WHERE are the 300 days of sunshine yearly ? (humid, traffic)

[mrgoodwx]

You'll see a lot of different interpretations on this topic (e.g. chambers of commerce love to claim 300 days of sunshine a year if the sun simply makes an appearance at any time during the day). But...to get a better idea of how sunny a place is, you might want to look at this list:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/...ccd/pctpos.txt

This gives "percentage possible sunshine," with monthly averages. The far right column shows an annual average. Unfortunately, Colorado Springs isn't in the list, but Denver's average is 69 percent, and Pueblo's is 76 percent.

Once upon a time, weather offices had the equipment to count the number of minutes of sunshine. That was recorded each day, compared to the total minutes from sunrise till sunset, and a percentage was calculated. Some offices still do this, although many of the offices either quit using the equipment or closed during the big changes of the 1990s (about 200 offices were closed). Not all of the offices in the list are still counting minutes of sunshine, but the column on the far left shows how many years the data represent.

[Marcy1210]

Year round, it is almost always sunny in the mornings. But, in summer (May - Aug) the thunderstorms build up in the West and spill over the mountains around 3:00 p.m. where they cool the air by about 20º and then clear out around 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. If you live in Teller County, the rains are almost daily from 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. oftentimes with heavy hail and temperature drops of over 30º. Summers in the mountains are usually cold and wet. Unfortunately, this past summer and so far this fall, have been unusually wet and snowy. Dreary and tiresome. It's unusual, but depressing, nonetheless.

Colorado Springs is usually sunny in the winter, so if there is snow, it melts pretty quickly, especially on roads and sidewalks. It can also get up around 70º in February, but it's followed by our snowiest month, March. November and April are also snowy. I do recall many Christmas days where the kids would play outside with their new toys in tee shirts and jeans. And there have been more dry, brown Christmasses than white ones. White meaning actually snowing on the day. There may be snow on the ground, but sunny. There is also virtually no humidity and the air is thin, so snow melts quickly.

Sunny days are the speakers interpretation. Usually it means, some sun at some point during any given day. Which in this case would mean 300 days with at least some sun--maybe only ten minutes, but that counts--and 65 days of no sun. But there are not 300 days of crystal clear blue skies with not a single cloud. That just doesn't happen. Ten minutes of sun counts as a whole, sunny day.

[Huckleberry3911948]

its right here.

[hawg64]

I don't know of any place in the US that is Sunny all day for 300 days of the year. Colorado does have alot of sun, and personally I think the summers in Colorado are the best in the country. Usually the sun is out for at least half of the day 2/3 of the year, and yes it rains in the summer here just like it does in every other place in the country. But it also depends on what you interpret as a "nice sunny day". For example in Colorado it may be very sunny but at the same time 40 degrees and windy. Some may consider this a sunny day, while others consider it a cold winter day with the sun shining. To compare Colorado to Arizona and Texas is pretty extreme, in Arizona it is 110+ degrees for three months out of the year and has the desert sun feeling rather than the typical Colorado/midwestern sun feeling. In Texas it is insanely humid, and when the sun is out on a hot day the humidity makes the heat feel almost as extreme as Arizona (In my opinion worse). So if you like the Summer Sun without all the other extremes of Heat and Humidity, than Colorado is Perfect. But again Winter Sun is whatever you interpret it as.

[otowi]

I, for one, love those cold but sunny days that we get fairly often in winter!

[treedonkey]

Sure is sunny this week!

[geoengr]

This page may shine some light (pun intended) on the subject: Colorado Climate Center - Questions and Answers

The data for sunny days is here: Weather Today - Weather Forecasts, Radar, Maps for 1000s of US and World Cities (http://www.weathertoday.net/weatherfacts/numbersunny_bycity.php - broken link)

[TheTomness]

I want to point out something concerning the central area of the Springs.
Since we are on the Lee Side of Pikes Peaks sometimes Storms circle the Springs, I've remember numerous occasions seeing Cloudy mountains, storm clouds up near Black Forest area to out east, and circling over Fort carson, and not a cloud above Downtown to the Citadel. It would spend the whole day like that too, we would get some rain or snow carried by the wind, but it would still be 300 days worth of sun above us.

[Kar54]

Originally Posted by Samantha Andrus-Henry

I grew up in Alamosa; we called it the land of the cold sunshine.
Yep, lots of sunshine in Alamosa, just cold to cool and windy most of the year.

I went to school at Adams State in the '70's Samantha. There used to be a sign at the county line on westbound 160 that said "Welcome to Alamosa County - Land of Cool Sunshine". Gee, I'd forgotten all about that

[reddesertfox]

Originally Posted by keikekai

Hi,
I am quite confused here by the information out there on the weather in Colorado Springs...
On many sites (including this forum) I have read that Colorado Springs gets about 300 sunny days a year. Yet according to this site I found:

Weather Today - Weather Forecasts, Radar, Maps for 1000s of US and World Cities

Colorado Springs only gets 127 sunny days a year !!! THAT's A HUGE difference...which is correct ???
It shows Alamosa, Pueblo, and Grand Junction as having more sunny days (not familiar with any of those at all).

Weather Facts and Figures hottest coldest sunny cloudy windy

Check that site out and compare what you know to the available statistics. I don't know WHAT to believe anymore. If anyone knows what is accurate I would appreciate it. Is it sunny year round (all day every day) or more so in one particular season ?

I want a really sunny place so this is important - thanks for any help you can provide !!!

Phoenix suburb