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I live some where where there is 2300 annually, not enough for me. 3000+ would be my ideal, some people like rainy days, I like sun. I just hate waking up to a sunny morning then by midday it clouds over, sun comes back out during sunset. Although this year was much better as we had driest july on record, wonder what the sunshine hours was.... Any one know where I can find out the sunshine hours of a certain day or month this year? I would love to have endless days without clouds, clouds/ cold weather make me grumpy When I went to San Diego/ LA there was 2 weeks I never saw a cloud.. perfect weather. Also ideal would be around 600-1000mm annually precipitation.
I live some where where there is 2300 annually, not enough for me. 3000+ would be my ideal, some people like rainy days, I like sun. I just hate waking up to a sunny morning then by midday it clouds over, sun comes back out during sunset. Although this year was much better as we had driest july on record, wonder what the sunshine hours was.... Any one know where I can find out the sunshine hours of a certain day or month this year? I would love to have endless days without clouds, clouds/ cold weather make me grumpy When I went to San Diego/ LA there was 2 weeks I never saw a cloud.. perfect weather. Also ideal would be around 600-1000mm annually precipitation.
Move to where I live (Florida). Other than the occasional hurricane, you'd find it to be the most boring, predictable weather you've experienced. Endless sun and heat will rot your brain.
Do you have any figures on long sunless spells there? I couldn't find a longer stretch than five days with no sun at all but some of the worst ones last winter here:
30th November - 4th December (inclusive) = 0.7 hours over five days
15th December - 23rd December = 2.5 hours over nine days (including seven with none at all)
27th December - 1st January = 0.5 hours over six days
22nd January - 29th January = 0.9 hours over eight days
18th February -23rd February = 0.9 hours over six days (including five consecutive with none at all)
We get similar spells, just not as many of them.
Our weather stations don't report sunshine hours, but some do report sky cover (on a scale of 0 - 10, with 10 being the cloudiest, 8-10 is considered mostly cloudy, 0-3 clear). I remember April having some long cloudy stretches, but the numbers don't really show it. I see a 6 day stretch in April with no sunny days but two of the days were rated 6 (partly cloudy); so not really a continuous stretch. Each of those days recorded fog and precipitation though.
Found a 6 day stretch in May this year when I wasn't around. First day was rated 9, next 5 days 10. So 5 days with no sun whatsoever, and one day with less than an hour of sun. All 6 days had rain, total of 3.4 inches (most of the month's rain !) And the next four days after the 6 day spell were mostly cloudy with some rain and one of those was completely cloudless.
I think sunless spells are less common in winter than spring or fall here, even though the winter sunshine % is a bit lower. (Summer's definitely sunnier than the other 3 seasons, except for maybe the first half of autumn)
I used to live in upstate NY, which is distinctly cloudy in the winter (cloudiest month about 30%). Generally winter would have mostly cloudy days but the sun would come out for a couple of hours as the clouds shifted around, but sunless spells weren't unheard of. Closest station I could find is Binghamton. January 2010 had 8 completely sunless days in a row, with snow every day. First day had a high of 33°F, the rest where all well below freezing. I think Binghamton was definitely cloudier than where I lived, though.
Whew. That was long, but I haven't looked through our sky cover data before.
> 3600 Might get boring at times, but still highly acceptable
3000-3600 Ideal
2800-3000 Excellent
2600-2800 Very Good
2400-2600 Good
2200-2400 Reasonable
2000-2200 Adequate
1800-2000 Below par
1600-1800 Poor
1400-1600 Very poor
1200-1400 Depressing
< 1200 Unliveable
Long runs of sunny days are always acceptable, especially if temperatures are not "too high".
A lot of the California coast is 3000+ hours of sunshine. The non-fogged over parts of San Francisco, and southward, including LA and San Diego. San Francisco summer weather is about as cold as you can get in the US.
Once you spend a day or two in SF in summer, you quickly realize that Mark Twain was right!
I grew up somewhere which got 1200-1300 sun hours and it never bothered me until I lived elsewhere with noticeably sunnier summers. I'd be reluctant to go back now knowing that a mostly overcast summer day is the norm, not the exception. Now I live somewhere with 1500 or so hours, perhaps a little too low but not that bad. Ideal for me would be 1800-2000 hours, though I've never lived anywhere sunnier so don't know what more is like. The longest sunny spell I've ever seen was three weeks of unbroken sunshine when I was in Spain, and it did get a bit boring after a while.
That happened to me in Seville, but I was only there around 5 days. We sometimes get a string of sunny days without any cloud, not nearly as often as partly cloudy, but it does happen. Just had one of those strings up until yesterday. According to our local NWS office, the first ten days of November had 1 cloudy day. I get bored after around 7 days of sun. It was nice to see an overcast sky yesterday. I'm not sure I could live in a place much sunnier than where I live now, and we get between 2400-2600 hours annually. I think 2800 hours would probably be the cut-off for me. On the flip side, I don't think I could live in a place with 2200 hours or less.
500 hours maximum and no more. I am not a photosynthetic plant.
Ha, but you do know that humans need sunlight for vitamin D. Why do you think people in N. Europe are so light skinned. The light skin can absorb more faint sunlight to make vitamin D than a darker skinned person.
Once you spend a day or two in SF in summer, you quickly realize that Mark Twain was right!
But it's mild (and rainy) winters more than makes up for it .
From what I can remember, it's not unusual for San Francisco to get over 20C in January/February - on some days that is - and I don't find anything wrong with the fog rolling in especially after several days of hot and dry conditions and whilst the cool and foggy summer conditions suits me just fine, the rather cold wind is a pain in the neck, take that away and all would be fine . If I sound like a San Francisco fan - I am, I love that city to pieces
So, my ideal range would be between 2400 to 2700 hours of sunshine a year.
What is yours?
Very low. I prefer cloudy, rainy, cold days. I lived in Miami where it was non stop sun, all year round. I'm quite over it, actually. Sure, I like the sun sometimes but I really do prefer cloudy, rainy and cold.
I'd say less than 500 hours of sunlight would make me happy.
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When I went to San Diego/ LA there was 2 weeks I never saw a cloud.. perfect weather. Also ideal would be around 600-1000mm annually precipitation.
