Our snow-crusted anemometer yesterday

Tuesday, February 7, 2006 9:30 am: Brrr, it is 16 degrees Fahrenheit. It was just cold enough early this morning that I got up and threw a few logs into our stove, and then I went back to bed. The sky is clear and visibility is excellent with less than 10% cloud cover. For us it indicates it will probably stay cold, or perhaps get colder tonight.

This colder weather comes at a time when I could have used the warmer temperatures: I have to install a new two-meter amateur radio in our car; outside in our driveway, of course. Unfortunately the old radio died last week and we ordered a new one by mail-order from a ham radio store in New Hampshire. Life in rural America is still dependent on mail-order to supply us with goods we can’t buy locally. It reminds me of 19th Century America when farmers in the newly settled West would order from a catalog and wait months for their purchase to arrive. Unlike the Old West, I placed my order by telephone on Friday and the radio arrived on Monday.

Our astronomy club meeting is tonight in Edmundston New Brunswick. If the sky stays clear we might do a little observing. For two small adjoining towns, Edmundston and Madawaska have some very real light pollution, mostly generated from their paper mill, which is co-located on both sides of the border. Luckily, we live about 13 miles away, so we don’t usually see it at our house.

It’s almost breakfast time, so that’s it for today.

Current values from our
Vantage-Pro weather station

Temperature: 17 degrees (F.)

Barometer: 29.51 and rising slowly

Humidity: 65%

Wind: W at 6 mph and variable

Precipitation: None

Visibility: Generally clear - <10% cloud cover

Since midnight:

Low temp: 12.6 degrees (F.) at 6:58 am

High wind: 19 mph at 1:00 am