Good morning! It is currently bright and sunny with 22 degrees in Albany. A cold start to an otherwise pleasant Thursday. Today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 42. South wind 8 to 13 mph.

Sunset will be at 5:03 pm with twilight at 5:33 pm which is one minute and 18 seconds later then yesterday. Tonight we will have a Waning Gibbous Moon with 67% illuminated. It will rise at 9:45 pm. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday and the New Moon is on February 8.

There are 4 months, 15 days until Flag Day. Think warm thought but don’t forget your history.

This day in 1977 was first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumps 10 feet of snow in one-day in Upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas most affected. During this blizzard windchills dropped to negative 70s, and it was so cold that National Fuel Gas ran dangerously low on natural gas and businesses and homeowners were asked to turn down their heat and curtail all non-essential gas uses.

Talk about being cold. Fortunately, it won’t be that cold in the Albany for the foreseeable future. Actually the weekend looks fairly warm, and it’s going to be fairly decent. I might even go to the Adirondacks for a night and some hiking on Saturday. Right now February looks to be mild with conditions nothing like 1977 in Buffalo.