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Also it's worth noting whilst Invercargill had a very cloudy May, Melbourne didn't fare much better either - both facing the southern ocean - with the former recording 72 and latter 79.
In recent years the "cloud" band has been shifting south over the past 14 years but this year has been, the opposite, moving "north" - at least bringing us much needed rain so we can't complain...
Last edited by koyaanisqatsi1; 05-31-2011 at 04:21 AM..
Invercargill sun daily/monthly statistics provided by NIWA from 1954. (btw I count 0.0-0.9 as NIL).
Add up all those totals and you'll see what I'm referring to:- Not logged in
Why? Under 0.5 I could perhaps understand being nil, but certainly not 0.5 to 0.9. If I get a day with 0.9 hours of sun after a week of 0/0.1 hours I certainly wouldn't consider it to be nothing.
Invercargill sun daily/monthly statistics provided by NIWA from 1954. (btw I count 0.0-0.9 as NIL).
Add up all those totals and you'll see what I'm referring to:- Not logged in
That's unreal. Nil means zero! I finally figured that night be what you were doing, but nobody else would take it that way. It makes the NZ locations look worse than they really are.
Also it's worth noting whilst Invercargill had a very cloudy May, Melbourne didn't fare much better either - both facing the southern ocean - with the former recording 72 and latter 79.
In recent years the "cloud" band has been shifting south over the past 14 years but this year has been, the opposite, moving "north" - at least bringing us much needed rain so we can't complain...
There's no clear hard independent evidence that that "cloud band" has decreased much at Invercargill - rainfall certainly hasn't - one of several reasons why I conisder In'gill's "leap" to be too large.
Hehe but why though, 0.9 hours of sun is not much but clearly not the same as none at all!
Another point - a 0.0 value means 0% of the possible duration regardless of day length. An arbitrary cutoff of say 1.0 hours makes no allowance for that, and varies in mid-latitudes between say 10% of possible down to only about 6% depending on season.
NZ Met uses different terms for the rainfall thresholds of 0.1/0.2mm and 1.0mm.
Rigour requires that if a term is to be used differently, an explanation should be given.
That's unreal. Nil means zero! I finally figured that night be what you were doing, but nobody else would take it that way. It makes the NZ locations look worse than they really are.
Right, although I would submit that less than one hour is only a marginal improvement on no sun at all.
Right, although I would submit that less than one hour is only a marginal improvement on no sun at all.
I largely agree, though that wasn't the issue. But there is something special about getting no sun at all. And in a science, one doesn't go around changing the meaning of terms without good reason.
When analysing the "sun profile" of a place, it is a very limited viewpoint to merely pick one small part of the spectrum. Personally I am only interested in grand totals (for months etc), but there is some interest in looking at the whole distribution over daily "possibles" (but as % values, not absolute numbers).
Personally I am only interested in grand totals (for months etc), but there is some interest in looking at the whole distribution over daily "possibles" (but as % values, not absolute numbers).
I would rather have consistent 50% sunshine throughout the month rather than half of the days with 100% sunshine and the other half with nil. There's nothing as depressing as going a whole day without seeing a single ray of sunshine. But during blue dome summer days when we can have 14 hours of sunshine I find I have more sunshine than I know what to do with -- after having gone for a walk, a swim and a bike ride what else is there to do?
I would rather have consistent 50% sunshine throughout the month rather than half of the days with 100% sunshine and the other half with nil. There's nothing as depressing as going a whole day without seeing a single ray of sunshine. But during blue dome summer days when we can have 14 hours of sunshine I find I have more sunshine than I know what to do with -- after having gone for a walk, a swim and a bike ride what else is there to do?
I have the opposite preference. Blue-dome days lift me the way no others can - though very sunny days with just a few "fluffy" clouds but still say 90% of the possible are almost as good. When one is living in a country whose climates nowhere average more than about 58% of the possible overall, some compromise has to be made, and I don't want to lose more top-end days just to get fewer "zeroes".
Why? Under 0.5 I could perhaps understand being nil, but certainly not 0.5 to 0.9. If I get a day with 0.9 hours of sun after a week of 0/0.1 hours I certainly wouldn't consider it to be nothing.
It's like some people dismiss rainfall readings of 0.01-0.09mm so why not the same for sun.
0.01-0.09 readings (for sun) has no bearing for me because I've seen a lot of totally overcast days in which the airport site somehow, records more than 0.5 hours, even on overcast days, which is totally wrong in my eyes.
I recall one time when it was very overcast here and yet the airport site recorded over 10 hours of sun which was totally wrong of course, fired off a email to them and they concurred a mistake was made, corrected two days later to just 1 hour which seems about right.
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