New office, new week, new position. I am rather excited but a bit nervous at the same time. Everybody says I’ll be a natural at it, data science is my kind of thing, and it’s not like I’m moving to a new company — just a new division out in suburbs. Catching the earlier bus in this morning, just because with the snow I don’t want to miss the transfer to the shuttle on my first day at the new position. Plus it gives me some time to walk in the Empire State Plaza.

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. While it wasn’t snowing earlier, the snow has started and there are 20 degrees at the Delmar, NY. ❄ Calm wind. So far there is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ In the mean time, we are in a bit of a cold spell, with things will start to thaw out next Monday around noontime. 🌡️ A decade or so ago, such weather was not uncommon in Albany, but in recent years periods below freezing for any length of time are quite unusual.

Today will snow. 🌨 High of 27 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees below normal. Light and variable wind becoming northeast around 6 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1995. 15.1 inches of snow fell back in 1945.❄

Just kind of a day with nuisance snow. ❄️ It’s what in years past you would expect from winter, but it’s become so rare, especially during this El Nino year. The flip side is that in like two weeks things on average start to warm, as the days start getting longer and the sun angle starts to rapidly increase. The flip side is that the past few years, we’ve actually had some of our coldest spells during early to mid-February, though when they end, there is usually a quick warm up. That said, it seems in recent years, while early winter is quite mild, February and March tend to roar more then you’d think they should from the historical statistics.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.4° from the due south horizon (-44.5° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:04 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (242°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:48 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 5:18 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (192°) at an altitude of 49° from the horizon, 227,437 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:54 pm. At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 26 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 7 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 30 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 42 seconds over today.

Yesterday, I went for a bike ride out to Voorheesville, 🚲 and while the rail trail had a dusting of snow and some ice, it really wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed the ride, though leaving the rail trail on exit ramp to the Kenwood Avenue, almost wiped out when my bike hit some black ice and I spun at least 90 degrees until I used the brakes to get to a controlled stop. Road around the village for a bit and then came home. Returned my library books. 📚 I’m sure I’ll get dinged and have to pay for the book that I damaged camping in early December, but I figure just bring them the $20 the next time I’m at the library. It happens some time.

Tonight will snow likely, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy 🌨, with a low of 14 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical Maximum wind chill around 2 at 5am; Northwest wind 9 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 18 degrees. The record low of -23 occurred back in 1971.

Soup and fresh bread 🍲 🍞 have been baked for tonight after I get home. Bean soup with a lot of chili powder and cummin, so it’s basically a chilli like soup with carrots 🥕 and onions. Should be delicious. 😋

A cold weekend on tap. ⛅ 🌬 Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 17. Blustery. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 25. Blustery. Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees.

Looking ahead, dairyman want you to know that, next Tuesday is National Cheese Lovers Day 🧀 when the sun will be setting at 4:58 pm with dusk at 5:27 pm. Cheese is wonderful but loaded with so much saturated fats, the omega-6 types, the less healthy stuff. But the calcium is good as is the taste. 😋 On that day in 2023, we had snow and temperatures between 34 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 64 back in 1906.