After an afternoon of hiking, I returned back to camp and started a campfire before starting to cook dinner. It was pleasant winter afternoon, not too cold.
Taken on Sunday February 20, 2022 at Rensselearville State Forest.It’s such a glistening and beautiful winter day here at the State Forest. I wish I had cross country skis after mine got worn out, snapped, then chopped up burnt last winter. So much fiberglass in those skis, and they held up for 20 years, but like all things, they don’t last forever.
Good afternoon! Partly cloudy and 26 degrees at the Rensselaerville State Forest. ⛅ There is a north breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. The trees are still covered with snow and there is something we haven’t seen in a long time — blue skies. There is a 6 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at Wednesday around 1 pm. 🌡️
It is remarkably beautiful out today. 😀 Cold but beautiful. Yet that’s to be expected camping in the winter up in the mountains. The good news is the road is nice and solid this time for camping, so not playing in the mud or getting wet. The snow is frozen fairly solid, but also is light in fluffy. If I had skis, this would be almost ideal weather for skiing. 🚲 After lunch and finishing setting up camp 🏕 and gathering firewood 🪵 I plan to ride some of CCC Road and maybe go down to the OSI Parcel 📸 to look at the snow covered mountains. Then come back to camp and have a good fire. 🔥
This afternoon will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 29 degrees at 2pm. Four degrees below normal. North wind around 11 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 33 degrees. The record high of 57 was set in 2016. 6.1 inches of snow fell back in 2004.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:11 pm with sun having an altitude of 30.8° from the due south horizon (-40.1° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 10 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:31 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (241°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (248°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 5:13 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 8 seconds with dusk around 5:42 pm, which is one minute and 18 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 6:16 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 27 degrees. There will be a north-northwest breeze at 11 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 6 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 23 seconds over yesterday.
One thing that’s nice about this time of year 🌆 is we are definitely picking up more daylight in the evening, which makes it not as long at camp. That’s good as the nights can drag on. Going to be fairly cold but not super cold by the campfire for tonight, and I will have a nice fire.
Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃, with a low of 18 degrees at 4am. Three degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 15th. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 1am; Northwest wind 8 to 13 mph. In 2023, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 13 degrees. The record low of -13 occurred back in 1978.
Looking ahead to next weekend, the following Saturday is Clean Your Computer Day 🧹 when the sun will be setting at 5:23 pm with dusk at 5:50 pm. On that day in 2023, we had mostly cloudy, mild, rain showers and temperatures between 51 and 34 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 35 degrees. We hit a record high of 53 back in 1955.
For my 40th birthday, wilderness camping at the Rensselaerville State Forest.
Taken on Saturday January 28, 2023 at Rensselaerville State Forest.You know I’m happier in the woods than in any city, next to the fire burning things and having a good ol time. I knew last night was gonna be cold but it turned out not that bad though today will be cooler. Worked out good bar some issues with the camp stove last night and forgetting salt for the icy campsite and I’m glad to get away even if it’s just one night.
Good morning! Happy Sunday. Mostly cloudy with some snow flurries and 30 degrees at the Rensselaerville State Forest. ☁ There is a south breeze at 9 mph. 🍃. The current wind chill is 22.
I decided to take option 3 and do a quick overnight trip to Rennselearville State Forest. ⛺ I think I’m going to take down camp soon and then head home before the front comes through and brings snow squals with strong winds and it’s cold enough the roads will ice up. I kind of wanted to do two ✌️ nights but I decided it’s not that far if it ends up being one night. It is probably my best chance to get away a bit, next weekend I’m busy with the Reszin documentary and it looks even colder. ❄ Winter has arrived as we enter the coldest part of the year. Little worried too that I’m starting to get a bit of a chest cough, 
you know the one that’s been going around. I’m hoping it’s just a breathed in too much smoke last night.
But first a second pot of coffee ☕. Few snow 🌨 flurries around and I shouldn’t procrastinate but the morning turned out nicer than I had expected with blue skies and a fairly slack wind. Enjoyed the last of the Mariaville Farm Bacon 🥓 from local hogs on sale by Farmer Alice at For the Love of Bacon with the eggs 🥚 and veggies this morning. 🌅 It’s a treat with camping. Wasn’t sure if I was going to get the camp stove working, regulator is giving me trouble again. Wasn’t working at all last night. I slept with it to keep it warm last night and fiddled with the connection and dipped in rubbing alcohol and now it’s working again. Going to add a propane line filter and maybe pick up a second regulator to avoid problems in the future 🔮.
