Good evening! Light rain and 46 degrees in the City of Albany. Calm wind. I guess I’m glad I brought my umbrella. I could actually use it downtown walking across the street to the bus shelter because it wasn’t whipping around too hard. 

Tonight will have showers likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low of 38 degrees at 6am. Six degrees above normal. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 8 mph in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2016, it got down to 34 degrees under partly cloudy skies. The record low of zero occurred back in 1923.

I should be home in time for the PBS Newshour to be over, so I should be able to watch the version I taped while I eat my dinner. I don’t know what to say about the president trashing all our country’s climate control efforts but I guess we are all victims of history. That year 2050 when I retire will be here before you know it. And if we keep dumping increasingly large amounts of carbon into the air, it’s only going to increase human misery. 

I mean I like all the things that cheap fossil fuels bring to us, but it’s stupid to be so foolish. We got to do something, at least go after the low hanging fruit. Even if carbon dioxide wasn’t poisoning our planet, like every drag on a cigarette does to our health, coal is a dirty nasty fuel that poisons our air and creates an incredible amount of solid waste. It’s stupid to double down on such technology especially because there is such a glut of natural gas and more and more renewables are coming online every day. 

Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 8% illuminated. The moon will set around 9:50 pm. The First Quarter Moon is next Monday with mostly cloudy skies expected. The Full “Pink” Moon is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 6:42 am with the first light at 6:13 am, which is one minute and 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. Tonight will have 11 hours and 23 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy, with a high of 49 degrees at 3pm. One degree below normal. Northwest wind 9 to 16 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies and a high of 46 degrees. The record high of 85 was set in 1946. 5.6 inches of snow fell back in 1984.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend and a bit cold for early April. Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 45. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 48. Typical average high for the weekend is 52 degrees. I guess no turning off the heat yet. That day will come and it will be like throwing a switch I’m sure. We will have forty degree weather than 80 degrees the next day. That’s spring time in Albany. 

In four weeks on April 25 the sun will be setting at 7:49 pm, which is 31 minutes and 56 seconds later then today. In 2016 on that day, we had cloudy skies and temperatures between 59 and 45 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 63 and 41 degrees. The record high of 89 degrees was set back in 2009.

Looking ahead, Tax Day is in 3 weeks, Arbor Day is in 1 months, Average High is 70 is in 7 weeks, Independence Day is in 14 weeks, Election Day 2018 is in 84 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 188 weeks.