January 10, 2018 Night

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Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. Definitely a mild evening, although I ended up staying home. There is a south breeze at 11 mph. The skies will clear Sunday around 3 am.

Tonight will have a chance of freezing rain before 3am, then a slight chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 31 degrees at 10pm. 14 degrees above normal. South wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of -25 occurred back in 1968.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 28% illuminated. The moon will rise at 2:27 am. The New Moon is on Monday night. The Blue Moon is on Tuesday, January 30th. The sun will rise at 7:24 am with the first light at 6:52 am, which is 18 seconds earlier than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 41 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 25 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy, with a high of 46 degrees at 2pm. 16 degrees above normal. Super warm for January. South wind 8 to 10 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 1975. 8 inches of snow fell back in 1922.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Saturday, freezing rain and sleet before 4pm, then a chance of snow and sleet. High near 31. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Yucky. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 19. Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

Based on the latest forecast for the weekend, I would say it’s not likely that I will get out camping this weekend. Maybe next. It is January so cold, icy days are to be expected. I’ll continue working on some various electronics projects. 

In four weeks on February 7 the sun will be setting at 5:17 pm, which is 35 minutes and 17 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had rain, drizzle, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, snow, sleet, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 35 and 27 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. The record high of 48 degrees was set back in 2005.

Spliced a USB cable to provide power to the max7219 matrix I’ve been playing with. It works pretty good, although I was having problems linking the units together using solder bridges, so I ended up soldering together pins and making a few messes I will had to clean up. I’m learning and while the matrices aren’t free, they are under $9 a piece. I haven’t permanently damaged any with my soldering skills but I did make a mess and ended up desoldering one from the series in an attempt to make things work again. This weekend I will fashion up a case, and a more permanent power supply that doesn’t involve alligator clips. I’ve ordered a set of five DS3231 chips which will give me the exact time and temperature to use in my programs for the next five arduino projects I build. Having the time means that I can build alarm clocks or more importantly call specific events or messages at particular times. Imagine that those LED matrix could know the time and wish you a Good Morning at seven o’clock and a Happy Birthday on  your birthday. Or many other uses. 

Looking ahead, Blue Moon is in 3 weeks, February Save the Pine Bush Dinner – 40th Anniversary is in 6 weeks, Independence Day is in 25 weeks and Inaugeration Day 2021 is in 158 weeks.

Only 134 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!

The Congressional Map Has A Record-Setting Bias Against Democrats

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The Congressional Map Has A Record-Setting Bias Against Democrats

"When Democrats think about their party’s problems on the political map, they tend to think of President Trump’s ability to win the White House despite losing the popular vote and Republicans’ potent efforts to gerrymander congressional districts. But their problems extend beyond the Electoral College and the House: The Senate hasn’t had such a strong pro-GOP bias since the ratification of direct Senate elections in 1913."

"Even if Democrats were to win every single 2018 House and Senate race for seats representing places that Hillary Clinton won or that Trump won by less than 3 percentage points — a pretty good midterm by historical standards — they could still fall short of the House majority and lose five Senate seats."

"This is partly attributable to the nature of House districts: GOP gerrymandering and Democratic voters’ clustering in urban districts has moved the median House seat well to the right of the nation. Part of it is bad timing. Democrats have been cursed by a terrible Senate map in 2018: They must defend 25 of their 48 seats1 while Republicans must defend just eight of their 52."

The Sahara Desert, Painted White With Snow

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PHOTOS: The Sahara Desert, Painted White With Snow

"For a few fleeting hours Sunday, people perched in the arid heights of northwest Algeria caught sight of something rarely seen: the Sahara Desert, shrouded in white. Residents of Ain Sefra, a small town surrounded by the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa, walked outside to find a dusting of snow underfoot — and more than a foot of it crowding the town's outer boundaries."

"While it's not unheard of — snow visited this landscape in December 2016, after all — the wintry weather is indeed rare for the region: As NPR's Maggie Penman pointed out at the time, the last major snowfall in Ain Sefra before that happened in 1979."

AccuWeather

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AccuWeather

"Off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, Jonathan Nimerfroh, a photographer, captured stunning footage of a natural phenomena called slurpee waves:"

January 10, 2018 10:50 am Update

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While it will be in the upper 40s to end out the week, we should have another arctic blast — but not quite as bad this time — come Sunday into Martin Luther King Day. But then another warm up for the end of the following week?