March 9, 2016 Night

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Good evening! Currently cloudy and 69 degrees with a 8 mph south-southwest wind. The dewpoint has come up a bit but it’s still only 39 degrees. It’s pretty dry out there. More humid air is expected to push in the evening, pushing the dew point well into the fifties abs ultimately leading to rain.

Sitting out back, drinking a few cold ones and listening to the eastern screech owl which has been calling out for hours. He’s somewheres out in the woods by the High School. Nice evening but the clouds are blocking the stars. But you rarely get evenings this nice in early March. We’ve never had a day in Albany’s history when temperatures reached about 80 degrees.

It felt weird going on my evening walk and starting to feel warm from the air. That said the dry air keeps you from doing much sweating. I was originally planning on going to the Town Hall Meeting on THMs in the drinking water but that didn’t happen because I was lazy and admittedly in the hot weather was a bit buzzed after having a few drinks when I got home with dinner. I did do my evening walk and went down to the library a bit and sat out and played on my laptop on the bench out front. I probably should have gone but I have to admit I don’t really care much about local politics, especially as at some point I hope to move out of New York State.

I admit I probably should care more about poison in my drinking water but I don’t. I’m too busy with my career, distractions on the Internet, and planning my next weekend in the wilderness. Honestly, I don’t envision spending that many more years in Delmar, regardless of how well my job may pay or how handy it is to take the bus to work. I drink more milk and beer then I do water. Beer rots you’re liver and milk concentrates persistent organic pollutants like dioxin from all that plastic I’ve burnt over the years. Hah.

Tonight will have some scattered showers, mainly after 3 am as the dew point climbs. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56. Southwest wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. That’s about 33 degrees above normal. It will likely break the record for the warmest low temperature on record for March 10.

Tonight will have 12 hours and 17 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over last night. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:13 am with the first light at 5:45 am, which is 1 minutes and 43 seconds earlier then today. Don’t get too use to the early sunsets as the clocks spring ahead come Sunday. Sunrise on Sunday is around 7:05 AM.

Earlier tonight we had a Waxing Cresent Moon with 6% illuminated. It set around 6:38 pm. If you didn’t look west a half hour after sunset, you missed it. Tomorrow the moon will be up until 7:29 pm. The First Quarter Moon is next Wednesday and the March’s Full Worm Moon is on March 22nd.

Tomorrow will have periods of rain. Continued mild but less hot weather with high near 65. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. The rain will tamp down the fire risk quite a bit. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. That’s about 23 degrees above normal. Far below the 40 degrees above normal of today. The seemingly cool record high of 72 degrees for tomorrow was set back in 1977.

The average high in four weeks on Thursday April 7th is 54 degrees, and the record for that date is 82 degrees was set back in 1921. After reaching 81 degrees today, the expected weather for four weeks seems downright cold. I’m ready for 80 degrees every day and evenings when the temperature only drops to 65. In three months that will be normal. But in the meantime I’ll accept these really mild early March weather, especially with the rain expected tomorrow to tamp down the fire danger.

Heading off to bed. I want to get an early start so I can walk down to the express bus stop tomorrow, assuming I’m not dealing with pouring rain in the morning and I get sufficient sleep, so I wake up restful and promptly. We shall see.

That screech owl is pretty cool to listen to tonight. Sleep well!

Texas Is Losing The War On Feral Hogs.

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Texas Is Losing The War On Feral Hogs.

"Texas has very permissive regulations regarding hog hunting and hunters may pursue hogs all year long with no bag limit. They may be hunted over bait, trapped, hunted at night and from aircraft. As a result, it is estimated that over three quarters of a million hogs are taken by hunters, trappers, and TPWD each year in Texas."

"Unfortunately, it is not enough. Even though hunters and trappers are killing approximately 30 percent of the hog population in Texas annually, hog numbers are still growing by about 20 percent each year. Biologists estimate that 70 percent of the hogs in the state will have to be killed each year just to maintain the population and even more must be killed to actually start reducing their numbers."

"Yes, you read that right: 7 out of every 10 hogs in the state must be killed just to keep their numbers where they are now."

March 9, 2016 Evening

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Good evening! Currently partly clear and 79 degrees with a 13 mph southwest wind. The high for today was 81 degrees. 40 degrees above average.

The dewpoint is 38 degrees and if the ground wasn’t so wet we’d be at a extremely high fire danger. Desert like. In case your wondering the heat index is currently 78 degrees but it don’t feel that way with the breeze and the extremely low humidity.

The last time it reached this warm was September 19, 2015. In other words, the concluding days of last summer.

Exceptional. That’s the only way to describe tonight’s weather conditions. We probably won’t have a day this warm for a long time.

Tonight will be scattered showers, mainly after 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. That’s about 33 degrees above normal. A certain record high temperature for the low temperature tonight.

Tonight the sun will set at 5:55 pm with darkness around 6:23 pm, which is 1 minutes and 12 seconds later than yesterday. In four weeks on April 6 the sun will be setting at 7:27 pm (Daylight Savings Time), which is 1 hour and 32 minutes later then today.

Tonight we have a Waxing Cresent Moon with 6% illuminated. It will set at 6:38 pm. The First Quarter Moon is next Wednesday and the March’s Full Worm Moon is on March 22nd.

Thursday will be showers likely before 11am, then periods of rain, mainly after 11am. High near 66. South wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. That’s about 24 degrees above normal. The record high of 72 degrees was set back in 1977.

Looking ahead to the weekend, awesome but not as warm temperatures will prevail. Saturday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Saturday night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 41. Sunday will be partly sunny, with a high near 58. The heat wave continues. This will likely be warmest March since 2012.

I hope your exceptionally warm Wednesday is going well. Have a great evening!