![]() So, for the claim to be true, one has to consider a partly or mostly cloudy day to be a sunny day since technically the sun shined for a least an hour and although this is a stretch, it’s the only way to validate us having 300 days of sunshine per year. ![]() I would need at least five hours of sunshine, but that’s just me.)įor areas of the northern Front Range, there is an average of 60 days of completely overcast conditions - think drizzly, dreary or damp days, according to Doesken’s research. (Author note: I’m a meteorologist and I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks that just one hour of sunshine per day constitutes it being a sunny day. Turns out, if you consider just one hour of sunshine during a day to qualify as a sunny day, then you will have 300 days of sunshine per year in Denver. So, tracking cloud cover became harder to do as of the 1990s making it difficult to debunk the claim that we get 300 sunny days per year.ĭoesken did an assessment (before the switch to automated cloud tracking in the 1990s) to find out how much sun is needed per day for there to be 300 days of sunshine. It only measured low clouds which don’t accurately represent the full spectrum of clouds in different layers of the atmosphere. The automation of cloud tracking did not measure any high clouds. The phrase stuck and has been used as a marketing and travel tool ever since.Ĭloud cover measurements were done visually until the mid-1990s and then the tracking became automated. Still, this is less than the original 300-day claim. Data found that the number of clear to partly cloudy days averaged about 250, but this was based on an unknown definition of what cloud cover was. So this claim to fame was just that - a claim.Ĭloud measuring began in the 1890s to early 1900s. ![]() They didn’t even try this measurement until the 1890s,” Doesken said. People weren’t measuring sunshine back then. But this marketing phrase had absolutely no legitimacy. You may also see them out ahead of cold fronts, in which case they signal the onset of cooler temperatures.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close MenuĮventually, travelers took the bait and realized that the weather here is pretty darn great - at least compared to places like Cleveland and Chicago. They can signal thunderstorms to come later in the day. (If it's closer to fist-size, it's probably stratocumulus.)Īltocumulus are often spotted on warm and humid mornings, especially during summer. Place your hand up to the sky and in the direction of the cloud if the mound is the size of your thumb, it's altocumulus. Besides altocumulus being higher up in the sky, another way to tell them apart is by the size of their individual cloud mounds. ![]() Telling Altocumulus and Stratocumulus ApartĪltocumulus and stratocumulus are often mistaken. They look like the wool of sheep or scales of mackerel fish-hence their nicknames "sheep backs" and "mackerel skies." You'll recognize them as white or gray patches that dot the sky in large, rounded masses or clouds that are aligned in parallel bands. Altocumulus clouds are the most common clouds in the middle atmosphere. ![]()
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