Colorado's "300 days of sunshine" (Denver, Pueblo: air pollution, designs, best)

[ColoGuy]

Complainers....Colorado is a top 10 percenter in sunshine as your chart clearly shows. Plus our sun is "sunnier" due to less atmospheric resistance.

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Where are you getting your "average" from?

http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/c...pctposrank.txt

[snowave]

Take your pick of which map you like.

solar insolation map - Google Search

Bottom line.. CO has quite a bit of sun. Maybe not 300 days, but much more than most places. That's one reason I am relocating from NW Montana to CO soon. I've probably seen the sun 5 times in the last month... some of those times less than 5 min. Love the snow and cold, hate the gray, day after day....

[Wheatridger]

I don't know if it's been mentioned earlier in this long thread, but Colorado's Front Range is a perfectly designed cloud-making machine. Morning sun hits the foothills, tipped towards the east, and starts a cycle of heating and rising air that builds small thunderstorms that grow into big ones over the eastern suburbs, then become the supercells that carve tornado tracks through the Great Plains. In any season, clouds tend to build and linger downwind from the Rockies, so most days that begin sunny see the sun enter those clouds and stay there through the afternoon. Is that a "sunny day?" If so, I'd also count days like I see on my trips to the Seattle area, when it rains four or five times, interrupted by sweet "sunbreaks." The big difference here is the light intensity. On most cloudy days, I still have to wear sunglasses for comfort.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by snowave

Take your pick of which map you like.

solar insolation map - Google Search

Bottom line.. CO has quite a bit of sun. Maybe not 300 days, but much more than most places. That's one reason I am relocating from NW Montana to CO soon. I've probably seen the sun 5 times in the last month... some of those times less than 5 min. Love the snow and cold, hate the gray, day after day....

I hope you are planning on moving to southern Colorado. Because if you are planning on moving to northern Colorado, you could end up seeing a decrease in sunshine, particularly in the summer months. Also when I lived in Denver I remember occasions in both summer and winter when I saw the sun less then five times in a month. It was unusual, but it happened.

Another thing to keep in mind, Colorado does get a lot of snow and cold weather, but it varies from year to year. I hope you won’t be disappointed if you go a year or two without seeing much snow.

[snowave]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

I hope you are planning on moving to southern Colorado. Because if you are planning on moving to northern Colorado, you could end up seeing a decrease in sunshine, particularly in the summer months. Also when I lived in Denver I remember occasions in both summer and winter when I saw the sun less then five times in a month. It was unusual, but it happened.

Another thing to keep in mind, Colorado does get a lot of snow and cold weather, but it varies from year to year. I hope you won’t be disappointed if you go a year or two without seeing much snow.

Pagosa Springs.

I don't want constant sun day after day for 3 months... I lived in California for a number of years, and that monotony was almost as bad as the gray... almost. I love clouds and storms. It's the relentless gray inversions for weeks on end that are the killer. I am also aware that, like anywhere... variability is inevitable. NW Montana just had the driest and warmest summer on record.

Thanks for your comments

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by snowave

Pagosa Springs.

I don't want constant sun day after day for 3 months... I lived in California for a number of years, and that monotony was almost as bad as the gray... almost. I love clouds and storms. It's the relentless gray inversions for weeks on end that are the killer. I am also aware that, like anywhere... variability is inevitable. NW Montana just had the driest and warmest summer on record.

Thanks for your comments

I will admit that I wished Pueblo got more snow but I understand that being at the bottom of a valley with mountains to our north, south and west that is not going to happen.

[Hschlick84]

Originally Posted by snowave

Take your pick of which map you like.

solar insolation map - Google Search

Bottom line.. CO has quite a bit of sun. Maybe not 300 days, but much more than most places. That's one reason I am relocating from NW Montana to CO soon. I've probably seen the sun 5 times in the last month... some of those times less than 5 min. Love the snow and cold, hate the gray, day after day....

Yuma, AZ get about 90% sunshine possible, I think it's the most sunny city in the country. Pueblo is only 76%, which is still fairly good.

http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/sunniest-cities/

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by snowave

Pagosa Springs.

I don't want constant sun day after day for 3 months... I lived in California for a number of years, and that monotony was almost as bad as the gray... almost. I love clouds and storms. It's the relentless gray inversions for weeks on end that are the killer. I am also aware that, like anywhere... variability is inevitable. NW Montana just had the driest and warmest summer on record.

Thanks for your comments

Pagosa Springs might work for you.

[Wheatridger]

Here in Denver, I awoke to another bright, blue-sky day and thought, "not again." I'm over it. Past the age of 50 or 60, it starts to wear on you. The sun beats on me like loud noise. I put on my RayBans, my broad-brimmed hat, and venture forth. If I do this religiously, I might not be feeding yet another skin cancer or cataract. If I plan it right, I'll avoid driving into a low afternoon or morning sun bright enough to paint images of the blood vessels in my retinas if I'm forced to glance at it. And since it's a "perfect day," no clouds will intrude on the blue emptiness all day.

Why does our culture value sunlight so highly? I suspect it's because so much of our literature comes out of gloomy England and Europe, where the day I've described might be a once-a-month occurrence. (I should find some Hispanics and ask them if they share that preference.)The sunny preference has been hammered in by hundreds of pop songs using the most convenient metaphor for happiness. "Here comes the sun/It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiney/ day..." Yeah, right! But what I'd give now for an all-day rain to wash away the drab coat of dust and grime that settles over Denver for six months a year. Or just any kind of weather change that adds some drama or sense of event to the day. I am SO ready to leave this sun-baked pile of dusty rocks, forever!

[snowave]

ha... Come to NW Montana in the winter and you'll understand what they mean about sun! I hear ya though, anything gets old day after day... including the sun. It's about finding the balance... which is tough sometimes.