the why of Pittsburgh sunshine (Penn, Atlantic: home, move to, areas)

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by ny789987

I moved here a few days ago, and it has been nothing but blue skies, singing birds, and bright sunshine. Where are all these so-called "clouds" that everyone keeps talking about?

Set a reminder on your PC to revisit this post in 7 months and then post your thoughts then.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Everyone here should move to England for awhile; you'll come back thinking Pittsburgh is a tropical paradise that happens to get some snow in the winter

yep - according to wikipedia, Manchester, i town I am more than familiar with, get 1460 hours sun per year. And, as the locals say, the rain in Spain falls mainly in Manchester.

through a similar path, wikipedia for Pittsburgh, which quotes annual sunshine hours as 2023, the Hong Kong-based source of which is here:

Climatological Normals of Pittsburgh

It appears those numbers are based on 1961-1990. Pretty old. I'd like to see those compared with 2000 onwards ...

And pertinent to this thread from wikipedia - I imagine ref [47] has lots of the real climatic details:

"Pittsburgh lies in the transition between a humid continental and humid subtropical climate (Köppen Dfa/Cfa),[47] although it lies much closer to the former. It features four distinct seasons, with precipitation somewhat evenly spread throughout the year. Summers are hot and humid (with occasional heat waves), while winters are cold and snowy. Spring and autumn are generally unstable yet mild."

Finally, from Seattle wikipedia page:

"Statistics show that the city is becoming wetter: the current annual rainfall average of 952 millimeters reflects an increase of 11 mm.[70] Seattle receives the largest amount of rainfall of any U.S. city of more than 250,000 people in November, and is in the top 10 through winter, but is in the lower half of all cities from June to September. Seattle is in the top 5 rainiest U.S. cities by number of precipitations days, and it gets the least amount of annual sunlight of all major cities in the lower-48 states"

Case closhed ('coz wikipedia is never wrong)

[UKyank]

My whole problem with this 'hours of sunshine' thing is that it can be completely overcast here & still be a beautiful day out. Likewise, how much/little cloud cover is required for it to be considered an hour of sun per these stats?

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by UKyank

My whole problem with this 'hours of sunshine' thing is that it can be completely overcast here & still be a beautiful day out. Likewise, how much/little cloud cover is required for it to be considered an hour of sun per these stats?

I've posted the official defintions from NOAA, post #19. It's about the 10th time I've posted these definitions on the Pgh forum.

[Katarina Witt]

I did my own search. I have posted these definitions 10 times over the years. Here is a post with them all spelled out:

Originally Posted by Katiana

You can look up the definitions of these words at this website:

NOAA - National Weather Service -

Here are some examples from the website:

Mostly Cloudy
When the predominant/average sky condition is covered by more than half, but not completely covered by opaque (not transparent) clouds. In other words, 5/8 to 7/8 of the sky is covered by opaque clouds. Same as Considerable Cloudiness.

Partly Cloudy
When the predominant/average sky condition is covered 3/8 to 4/8 with opaque (not transparent) clouds. Same as Partly Sun

Mostly Sunny
Same as Mostly Clear, except only applicable during daylight hours; when the predominant/average sky condition is covered 1/8 to 2/8 with opaque (not transparent) clouds.

Partly Sunny
When the predominant/average sky condition is covered 3/8 to 4/8 with opaque (not transparent) clouds. Same as Partly Cloudy.

Sunny
When there are no opaque (not transparent) clouds. Same as Clear.

I'm sorry. I'm a stickler for stuff being defined and verified. These definitions have nothing to do with fog/smog and everthing to do with cloud cover. It's a cloudy place! That doesn't always mean overcast (go look it up), it means cloudy. And it has nothing to do with weather prediction, either. It has to do with conditons present. The statistics are compiled from years of observation, using standard definitions.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I've posted the official defintions from NOAA, post #19. It's about the 10th time I've posted these definitions on the Pgh forum.

That might define days/hours with sun for stat counting purposes but has no bearing on if its a nice day or gloomy miserable day out, as I noted there's been plenty of very nice days that had complete cloud coverage, likewise it can be miserable out with the same cloud coverage - lots of other factors need to be considered other then that when determing if an areas weather sucks or not

[nei]

Originally Posted by gortonator

yep - according to wikipedia, Manchester, i town I am more than familiar with, get 1460 hours sun per year. And, as the locals say, the rain in Spain falls mainly in Manchester.

through a similar path, wikipedia for Pittsburgh, which quotes annual sunshine hours as 2023, the Hong Kong-based source of which is here:

Climatological Normals of Pittsburgh

As per numerous lengthy discussions on the weather forum, the US records sunshine differently than most of the world, usually giving higher numbers than international methods. Clearest piece of evidence is Canadian cities record much lower sunshine than American cities right across the border (Detroit has about 300 more sunshine hours than Windsor, Ontario 15 miles away). 1800 hours might be a reasonable number using British / Canadian methods, maybe slightly less. Similar to much of central Europe, but still sunnier than the UK.

Almost all American sunshine measurements are from decades ago.

[nei]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Do people really enjoy getting sunburned and having to go to the store to buy sunscreen?

No, but I never worry much about sunburn, I don't burn easily.

[gortonator]

Originally Posted by UKyank

That might define days/hours with sun for stat counting purposes but has no bearing on if its a nice day or gloomy miserable day out, as I noted there's been plenty of very nice days that had complete cloud coverage, likewise it can be miserable out with the same cloud coverage - lots of other factors need to be considered other then that when determing if an areas weather sucks or not

Spoken like a true Brit! I'm with ya all the way.

And if you read around, the cloud cover metrics were determined by 'people looking at the sky' until recently, when modern weather stations use lasers to create more consistent measure. It's all very subjective, and as our moderator says, old ... new data required

[White Russian]

Pittsburgh is very dark and depressing in winters.