Good evening! Partly clear and 49 degrees in Bethlehem, NY. There is a west breeze at 14 mph. A nice evening with some fog, but very mild. The full moon is nice. Got up to 54 degrees but not quite warm enough to break today’s record of 56. A big cool down coming tomorrow with temperatures dropping to 29 degrees by rush hour Friday night. Kind of damp and rainy all day though.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 36 degrees at 6am. 21 degrees above normal. West wind 14 to 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2016, it got down to 12 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1968.

Tonight is the Wolf Moon tonight with 95% illuminated. The Last Quarter Moon is on Thursday, January 19th. The Full “Snow” Moon is on Saturday, February 11th. The sun will rise at 7:23 am with the first light at 6:52 am, which is 23 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 38 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 1 minutes and 33 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a temperature falling to around 29 by 5pm. Breezy, with a northwest wind 17 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 25 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1932. 13.1 inches of snow fell back in 1964.

A nice weekend coming up with seasonable temperatures. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 26. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 34.Typical average high for the weekend is 30 degrees.

In four weeks on February 9 the sun will be setting at 5:20 pm, which is 35 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 32 and 23 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 33 and 16 degrees. The record high of 57 degrees was set back in 1925.

Looking ahead, Ground Hog Day is in 3 weeks, Daylight Savings Time is in 2 months and Start of June is in 20 weeks.

I would describe today’s weather as being warm, damp and cloudy. Temperatures are around 49 degrees and are expected to rise to maybe 52 degrees. This would be a cold, wet day in mid May but it’s pretty mild for January. Walked down to the express bus and so far the rain has held off but it is foggy as you head into the city. Often when it is mild in the winter, it tends to be damp.

I was rather tired and achy last night so I decided to skip going down to the library in favor of doing my evening walk earlier. It was good as it meant I was in bed by nine and asleep by nine thirty. Got a good night’s sleep, not real groggy this morning compared to recent days. Sunrise this morning was 7:23 AM, so slowly we are gaining more light in the morning.

Evenings in contrast are getting longer much quicker. The sun will set at 4:44 pm with dusk around 5:16 pm, which is 1 minutes and 8 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 9 hours and 21 minutes of daylight, an increase of 1 minute and 31 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of rain before 8pm, then a chance of showers between 8pm and midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low of 36 degrees at 6am. Still quite mild, 22 degrees above normal. Southwest wind 7 to 12 mph becoming west 13 to 18 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 12 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -18 occurred back in 1968.

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until Ground Hog Day when the sun will be setting at 5:11 pm with dusk at 5:41 pm. On that day in 2016, we had partly sunny skies and temperatures between 46 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1981.