Good afternoon as we sit five weeks out from Election Day !  🗳 It will be here before you know it, or so I promise myself. Cloudy and damp and 66 degrees in North Syracuse. ☁ The rain has stopped for now, it was raining hard earlier. Calm wind. The dew point is 63 degrees.

This afternoon will have showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and heavy rain. ☔ High of 68 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 64 at 4pm. 🏖️ Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 69 degrees. The record high of 85 was set in 1927. There was a dusting of snow in 1899.❄

Kind of a busy day today, with just a lot of various random things going on. 🏑 Nothing too major, just kind of one of those Tuesdays. Kind of damp and wet out — it was pouring out when I ran out to my truck to head to work. 🌧 Fortunately the rain coat was in my truck. Made it into the office and got down to work. Finally got around to picking up, as the office need a good vacuum. 👏

The sun will set at 6:43 pm with dusk around 7:11 pm, which is one minute and 46 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for cloudy skies with a chance of thunderstorms ☁ and 66 degrees. The dew point will be 63 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 11 hours and 39 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have showers and thunderstorms likely before midnight, then a slight chance of showers between midnight and 1am. Some of the storms could produce gusty winds and heavy rain. Patchy fog after 4am. Otherwise, cloudy ☔ , with a low of 53 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 63 at 6pm. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 41 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1945.

Still thinking on Friday if the weather looks nice to head down to Labrador Hollow to hike up Jones Hill and watch the sun set. 🌄 Alternatively, I could do an early morning hike, which might be nice, because then the sun would be in the right direction to see the best colors, and i wouldn’t have to drive back in the darkness. I will have to consider my options.

I was reading last night on how easy it is to adjust the headlights on Big Red. 🔦 I think I just need a very big hex key, maybe actually a hex socket based on the side of the adjuster when I opened the hoot. While the lights aren’t extraordinarily badly aimed, I am thinking if I aimed them lower I might get more light on the road, which would help on dark and rainy nights, and annoy other drivers less. Honestly, I don’t think I will be able to do it until I get home, just because I need a flat place to park with a wall to measure the height.

Other then that, really a whole lot new to report. Just the usual. Very busy with work. 💼 The headphones are working good with my laptop, 🎧 Big Red seems to be working well, I am looking forward to my big November camping trip. I hope the weather is a whole lot nicer then today. I will need to clean out Big Red before I go, check the oil, maybe adjust the headlights. I am looking forward to those long November nights, seeing some of Allegany County and doing some hunting and just relaxing, eating good food that doesn’t come out of a can. While I’ve had plenty of pizza lately, I just like the taste of pizza I make in that camp oven — might be even better if I used the camp over charcoal or coals.

Looking ahead, there are 5 weeks until Election Day 2018 🗳️ when the sun will be setting at 4:49 pm with dusk at 5:19 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2017, we had rain, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 63 and 42 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 52 degrees. We hit a record high of 73 back in 2015.