Today will snow showers likely, mainly after noon. Partly sunny 🌦, with a high of 35 degrees at 9am. Two degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around February 9th. Breezy, with a south wind 9 to 14 mph becoming southwest 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches possible. A year ago, we had light snow. The high last year was 30 degrees. The record high of 66 was set in 1932. 9.0 inches of snow fell back in 1999.❄
The wind is what concerns me. 
Some forecasts are talking about windchills especially tonight around 0 degrees. I am not sure I want to be camping out in, plus my camp stove has been acting up in the cold. I’m having issues again with the campstove regulator getting jelled up and plugged with dirt and condensate. I think when I can get home this week, I am going to order a second regulator for the campstove, plus another Big Buddy filter. 
My other propane stove, whose burners ultimately burnt out a second time, had a few issues with this occassionally but this new stove I got last summer has constant issues now that it’s cold, though oddly not all on the Christmas trip to Madison County, though I stored it in the warmth of my truck. 
Though if the Big Buddy filter works like it does with the Big Buddy Heater and the lantern, I expect smooth sailing going forward. 
It’s good to have back ups.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:06 pm with sun having an altitude of 26.1° from the due south horizon (-44.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 12.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 4:03 pm with the sun in the southwest (234°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (241°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:47 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 18 seconds with dusk around 5:18 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon in the southwest (216°) at an altitude of 29° from the horizon, 226,294 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:53 pm. At sunset, look for snow 🌨 and temperatures around 29 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 16. ☃️ Breezy, 22 mph breeze ⛅ from the west with gusts up to 44mph. Today will have 9 hours and 26 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 33 seconds over yesterday.
I am worried enough about the possibility of white out conditions driving home 
that I want to be on the road by 11 AM. I am going to sip my coffee, then take my campsite down before it gets too late. I could for a walk, and the road is hard enough for a bike ride now, but I think I’d rather just head home and avoid the risk of driving on snow-covered roads. Its not like I am on the other side of the earth — it’s a 21 mile drive that takes roughly a half hour, as most of the road is 55 MPH bar Clarksville and Rensselearville. I’m right on a plowed dirt road, and 1,000 feet from asphalt so I’m not worried about being snowed in, but driving home on those hills in snow and ice, could be kind of miserable.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 17 degrees at 4am. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical night around February 11th. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 3am; Breezy, with a southwest wind 17 to 22 mph decreasing to 9 to 14 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Other weather reports are calling for a wind chill closer to 0. I don’t mind such cold when I’m in the truck protected from the wind, but during the evening next to campfire 
that would be downright cold, I’m afraid. Wind worries me more then cold, as it sucks the heat away from your body. That said, my gear is really good for camping down to about 10-15 degrees, much colder then that at night in my unhreated truck cap it gets cold. In 2023, we had light snow in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 19 degrees. The record low of -20 occurred back in 1957.
Still I’m glad I got away for one day. 
Just a night in the woods puts a smile on my face. Despite the woods being wet from rain we’ve had, it was cold enough up here in the State Forest that ground was frozen solid and was able to have a good fire. I’ll head home, get unpacked — it’s not that much stuff for one night 
— and shower. 
Maybe go for a bike ride this afternoon 
or down to the library 
if conditions aren’t too harsh. Or maybe cook up a big pot of chicken soup, 
especially if I’m not feeling good. I am thinking my next trip will be Presidents Day to Moscow Hill Horse Camp 
in Madison County, but we’ll see. Get some nice weather, and maybe I’ll head back to the wilderness sooner for a weekend trip, like during my 41st birthday weekend, though winter is tough. Next weekend will be too cold it appears, plus the Reszin documentary.
Looking ahead, next Sunday starts the Coldest Week of the Year 🌬 when the sun will be setting at 4:57 pm with dusk at 5:26 pm. Martin Luther King 👑 weekend is early this year. On that day in 2023, we had snow showers, cloudy and temperatures between 33 and 30 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 32 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 2006.
While this year was a rainy one, and it rained during many of my trips, I was able to get out for 53 nights in the wilderness — mostly fairly close to home but I also did a trip down to West Virginia in late October with several trips to the Adirondacks, Central New York and summer vacation in the Finger Lakes.
