Good morning! Happy Thursday. Four weeks to November 🥧. Favorite month of the year. Heavy rain is a coming down (hopefully without too much Cesium-137 and Stronium-90) and 70 degrees in North Syracuse. 🌧 Even if it’s not radioactive, ☢ it’s still rather wet out there. ☔ There is a south-southwest breeze at 10 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 62 degrees. The skies will clear around 5 pm. At least it’s fairly warm.

Today will have showers and thunderstorms before 3pm, then a slight chance of showers. High of 72 degrees at 11am. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 1pm. 🏖️ If it wasn’t so wet, I’d say it would feel pretty sticky outside. West wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 76 degrees. Autumns aren’t as cool as they once more.The record high of 86 was set in 1891. 6.5 inches of snow fell back in 1987.❄

The sun will set at 6:39 pm with dusk around 7:07 pm, which is one minute and 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for partly clear skies and 64 degrees. The dew point will be 56 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 11 hours and 33 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌃 , with a low of 43 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal. West wind 6 to 8 mph becoming north after midnight. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 52 degrees. The record low of 26 occurred back in 1965.

This morning, I am listening to Gordon Lightfoot. I actually started out listening to Tom Paxton but I’ve been moving through my folk music collection. just watching the time tick by on the clock, 🎶 Music always helps the day go by quicker.

Thirty-three days until Election Day. 🗳  Just have to keep things moving along. i will be glad once that day comes and goes. I am already starting to get a bit tired of being out in the field, especially with all the rain and clouds we’ve gotten lately. As much of a non-cook that I am I miss cooking, especially up in the woods.

Tomorrow I am taking a half day to head down to Jones Hill mid-day.🚶I will bring a hammock and take a nap up there most likely, then watch the sun set and the stars rise, heading back after dark. ✨ Should be a beautiful day, but kind of cool. But that’s fine, I’ve been looking forward to using my hoodie once again. Lots of pictures and maybe videos to upload this weekend.

Still looking forward to that big November Road Trip. I am thinking more about the places I want to visit in Western NY — probably not do East Otto / Zoar Valley again, but I could see visiting Rock City State Forest and then going down to Allegany State Park, especially if we have a beautiful warm late autumn day with lots of blue skies. Still chewing over if I want to go down to Elk Country, as if I do decide to go there, I definitely want to get a permit to camp two nights at Hicks Run. Walking up to elk grunting is magical. 🦌

I noticed that the starting battery voltage is a little bit lower then I like, so I left the solar panel connected both to the starting and accessory battery. I only really make short trips while I’m up here in Syracuse, so I decided it wouldn’t be bad to leave it charging all day. 😎 Not a ton of sun today, but maybe it will clear out later on.

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until November 🥧 when the sun will be setting at 5:55 pm with dusk at 6:25 pm. Elections! Road Trip! Hunting! Pumpkin Pie! On that day in 2017, we had rain, drizzle, cloudy skies and temperatures between 49 and 34 degrees.  Kind of chilly day that day last year. Typically, the high temperature is 54 degrees. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1950.