Good morning! Happy Thursday. No sun. ☁ No surprises on that front. Two weeks to the Wolf Moon 🐺🌕 . Cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ Calm wind. There is a dusting of snow on the ground. ☃ Things will start to thaw out at around 9 am. 🌡️

It’s a very typical Upstate NY winter morning. 🌨 Cool and gray as I’m out on my morning walk, the air tastes like barnyard and diesel smoke there is a lot of dampness in the air. If it was more normal times, I would be catching the express bus 🚍 downtown and be almost in the office. 🏢

Today will have a chance of snow, mixing with rain after noon, then gradually ending. Cloudy 🌧, with a high of 38 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 26th. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 45 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1932. 9 inches of snow fell back in 1999.❄

I think I will follow my usual Thursday plan – shop at lunchtime, 🛍 gas up the truck ⛽ and then go to library for afternoon work session. 📚 When I’m down there I’ll get some files I need, including some old LANDSTAT and declassified satellite photos from the 1960s and 1970s. 🛰 I think I could do some very interesting projects with them. I also would like to update my podcasts and maybe get some videos. Friday I’ll probably go down to the office to do paperwork. But first a shower then my morning walk on this kind of cloudy and depressing morning. At some point the sun will shine again.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.1° from the due south horizon (-44.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:03 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (241°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:47 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 5:17 pm, which is one minute and 10 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (230°) at an altitude of 11° from the horizon, 239,728 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:53 pm. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and temperatures around 37 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 9 hours and 23 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 37 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 28 degrees at 5am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around March 22nd. Light north wind. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 29 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1957.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, rain showers likely before 4pm, then rain and snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a high near 40. West wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 37. Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

I think it’s fair to say that any plans of the Adirondacks is toast, 🥑 not that I have ever had avocado toast, but the stable of emojis lacks a toaster. Save money by staying home I guess, although that’s not nice to my power bill, although I’ve come to realization that weather and the thermostat controlling the main gas heat downstairs has the biggest impact on the gas and electric bill. Don’t get me started on the “Save 10% on your electric bill with renewables crap,” which only is the supply part of electric bill, which really is all of about 25 cents because everything is delivery and the mandatory minimum fees.🔌 So many of those renewable schemes are scams, which are promoted as the planet burns. 🌎

🌹🌻🌼Only 65 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!🌹🌻🌼It seems like it was only last Saturday that spring was 10 weeks away. I guess you subtract 5 from 70, you come up with sixty-five. Spring is coming, or so I tell myself.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Wolf Moon 🌕 when the sun will be setting at 5:03 pm with dusk at 5:33 pm. On that day in 2020, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 37 and 31 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 56 back in 1916.