To start out my camping adventures in 2023, I drove out to Charles Baker State Forest and Brookfield Horse Camp. There wasn’t a lot of snow — just a dusting but it was a fun weekend, topped off by a beautiful sun-full glittery hike up Tassell Hill after a hoar frost. Explored Lost Pond and several of the trails in the middle of state forest.
For my fortieth birthday, I took off the Friday leading up to my 40th birthday to cross country ski and winter camp at Rensselaerville State Forest. It was a beautiful weekend with lots of blue skies, sufficient snow for skiing but not so much that was a ton of snowmobiles out on the trails.
I decided for Presidents Day Weekend to do another trip out to Charles Baker State Forest and Brookfield Horse Camp. Slightly more snow then last time but again largely a snow-less winter, with some nice days for hikes through the various truck and horse trails. I hiked around much of state forest, especially the more southern part of the forest.
On Good Friday through Easter I camped at at Rensselaerville State Forest. The snow was gone and it was fairly mild though at times it was a bit cool. Spent a fair amount of time walking around and exploring the new OSI Parcel that has been recently added to state forest and is still largely open fields with sweeping views of the Catskill Mountains.
The first Friday in May I took a half day from work and headed out to Schoharie County to camp at Duck Pond at Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest. Originally the plan was to camp two nights at Duck Pond, hiking along the Long Path and exploring the state forest and then on Sunday hiking the Catskill Scenic Trail. That part of the trip changed when driving along Duck Pond Road the low tire pressure light came on I found a pallet nail in my truck tire. I was able to top off the truck tire and then change the tire when I got home and got the nail pulled and plugged. But it wasn’t the best way ever to end a trip early.
After visiting the folks on Mother’s Day Weekend, I decided to do a quick overnight hammock camp on Cole Hill State Forest in Berne. Nothing fancy or formal, it was as much a way to test out sleeping in my hammock with the bug screen. Kind of a chilly night, I took camp down fairly and headed home early in the morning.
This year I decided to eschew the Adirondacks and Greene Mountains for Memorial Day Weekend due to the black flies, my desire to look at bicycles, and work I had to do on the Saturday morning leading up to the holiday weekend. I decided to hammock camp again Cole Hill State Forest in Berne. This was a three-day two night trip, so it it gave me a chance to bring more gear up the mountain, set up a more formal camp. Cooked on the fire, hiked around the forest. It was a warm weekend, but I enjoy the solitude, along with having good cell service for listening to podcasts and watching videos.
To kick off summer, I did my usual Juneteenth weekend camping trip, tacking on some days on the Juneteenth Holiday Weekend. It was a bit of a cool and rainy weekend to kick off summer, one that would actually be followed by many cool and rainy weekends where I would stay home. Camped at House Pond for the first three nights, spending time down floating in the tube on East Branch while the final night I camped up at Powley Bridge site and kayaked along the East Branch. Really, like often is the case, the best weather was the day I took down camp.
After several months of researching and visiting various bike shops, I finally got a mountain bike. I decided it would be fun to do as much of the Catskill Scenic Trail as I could before my summer vacation got underway. Actually did quite a bit of riding and hiking that weekend — started out hiking Pratts Rock’s then riding from Grand George to Hobart. Sunday, I rode from Fultonham to Middleburgh on NY 30, doing a quick climb up Vromans Nose, then stopping at the farm market then going to Mine Kill State Park to swim. Monday I rode from Hobart down to Bloomville, getting caught in a major thunderstorm and downpour a few miles north of Bloomville with no shelter in sight. The trail became super boggy, then I went to Mine Kill State Park for one more swim, and then out to folks house for Sunday dinner a day later then usual.
Every year for nearly a decade and a half I’ve been doing summer vacation out in the Finger Lakes — camping in the National Forest and exploring as much as possible during my days there. The past few years I’ve been driving there on a Friday, to get a better campsite before they’re taken by the weekend campers. This year was no exception. With Blackie, my mountain bike, I did nearly all of the bike trails in the near vicinity, from the Black Diamond Trail to the Cayuta Valley Trail to Dresden – Penn Yan Canal Trail. Kayaked on both Cayuga and Scenic Lakes, swam many days at Watkins Glen State Park and Taughannock State Park, explored the Cornell Campus and Botanical Gardens on my bike. Got some good ice cream at the Spotted Duck, explored the Geneva Waterfront along with the Cayuga-Seneca Canalway. Some rain but compared to the wet summer that was, this was a pretty good week.
