Cloudy
If you love clear, sunny days, Michigan is probably not where you want to live.
Data from the US National Climate Data Center:
Annual Clear Days (clear = 0 to 3/10ths average sky cover)
Detroit, MI: 75 days
Grand Rapids, MI: 64 days
Lansing, MI: 71 days
(If you're in the US and want to find data near you, the report is the NCDC's "Cloudiness - Mean Number of Days".)
In contrast with Michigan, Yuma, Arizona has 242 clear days, Pensacola, Florida has 105 clear days, and even Spokane, Washington, has 86 clear days.
Seattle, Washington, is often cited as being particularly cloudy. With fifty-one years of data, the Seattle Tacoma International Airport averages only 58 clear days. The other Seattle station listed just says "Seattle C.O., WA", and it's not clear to me which station that is, but with twenty-four years of data, it averages 71 clear days, the same number as Lansing.
If you want to look at the other end of the spectrum,
Annual Cloudy Days (8/10ths to 10/10ths average sky cover)
Detroit, MI: 185 days
Grand Rapids, MI: 205 days
Lansing, MI: 191 days
Yuma, Arizona: 52 days
Pensacola, Florida: 137 days
Spokane, Washington: 191 days
Seattle Tacoma International Airport: 226 days
Seattle C.O., WA: 201 days
I guess when the sky looks like the photo on the left, it's not so surprising that I want to knit with colors like the ones on the right.
Labels: Michigan weather
posted by Alwen | 9:50 AM
5 Comments:
About this time in the winter, I really feel the need to knit something colorful. So what am I working on? My shawl which is neutral colors and my husband wants some plain brown socks. I need something cheerful. Spring feels so far away.
yeah, I think the acrylic baby yarn socks can be forgiven! We have a lot of days of sunshine here, even in frosty winter. The thought of acrylic socks makes my feet feel sweaty, but, you know, each to her own.
The Buffalo (NY) paper has a section with the weather information called the Sunshine Derby. It counts a day with 50% sun or greater as a sunny day. As of yesterday's paper, Buffalo has had 9 days of Sunshine this year but Rochester (NY) has had only 1 day of sunshine. Syracuse has had 11, Orlando Florida 15 and Phoenix has had 26
We have had a high of 50 sometime during the night and are back in a big drop off it is 31 right now.
I'm curious how your acrylic baby yarn socks are going to turn out since it won't have any elastic qualities like wool at the heel and cuff. I hope it works.
Not surprising at all! I have been feeling the same way (hence the bright red socks), and we don't have nearly the cloud cover that you do! (Oddly, we get ours in June, and call it June gloom, when the marine layer comes in and doesn't go anywhere for a month). Hang in there. Spring will come, I promise :)
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