Good evening! Cloudy and 15 degrees in Delmar, NY. Breezy, 22 mph breeze from the northwest with gusts up to 38 mph. The current wind chill is -3. Cold and it will only get colder as the night progresses. I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere until tomorrow morning, and when I head out tomorrow, it will be based on the real-time bus information and with a face mask on. Tomorrow will be like North Dakota or Alaska. 

Tonight will have a chance of snow before 1am, then a slight chance of snow showers after 1am. Patchy blowing snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 3 degrees at 6am. 12 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -16 at 6am; Blustery, with a northwest wind 17 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -24 occurred back in 1904. It will be frigid but not record breaking. 

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon with 86% illuminated. The moon will set tomorrow at 10:04 am. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with mostly cloudy skies. The Blue Moon is on Tuesday, January 30th. The sun will rise at 7:25 am with the first light at 6:53 am, which is 3 seconds earlier than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 49 minutes of darkness, a decrease of one minute and 3 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have patchy blowing snow. Mostly cloudy and cold, with a high of 7 degrees at 1pm. 24 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -17 at 6pm; Breezy, with a west wind 16 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. A year ago, we had mist in the morning, remaining cloudy in the afternoon. The high last year was 29 degrees. The record high of 64 was set in 1950. 8 inches of snow fell back in 1891.

Cold winter weekend on tap. Saturday, partly sunny and cold, with a high near 2. Wind chill values as low as -30. Blustery, with a northwest wind 18 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 14. Typical average high for the weekend is 31 degrees.

Today they closed down all of the Assembly and Senate offices starting at 12:30. I had some work to do, so I stayed until one. Went out and got a drink, then headed home. Roads seemed pretty bad but what do I know, I don’t drive the bus. Didn’t seem that bad upstate but I guess with everything closed downstate, I wasn’t going to get much done at any rate. Made it better for my colleagues that have long commutes. The blowing snow may have caused whiteouts later on, I don’t know. 

I finished mounting the LEDs in the fixtures and making some upgrades to thicker wire for the controller I built. They work well although I’m thinking of cutting the strips slightly shorter and resoldering so the wires fit neater in the fixature. I also have an issue to address relating to one three set of LEDs malfunctioning. 

In four weeks on February 1 the sun will be setting at 5:09 pm, which is 33 minutes and 36 seconds later then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, mist, mostly cloudy skies and temperatures between 40 and 22 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 32 and 15 degrees. The record high of 65 degrees was set back in 1989.

Looking ahead, Independence Day is in 5 months.

Only 140 days remain until the start of Memorial Day Weekend!