The next few weeks for rainy and by the time I got away for one more long weekend, it promised to be fairly nice weekend but turned out to be fairly cool and cloudy with some rain. Back at the House Pond Campsite, did some swimming in East Branch, but with the mercury in the 60s most of the weekend, I didn’t spend a lot of time in the water. Hardly what I had dreamed when the I planned the weekend. Rode Blackie up to Goldmine Stream Falls and relaxed down by the falls for a bit, also sat down by the swimming hole off of the Old Edick Road Snowmobile Trail, watching the rain fall, bemoaning the wet and cold weather. Still it was good to get away for a bit, and I did do a fair amount of reading in hammock, under the protection of the bug net, as the bugs were bad after such a wet summer.
I took the Friday off before Labor Day to get a jump on the holiday season travel, and set up camp at the site I really enjoy up at Perkins Clearing overlooking the mountains. Did a fair amount of riding along the various dirt roads of Perkins Clearing, including over to Mason Lake and on Sunday rode most of the way to the Spruce Lake Trailhead, though didn’t make it there in time as I got a bit of a late start as I spent the balance of the day reading and swimming in the Jessup River Bridge swimming hole. Labor Day, I rode around the Spectulator Tree Farm, doing a large loop, through the tree farm, past the north end of Elm Lake, then down to Austin Falls and Old Route 8B. I had hoped to get ice cream, but by the time I got to the ice cream shop they were out of soft-ice cream, and there was a long line. Summer was dragging to a close.
With time being fairly tight and the weather only so-so I decided to do a two night trip close to home out in Rennselearville to ride some of the gravel trails, explore the OSI Parcel further and just enjoy an early autumn weekend camping.
Columbus Day Weekend was cold and rainy for the first half of the weekend, but the Sunday heading into Columbus Day was nice, so I decided to head out to Rensselaerville for a quick overnight at the campsite on CCC Road. Leaves were late this year, so not a lot of color, but it still was nice to get away for a night and ride some of the trails around.
The banner trip of the year was my trip down to West Virigina. While it started and ended in rain, it was a very enjoyable trip with lots of new adventures this year. Camped the balance of the week — 6 nights in Canaan Heights — doing day trips from that area. Overnighted one night driving down at County Bridge Campground in Pennsylvania, and a on the way back camped overnight at Long Pond State Forest in New York. Adventures in West Virginia included hiking at Dolly Sods, mountain biking at night in the sods of Canaan Heights, riding up and hiking to Table Rock, exploring Blackwater Falls State Park on the mountain bike, MonPower Mountain Bike Park, Thomas Rail Grade and the Olson Firetower. Rode part of the Great Allegheny Trail through the Cumberland Passage, and the two sections of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canalway, including the Paw Paw Tunnel.
A little over a week back from West Virginia, I headed out to Madison County to ride the Tassel Hill Mountain Bike Trails at Alfred Woodford, the Chenango Canal Trail in Hamilton and Erie Canalway from Chittenango to Green Lakes State Park and then to Canastota and Wampsville. The first night was cold at Stoney Pond but the subsequent nights were quite pleasant and mild.
![Old Canal Warehouse in Chittenango [Expires November 19 2023]](https://andyarthur.org//data/photo_005914_large.jpg)
Strangely enough, I had never been up Prospect Mountain. So I decided the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) to hike up Prospect Mountain, and then spend the next two nights camping on East Branch of the Sacandaga River. The Saturday and Sunday was fairly cold, so I ended up spending the bulk of day hanging around camp, doing a bit of hiking around Fox Lair. Sunday, evening around 8 PM it started to sleet, then snow, then rain, Monday morning, it turned into a white globby snow, and I ended up taking down camp fairly early after discovering I was out of propane and then spent much of the day exploring the Hudson River Special Management Area – Buttermilk Falls.
On the days leading up to Christmas I decided to take a second trip to Madison County. I was originally planning to camp two nights at Stoney Pond then two nights at the Charles Baker Horse Camp but my family’s holiday plans were cancelled due to illness in my family, so I ended up staying an extra night at the horse camp, through the day after Christmas. On Friday, I rode the Erie Canalway from Canastota to East Verona, nearly to Rome. On Christmas Day I rode around many of truck trails at Charles Baker with my mountain bike, leaving my face splattered with mud. Many of the days were fairly cold and cloudy, but that’s too be expected in late December. Still it was a special way to spend Christmas.
