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You need to look at nearby locations on the BOM, Launceston Airport has sunshine data, similarly Newcastle Airport - which is Williamtown RAAF is the only location here that has sunshine data.
By the look of it- Launceston gets a very reasonable 2550+ hours per year, and very good during summer:
Thanks, Rwood. Been looking for that for a while. Does Melbourne have a lot of partly cloudy days or cloudy days?
Are you sure? It's true that sun values go down the further west you go, but they start to go back up again when you get to the Mississippi River and further west. It's not clear cut like that.
I get slightly more sun than D.C. does. I think where I live might be more f an anomaly than just wrong calculations, because the sun shines quite a bit here during the summer time, and winter is not very cloudy. We have sunny to partly cloudy weather here about 2 weeks a month during winter. It's nothing like the sheet of grey for 3-4 weeks a month of where I used to live, near Scranton, PA.
From what I understand - annual hrs of sunshine in the central and eastern side of the USA mainland are orientated around two factors:
1 ) The Great Lakes. Since many mid latitude cyclones in the USA pass near/or over the Great Lakes often (esp in the cool season)…this region is a center of cloudiness in the central/eastern USA. Normally, sun hrs increase with increasing distance from the Lakes.
2) The Appalachian Mountains that run just to the west of the East Coast from Georgia to Maine also affect cloudiness in the eastern USA. Normally locations to the west and east (the East Coast coastal plain) have more hrs of sun annually than the Applicahain highlands and mountain tops. Like the Great Lakes, hrs normally increases with increasing distance from the App highlands. I don't know where you are in PA...but normally sun hrs (annually and esp in winter) increase the furthur east you go. You are also correct - sun hrs do increase once you get west of the Mississippi River, Scranton in NE Penn would be cloudier esp in winter than many loctions west of the Mississippi, except of course the Pacific Northwest:
Here is the most accurate NOAA map from the 1980’s of annual hrs of sun that I have ever found:
Wow... 2550 hours of sun AND a record low of only -5.2°C at 41°S... no wonder they call Australia the lucky country
A record low of 22.6F is pretty impressive for 41 latitude. From pics I've seen Tasmania looks really beautiful. The only think I don't like about Launceston is a summer with high temps in the low 70's, with nightly lows in mid summer of 50.5F. Yikes! Not warm enough for me, though the sun hours are perfect. I'm really surprised you like this climate based on how much heat you seem to like. A little biased towards Australia are we.
A record low of 22.6F is pretty impressive for 41 latitude. From pics I've seen Tasmania looks really beautiful. The only think I don't like about Launceston is a summer with high temps in the low 70's, with nightly lows in mid summer of 50.5F. Yikes! Not warm enough for me, though the sun hours are perfect. I'm really surprised you like this climate based on how much heat you seem to like. A little biased towards Australia are we.
Well of course Launceton is far from my ideal climate but it is very good for its latitude particularly in winter and certainly better than everywhere in Canada in just about every way.
To be honest, I'm very jealous of almost all Southern Hemisphere climates because even in the higher latitudes, winter is pretty much a non-event with almost no lying snow. Compare Launceton to Omaha, NE which are at the same latitude. Where would you rather spend the winter?
Well of course Launceton is far from my ideal climate but it is very good for its latitude particularly in winter and certainly better than everywhere in Canada in just about every way.
To be honest, I'm very jealous of almost all Southern Hemisphere climates because even in the higher latitudes, winter is pretty much a non-event with almost no lying snow. Compare Launceton to Omaha, NE which are at the same latitude. Where would you rather spend the winter?
Lucky for the southern hemisphere, they have more ocean than they do land which is why they have milder temps, and none of the landmasses reach further than 50°S except Tierra del Fuego, AR and Magallenes y la Antárctica Chilena, CL/Region XII
Quote:
Originally Posted by wavehunter007
From what I understand - annual hrs of sunshine in the central and eastern side of the USA mainland are orientated around two factors:
1 ) The Great Lakes. Since many mid latitude cyclones in the USA pass near/or over the Great Lakes often (esp in the cool season)…this region is a center of cloudiness in the central/eastern USA. Normally, sun hrs increase with increasing distance from the Lakes.
