky., on Monday, saying the rule hurt coal-fired plants. "The EPA and no federal agency should ever use its authority to say to you we are going to declare war on any sector of our economy," Pruitt said, speaking at an event with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "That rule really was about picking winners and losers," the EPA administrator said, adding that the rule change would be signed on Tuesday. The announcement had been anticipated. It would eliminate the Clean Power Plan that was put on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court and therefore never implemented."

Here is General Motors’ New ‘Truck’ Intended for Governmental Use

Here is General Motors’ New ‘Truck’ Intended for Governmental Use

"Regardless of whether it’s brought upon us by climate change, divine intervention, or civil unrest, the end times are right around the corner β€” and the government is going to need a rugged and versatile vehicle for the impending apocalypse. The automaker with the chops to deliver such a platform? General Motors."

"Apparently not Skunk Works levels of classified, GM publicly announced the Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure (SURUS) on Friday morning. While not the classic image of a motorized vehicle, the design is intended to serve as the underlying architecture of governmental and commercial transports alike. While the specific government applications are a question mark, the platform’s fuel cell system allows it to run silently with a minimal heat signature β€” making it ideal for sneaking men and munitions behind enemy lines."

Murder Weapons By State In 2016

This map shows the murder rate by state, with detailed statistics when you click on a state. Alabama and Florida are excluded on this map as these states don't report the necessary data to the US DOJ. Fields ending with '_1' represent the number of murders per million residents.

Data Source: US DOJ / FBI. Unified Crime Reporting System. Murders, by Weapon-type. Table 12. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2016/crime-in-the-u.s.-2016/topic-pages/violent-crime/murder