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For the Toronto area,
it seems like about 2/5ths of our summer has had days with less than 35% chance of sun.
(less than 5 hrs of sun with a daylength about 14.5 hrs long)
This is cloudier than normal, but it's unknown to me by how much.
Guessing, I would say our summer overall has had 10% less chance of sun than a normal summer.
Total number of "gloomy" days since Jun 1st, probably 25-30.
I can't recall a single entire day that was anything more than partly cloudy since Spring. We had a few days where a storm would pass through in the evening before sunset, but the rest of the day was either sunny or partly cloudy at most. Today, however, has been mostly cloudy, with periods of sun. It's the first day I can remember like that this summer.
For the Toronto area,
it seems like about 2/5ths of our summer has had days with less than 35% chance of sun.
(less than 5 hrs of sun with a daylength about 14.5 hrs long)
This is cloudier than normal, but it's unknown to me by how much.
Guessing, I would say our summer overall has had 10% less chance of sun than a normal summer.
Total number of "gloomy" days since Jun 1st, probably 25-30.
Why don't you request the data? You could probably get it for little or no cost from your met. organisation. Even ours now provides free access to an extensive database - after an earlier period of loony-tunes economics set up ridiculous charges for what should always have stayed in the public domain.
A few days, maybe 5 at most, during this summer have been overcast or mostly cloudy throughout the day. Those few days occurred whenever the remnants of a tropical low happened to move through the area.
What happens much more often (around 50% of summer days) is that if a thunderstorm hits (typically occurs between 12 and 4PM), clouds stick around for the rest of the day. Anyone who has a schedule in which (s)he wakes up after noon would probably think that this area is pretty cloudy during the summer, basically. Living by the Gulf probably makes this occur more often than it does in Lamplight's area.
Here in Vancouver this summer, we've probably only had around 4-5 days total where it's rained and maybe only 1 or 2 days more than that with overcast skies. The rest of the time has been either clear blue sky or at most mix of sun and cloud but there has always usually been some sun. We've also had no thunderstorm activity at all so far this summer.
Last summer in Australia (ranging from 1 Dec 2009 to 28 Feb 2010 inclusive).
The total number of days with < 5 hours sun by main centre (not adjusting for potential sunlight hours so a quick and crude calculation):
Adelaide 19
Brisbane 22
Canberra 10
Darwin 37
Hobart 11
Melbourne 18
Perth 2
Sydney 33
Darwin is the cloudiest, but it is the wet season. Perth lives up to its Mediteranean climate with just 2 days where the sun shone < 5 hours.
Hobart to me was a surprise - I expected it to be cloudier.
Bear in mind this is just 90 days worth of data, rather than long term.
Adelaide seems cloudier than I'd expect for summer for a semi-arid, mediterranean city.
Hobart, Melbourne and Canberra all had less cloudy days.
Brisbane is still looking better than Sydney with less cloudy days. Fluke?
I was expecting Darwin to be cloudier, but I thought Brisbane's summer was also wetter than Sydney's.
Sydney was nearly as cloudy as Darwin.
Your crude calculation seems good,
as places closer to the equator with shorter summer days have more lenient expectations for % chance of sun.
61 out of 76 days (June 1st - August 15th 2010) have been cloudy or mostly cloudy here.
And the last 29 days have all had at least a trace of precipitation. At least it beat the old record.
edit: it's 12:07 AM and it is now raining. 30 consecutive days of falling precipitation.
Ouch! How unusual is that?
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