2) The Appalachian Mountains that run just to the west of the East Coast from Georgia to Maine also affect cloudiness in the eastern USA. Normally locations to the west and east (the East Coast coastal plain) have more hrs of sun annually than the Applicahain highlands and mountain tops. Like the Great Lakes, hrs normally increases with increasing distance from the App highlands. I don't know where you are in PA...but normally sun hrs (annually and esp in winter) increase the furthur east you go. You are also correct - sun hrs do increase once you get west of the Mississippi River, Scranton in NE Penn would be cloudier esp in winter than many loctions west of the Mississippi, except of course the Pacific Northwest:
Here is the most accurate NOAA map from the 1980’s of annual hrs of sun that I have ever found:
Hope this helps...
Helps a lot, thanks. Very useful map to get a good indicator. I currently live in York County, PA so I'm near the PA-MD border and about 30 miles east of the Appalachians. D.C. is only about 90 miles away from me.
1 ) The Great Lakes. Since many mid latitude cyclones in the USA pass near/or over the Great Lakes often (esp in the cool season)…this region is a center of cloudiness in the central/eastern USA. Normally, sun hrs increase with increasing distance from the Lakes.
If you mean mid-latitudes cyclones as storms passing through I don't think the Great Lakes gets an especially large number of cyclones passing through. From my experience in living in upstate NY, the cool season tends to have clouds that hang there sometimes with light drizzle or snow. It's not really from storm tracks passing through but just a generalized low pressure that hangs there.
New England is a more of a location for storm track convergence, but much of New England (except the nothernmost parts) are sunnier than the Great Lakes. New England gets more precipitation than the Great Lakes in the cool season (excluding the regions that get localized high lake effect precipitation — but those are only areas immediately next to the Lakes) yet is sunnier.
Well of course Launceton is far from my ideal climate but it is very good for its latitude particularly in winter and certainly better than everywhere in Canada in just about every way.
To be honest, I'm very jealous of almost all Southern Hemisphere climates because even in the higher latitudes, winter is pretty much a non-event with almost no lying snow. Compare Launceton to Omaha, NE which are at the same latitude. Where would you rather spend the winter?
I hear ya. I've met many people thru the years that would move to Chicago in a heartbeat (they love the city and lakefront), but cannot bear the winters. The S. Hemisphere has by far the coldest, driest continent on earth, yet the vast oceans down there minimize that effect. When it escapes, it loses all its punch over the oceans,unlike here thanks to Canada. How I wish Canada were just one vast ocean to our north.
Compare Launceton to Omaha, NE which are at the same latitude. Where would you rather spend the winter?
It would be better to compare to Launceton to maritime climates in North America at a similar latitude. Really only the west coast near the Oregon / California border. None of the coast climates are very good, Eureka is rather awful compared to Launceton. Going inland gives a decent climate but with more cold snaps.
It would be better to compare to Launceton to maritime climates in North America at a similar latitude. Really only the west coast near the Oregon / California border. None of the coast climates are very good, Eureka is rather awful compared to Launceton. Going inland gives a decent climate but with more cold snaps.
Places around Sacramento Canyon and Shasta Dam are at about 41N and have slightly warmer winters with much warmer and sunnier summers (but with much lower record lows) than Launceston:
It's nothing like the sheet of grey for 3-4 weeks a month of where I used to live, near Scranton, PA.
I grew up in Scranton, PA and went to school at Univ. of MD and noticed the increased sunshine in MD. I'm now in sunny SoCal! But anyways, Scranton's cloudiness is pretty interesting since much of eastern PA comprises the sunniest region of the state (Philly, Allentown, Harrisburg, York). I believe Scranton is on the Appalachian Plateau, which makes a hook from Pittsburgh to Scranton. That has an effect on the cloudiness. Another is the Great Lakes. You might think Scranton is too far from Lake Erie, which is correct. But, it is not too far to get the effects of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Scranton is cloudy like upstate NY during winter (Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo) due to the moisture coming off the lakes. Combine the Appalachian Plateau and the moisture off of the Great Lakes, and you'll get pretty grey cloudy weather in Scranton much of the year. NEPA may in fact have a little bit higher sunshine hours than Western PA, but not that much.
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