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Fod God's sake mate, what about me, with less than half the annual sunshine that Melbourne gets? I think that deserves "sympathy".
Maybe this will help: In January 2004 we had 14 hours of sunshine. Some time a decade a go areas in this part of England had around 2-8 hours of sunshine in January once.
Buxotn gets between 10-30% of the maximum possible sunshine in a year, so about 1,000 hours of sunshine. In a good year, we may get 1,200 hours, but that's very rare, only happening in 2003 and 2006 in the last decade.
Yikes! Only a thousand? That does deserve a little sympathy. And unlike SAB who could go to Perth or somewhere else that gets some sun, there's precious little in the UK that sees consistantly sunny weather.
I live in Oregon's Willamette Valley and have seen it go from late November clear to mid March with out one fully sunny day. I don't have exact sunshine figures as are presented for such sunshine magnets as Buxton and Melbourne, but I can state that we have gone as many as 75 and more consective days with no sunbreaks whatsoever and very likely have totaled less than 24 hours for an entire winter season. That's rare, mind, and I have also been fortunate enough to see it sunny from sunrise to sunset for up to 20 of 31 days in January. That happened in 1986 and not since.
High latitude places in both hemispheres are subject to extensive periods of clouds and gloom. One spot to check out is Bahia Felix on Chile's southern coast......an average of 345 days per year of measurable precipitation and yearly sunshine totals in single digits. Yecch!
Sorry, but some of that is hyperexaggerated statistical nonsense. The world's lowest annual sunshine totals in more or less unobscured locations are recorded in places like Signy (550 hrs/annum claimed) and NZ's Campbell Is (620 or so). The lowest handful of annual values I have for US sites, quoted as percentages of possible are these:
Elkins, Wv 40
Mt. Washington, Nh 33
Quillayute, Wa 33
Juneau, Ak 30
For the winter season, the lowest reading is about 23% of possible at Quillayute. There's no way that comes remotely close to squaring with a winter total of 24 hours, unless you're living between a couple of very high cliffs.
Fod God's sake mate, what about me, with less than half the annual sunshine that Melbourne gets? I think that deserves "sympathy".
Maybe this will help: In January 2004 we had 14 hours of sunshine. Some time a decade a go areas in this part of England had around 2-8 hours of sunshine in January once.
Buxotn gets between 10-30% of the maximum possible sunshine in a year, so about 1,000 hours of sunshine. In a good year, we may get 1,200 hours, but that's very rare, only happening in 2003 and 2006 in the last decade.
I agree your plight is vastly worse than SAB's, with his ridiculous exaggerations about Melbourne sunshine.
You haven't reported back about Philip Eden's comments, which implied that Buxton's numbers didn't seem much worse than in other nearby parts.
I agree your plight is vastly worse than SAB's, with his ridiculous exaggerations about Melbourne sunshine.
You haven't reported back about Philip Eden's comments, which implied that Buxton's numbers didn't seem much worse than in other nearby parts.
As much as a renowned meteorologist as he is, Philip Eden's comments about Buxton's sunshine were based on estimation, educated though it may be. There happen to be at least two professional weather station set-ups in the area, one of which records sunshine here since 2003 on www.buxtonweather.co.uk and another which is operated in the town itself, and has data accessable at the town hall. I know how to find this data and when I have tim I will add up their sunshine recordings and get another "backup" as it were.
Philip Eden suggested that Buxton gets nearly the same amount of sunshine as Manchester. But the fact is that Buxton is sitting on top of a 1000ft ridge which frequently lends itself to orographically induced cloud which lower levels, including those only 25-30 miles west, don't suffer from so much.
As much as a renowned meteorologist as he is, Philip Eden's comments about Buxton's sunshine were based on estimation, educated though it may be. There happen to be at least two professional weather station set-ups in the area, one of which records sunshine here since 2003 on www.buxtonweather.co.uk and another which is operated in the town itself, and has data accessable at the town hall. I know how to find this data and when I have tim I will add up their sunshine recordings and get another "backup" as it were.
Philip Eden suggested that Buxton gets nearly the same amount of sunshine as Manchester. But the fact is that Buxton is sitting on top of a 1000ft ridge which frequently lends itself to orographically induced cloud which lower levels, including those only 25-30 miles west, don't suffer from so much.
OK, so based on that first site's data from 2003 and an average differential from another one (say Manchester, maybe another site as well to check consistency), what would you estimate the 1971-2000 mean for Buxton to be?
OK, so based on that first site's data from 2003 and an average differential from another one (say Manchester, maybe another site as well to check consistency), what would you estimate the 1971-2000 mean for Buxton to be?
As I said I will make a better estimate when I have the data from the second professional weather station in Buxton when I can add up their totals, though they don't have a lot of data.
However my estimate for Buxton's 1971-2000 sunshine hrs would be in the 1100-1200 hours range.
Melbourne has had an appalling 37 hours so far in June actually, with an average of 3.1 hours per day. This is actually cloudier than another other June during my lifetime here. ALL HAIL GLOBAL WARMING - TEH GREATEST MORAL CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME ZOMGOSH HOLY CRAP ON A STICK!!!!!!!!!!!!111111
By comparison, Hobart has had 47 hours, Sydney 69 hours, Adelaide 51 hours....
no need to mention Perffffffff and Dickbane as they are no doubt close to 100 hours
EPIC FAIL
June has been terrible for sunshine.
But so far this year Melbourne has had 1101 hrs of sun. So with 2 weeks to go of the first half of the year we are on track for around 2300-2400 hrs for the year.
Not amazing but passable.
As I said I will make a better estimate when I have the data from the second professional weather station in Buxton when I can add up their totals, though they don't have a lot of data.
However my estimate for Buxton's 1971-2000 sunshine hrs would be in the 1100-1200 hours range.
That would give it about the lowest average among significant English towns then, I imagine. It would also have the highest altitude?
But so far this year Melbourne has had 1101 hrs of sun. So with 2 weeks to go of the first half of the year we are on track for around 2300-2400 hrs for the year.
Not amazing but passable.
I'll join the club. Mid last month and earlier this month we had a 19 day run of rain with very little sun (the average sunshine was just 2.7 hours/day over that period).
I almost bought a Philips goLite BLU device (unintentional product plug) as a means to get some "sun". Evidently these things actually work...
I wish I didn't get affected by it but I find constant cloud depressing at best. Luckily it has been very sunny again and thankfully we get a fair amount of sun here anyway and the late winter months are pretty good.
IMO the worst type of weather is that horrible grey obstinate cloud cover that hangs around for days - excuse my lack of meteorology terminlogy.
And to think I lasted 8 years in the UK! RichardW and SAB - you have my support...
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