Made it to the end of year. Kind of a cloudy, gray, cool day to end out the year — certainly not the best day to be out doing outdoor activities, especially with the breeze and gray skies. Maybe it’s best that my planed camping trip didn’t work out after all.
I was originally planning to be out camping today, but when I got up to camp 🏕 the campsite was taken and everything up at Rensselaerville State Forest was a complete mosh pit, after all the rain we’ve had and above normal temperatures. I poked around the state forest for a while, thought about pitching a tent, but I would be setting up in the mud, and the other campsite — Campsite 3 was a mess because they’ve been logging off CCC Road. I think that red clay is as slick and muddy as I can remember due to it being such a mild, ice free winter. Maybe that black powder guy parked in the campsite did me a favor. I don’t think he was camping, though it seemed like he swapped off that site with another person, which makes me think maybe he had his stand up there and wanted to reserve the site. I’m not that heart broken 💔 about not camping this weekend. I might be back for Martin Luther King Day Weekend, ❄️ which believe it or not is only two weekend away this point. I’m hoping it will be cold enough at that point that I won’t be dealing with all that mud and slop. Some snow would be nice, and most of the big hunting seasons are done 🔫 though trapping is open and as small game.
Back to the table format on the weather, as my blog’s weather template always seems to break for the last day of the year. 🌆 There is a one-day-a-year bug which I should fix but it happens only once in 365 days. I didn’t blog yesterday, at least with a status update as I got a bit of a late start, and was planning to do it up by camp which didn’t happen. Instead, I came home, unpacked my gear 🎒 which didn’t take long as nothing was disorganized or dirty, made some lunch and spent the balance of the day reading and studying my machine learning course. 🤖 This morning I finished up the Udemy Neural Nwtworks for R course and started one on Support Vector Classification for R. 💭 I’ve been thinking I should also do some machine learning courses on Python so I get a full knowledge and various platforms. 👩💻 I’m not opposed to Python though I tend to use R more then Python.
Today for exercise 🚲 I think I’m going to ride out to Voorheesville 🚂 and maybe stop at Hannaford out there to get some baker’s vanilla which I like in my coffee and warm milk at the end of day, plus also some more apple cider vinger which I like in my glass of warm milk at the end of day.. That said, I’m still cringing after spending $200 at the grocery store on Friday, though fortunately I got paid early — I couldn’t believe I got my first 2024 pay check on Friday, when the official pay day is next Wednesday, January 3rd. Paychecks have been coming earlier and earlier, often on Monday mornings, and I know New Years Day or Monday is a holiday, but I just assumed the money would come in on Tuesday. 💵 It’s good though as I paid rent on Friday, 🏘 and I’ve been concerned about having the minimum in bank account.
I guess this sort of makes December, rather then January a three paycheck month, but as long as I keep things coming in and out consistently, I’m good. I just ended up buying a lot groceries, in part for camping but also there was a lot of things I wanted to keep my pantry stocked. That said, it should cut back on what I need in future weeks, as most of the more expensive things I stocked up are the kind of things that should last for a while. I don’t waste food, if things start to go bad, I cut off the bad parts and eat that first. 🍎 But I generally prefer frozen and vegatables, and aren’t afraid to use my freezer.
My parents have continued to be sick on and off 😣 so I’ve not been able to visit them in the few weeks 👪 and I’m not totally sure if we are going to do a get together for New Years Day, 🎆 though we’ve been talking about doing a holiday celebration 🎄 getting together next week for Mom’s birthday with my sister, niece and in-laws, assuming everybody is feeling better by then and the weather is good.
As you will note below, going to be a mild week to start out January, and we are definitely starting to pick up more daylight at end of each day.
