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The past few days here have been sunny, with clear skies, a rarity here in the winter. Also there was a good amount of snow cover. I was thinking, what major metros have the most of this: clear and sunny winters with snow cover on the ground. Initially I thought Denver, but I know the snow doesn't stick very long there.
Would be my guess too. Fairbanks was when we visited in December, but the locals said the sun was kind of rare for that time of year. Usually cloudy, and it was definitely dark much of the time.
The past few days here have been sunny, with clear skies, a rarity here in the winter. Also there was a good amount of snow cover. I was thinking, what major metros have the most of this: clear and sunny winters with snow cover on the ground. Initially I thought Denver, but I know the snow doesn't stick very long there.
You'll squeeze, on average, an extra 20-25 sunny days a year in Boston up to Portland, ME. I'm sure nearly all of those days come between November - April.
Traditionally, that corridor has snow on the ground for much of the winter, though more recently they have had quite the snow drought. The average is ~50 inches and 200 days of sun in Boston. In Portland, it's ~60 inches and 203 days of sun. Of course, once you head away from the coast, the snow averages go up 10-20-30+ inches in places like MA/NH/ME.
You'll squeeze, on average, an extra 20-25 sunny days a year in Boston up to Portland, ME. I'm sure nearly all of those days come between November - April.
Traditionally, that corridor has snow on the ground for much of the winter, though more recently they have had quite the snow drought. The average is ~50 inches and 200 days of sun in Boston. In Portland, it's ~60 inches and 203 days of sun. Of course, once you head away from the coast, the snow averages go up 10-20-30+ inches in places like MA/NH/ME.
The thing that I like about here in Michigan as opposed to other cities, including Boston is the sunset time. Today's sunset time here in Ann Arbor is 5:52, which is better than Boston's 5:01 sunset time. The latest sunset time here is 5:02, I know that Boston and other eastern cities have sunset times in the 4 pm range. Even other cold weather cities have early sunset times. Detroit is the only cold weather city that in my opinion has reasonable winter sunset times. If we extend this to even warm winter cities, only FL, GA and TX cities have this reasonable sunset time. CA cities don't fare well in this.
Compare DTW with BOS climate. It's a huge difference!
Detroit averages 176, 106, 87, 120, 138, and 185 hours of sunshine per month for October through March, and only 34" of snow.
Boston averages 206, 143, 143, 163, 168, and 214 hours of sunshine for the same months and 44" of snow.
Compare DTW with BOS climate. It's a huge difference!
Detroit averages 176, 106, 87, 120, 138, and 185 hours of sunshine per month for October through March, and only 34" of snow.
Boston averages 206, 143, 143, 163, 168, and 214 hours of sunshine for the same months and 44" of snow.
I figured Boston and New England would do well in this metric, however I still can't get past those early sunsets. The earliest sunset time in Boston is 4:15, which means that at around 3 pm the sky would darken, which is something that would probably outweigh the sunlight.
I figured Boston and New England would do well in this metric, however I still can't get past those early sunsets. The earliest sunset time in Boston is 4:15, which means that at around 3 pm the sky would darken, which is something that would probably outweigh the sunlight.
Boston is generally a sunny city, anecdotally.
But that earliest sunset is more like 4:04pm IMO IIRC
But that earliest sunset is more like 4:04pm IMO IIRC
This is an important mention. Winter days are crazy short.
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