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Some Americans have a hard time accepting the loss of bragging rights for not having the sunny climate they think they do compared to the rest of the world.
Still much sunnier than the vast majority of the UK though - 2200 hours a figure most of us can only dream of.. except for me.
you get 201 sunshine hours for June 2013. This figure is much lower than the 300 hours average from the US method posted in wiki. And it matches nicely with the data from the local NOAA NWS site for Chicago. June 19th had the most sunshine hours at 13.3 hours. According to the NWS website that day had 20% sky cover. The worst day for sunshine was June 5th with zero hours of sunshine. According to the NWS site for Chicago June 5th had an average sky cover of 80%.
For the last time, would you mind explaining how Blue Hill Observatory, following WMO standards for years measures 2250 hours of sunshine using CS vs Logan Airport 10 miles away averaging 2600 hours using the US method. The US method overestimates sunshine hours no matter how you slice it. And it is by 350 hours in a place like Boston. Explain the discrepancy.
Hear hear. He's dreaming - and anyone who respects Bastardi has to be regarded with some suspicion!
Some Americans have a hard time accepting the loss of bragging rights for not having the sunny climate they think they do compared to the rest of the world.
I calculated Ithaca for June 2013. I got 197 hours of "bright sunshine" (120W/m sq.)
Curious to see how this compared with places in Europe. Not a lot of sun for June, but then I think Americans are used to the values they've seen listed from wiki and US data sources. This is more in line with Blue Hill and CS. Syracuse, NY averages 261 according to wiki (US method). Maybe it was also a very dull month.
This is using the 5 minute data? Is there any way to use the hourly data? My thought. I think June 2013 was a very dull month for Ithaca, it was at all like here. June 2009 from Blue Hill was the cloudiest of any month since Jan 2009, with 27% sunshine. I think we might have gotten close to that this month. Ithaca rain wasn't as extreme as here, though.
Buxton may be sunnier than some parts of the US given the discrepancies, lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tom77falcons
ha ha. 10 miles, I doubt it.
Some Americans have a hard time accepting the loss of bragging rights for not having the sunny climate they think they do compared to the rest of the world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tom77falcons
For the last time, would you mind explaining how Blue Hill Observatory, following WMO standards for years measures 2250 hours of sunshine using CS vs Logan Airport 10 miles away averaging 2600 hours using the US method. The US method overestimates sunshine hours no matter how you slice it. And it is by 350 hours in a place like Boston. Explain the discrepancy.
I meant to comment on this awhile back:
While I agree that there is likely some discrepancies in how solar data is collected (and I know even less about HOW it is collected)….I do have some concept of how average solar data would/should look based on climate genetics. When any two stations in similar climates have their solar hrs compared (say for example Cfa Brisbane and Orlando, FL) I would buy that one or the other might be a few hundred hrs higher/lower than the other based on how the data is collected.
However, I DON”T believe based on climate genetics, that for example Buxton gets anywhere near the sun hrs that the vast majority of the USA gets . Temperate oceanic climates (which include Buxton) are among the cloudiest climates on Earth (only the polar ocean has less sun annually). Comparing that to the USA, a much lower latitude, temperate climate , with large sectors that are arid, continental, subtropical, …etc, it stands to reason that the USA would see far more sun hrs than the vast majority of Europe (north of the Med Sea).
One other note you should be aware of (since I've been to Blue Hill MANY TIMES): Blue Hill is NOT staffed by professional people (meterologists) - it's staffed by volunteers and lay people with an interest in weather. I would take what NWS says 10000 times before I would ever take what Blue Hill says.
I think much to much is made of how this solar data is/has been collected, and we forgetting basic climate science.
However, I DON”T believe based on climate genetics, that for example Buxton gets anywhere near the sun hrs that the vast majority of the USA gets . Temperate oceanic climates (which include Buxton) are among the cloudiest climates on Earth (only the polar ocean has less sun annually). Comparing that to the USA, a much lower latitude, temperate climate , with large sectors that are arid, continental, subtropical, …etc, it stands to reason that the USA would see far more sun hrs than the vast majority of Europe (north of the Med Sea).
First, why are you dragging the vast majority of USA into this debate? Many were comparing the northern parts of the US, it's obvious and not particularly interesting that most of the rest of US is sunnier. Buxton is a poor example of a temperate oceanic climate, it's one of the cloudiest there is outside of the near arctic latitudes. The difference in sunshine between Buxton and say, central France or even most of the american Pacific Northwest is vast. Lumping them all together as "cloudy", ignores the differences. The sunshine difference between some of the cloudier Great Lakes climates and Appalachian climate (Pittsburgh, Buffalo) with NW Europe may be small. Eastern Canada doesn't appear much sunnier than NW Europe at the same latitude.
One other note you should be aware of (since I've been to Blue Hill MANY TIMES): Blue Hill is NOT staffed by professional people (meterologists) - it's staffed by volunteers and lay people with an interest in weather. I would take what NWS says 10000 times before I would ever take what Blue Hill says.
Except the NWS doesn't seem to staff sunshine recording observatories with much care for accuracy, as a NWS meteorologist mentioned.
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