| This Afternoon. Feels like … December 18th. |
|
Mostly cloudy. Northwest wind around 8 mph. |
37 degrees | 4:33 sunset |
|
| Tonight. Feels like … December 3rd. |
|
A slight chance of snow showers between 10pm and 4am. Mostly cloudy. Northwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. |
26 degrees | 7:23 sunrise |
|
| New Year’s Day. Feels like … December 22nd. |
|
Mostly cloudy. North wind 3 to 6 mph. |
36 degrees | 4:33 sunset |
|
| Monday Night. Feels like … December 10th. |
|
Mostly clear. Northwest wind 6 to 8 mph. |
24 degrees | 7:23 sunrise |
|
| Tuesday. Feels like … December 9th. |
|
Sunny. West wind 5 to 9 mph. |
40 degrees | 4:34 sunset |
|
| Tuesday Night. Feels like … November 30th. |
|
Partly cloudy. |
27 degrees | 7:23 sunrise |
|
| Wednesday. Feels like … December 6th. |
|
Mostly cloudy. |
41 degrees | 4:35 sunset |
|
| Wednesday Night. Feels like … November 23rd. |
|
Mostly cloudy. |
29 degrees | 7:23 sunrise |
|
| Thursday. Feels like … December 18th. |
|
A chance of snow before 10am, then a chance of rain and snow between 10am and 4pm, then a chance of snow after 4pm. Mostly cloudy. Chance of precipitation is 30%. |
37 degrees | 4:36 sunset |
|
| Thursday Night. Feels like … December 21st. |
|
Mostly cloudy. |
21 degrees | 9 max wind chill | 7:23 sunrise |
| Friday. Feels like … January 5th. |
|
Mostly sunny. |
33 degrees | 9 max wind chill | 4:37 sunset |
| Friday Night. Feels like … December 17th. |
|
Partly cloudy. |
22 degrees | 11 max wind chill | 7:23 sunrise |
| Saturday. Feels like … December 31st. |
|
Partly sunny. |
34 degrees | 11 max wind chill | 4:38 sunset |
The year is coming to a close. I decided to work from home today so I can run to the store midday to get the supplies and food I need for the New Years Eve trip and probably because we’ll get released early and frankly because I don’t expect a busy day today at work today. If I have downtime, might as well work from home. But first a quick ride out to Voorheesville to get some exercise before work starts.
Good morning! Yeah, it’s Friday! Clouds and 42 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ Calm wind. Temperatures will drop below freezing at tomorrow night around 10 pm. ☃️ But first quite mild.
I was pleasantly surprised ☺ that there is no showers around this morning 🚲 and I can do a morning bike ride before work for some exercise and working at home. Some things to do today but should be a generally slow day. At lunch time I want to get propane 🏮 so my tank is full for camping 🏕 along with toothpaste and other things on my list at Walmart. 📃
Today will have a chance of showers. Patchy fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy 🌦, with a high of 47 degrees at 1pm. 12 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 22nd. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 48 degrees. The record high of 71 was set in 1984. 6.0 inches of snow fell back in 1915.❄
I managed to set off the smoke alarm twice this morning while cooking. 🧑🚒 I I’m sure my neighbor loves me for that fortunately he works the early shift. 🍳 Shredded onions and spinach with eggs 🥚 made into a cake with mushrooms and peppers. Pretty good, fiber rich breakfast. I’ve also been enjoying that carrot 🥕 bread I made – the vital wheat gluten really helps improve the consistency 🍞 and between the shredded carrots and the baking soda it baked to a nice deep color, almost like pumpernickel bread moist with the consistency almost of cake. And this time it wasn’t so tough on my stomach. 🤰🏽
Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:58 am with sun having an altitude of 24.1° from the due south horizon (-46.7° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:45 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:30 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 25 seconds with dusk around 5:01 pm, which is 44 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:38 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and temperatures around 46 degrees. There will be a west-southwest breeze at 6 mph. Tomorrow will have 9 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, an increase of 36 seconds over today.
Tonight will have a chance of showers. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 38 degrees at 6am. 19 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around October 27th. West wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of -21 occurred back in 1933.
Tomorrow will have a chance of rain showers before 4pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 43 degrees at 12pm. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 2nd. West wind 5 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 57 degrees. The record high of 53 was set in 1984. 10.9 inches of snow fell back in 2000.❄
I think I’ll probably head up to camp ⛺ mid-morning tomorrow for the New Years Holiday. 🎊 Not planning anything too fancy just two nights in the wilderness with a fire 🔥 and some sparklers 🎇 and try to stay up until midnight on NYE and toast in 2024. Maybe fry up some walnuts and cranberries. Listen to podcasts 📻 and enjoy the mild weather and probably mud. I’m going to ride some trails and roads 🚲 though probably a lot will be muddy.
Looking ahead to Sunday, New Years Eve, partly sunny, ☀ with a high near 38. Northwest wind 8 to 11 mph. Typical average high for the weekend is 35 degrees.
