Overall, nine major American cities have solid overcast for more than 180 days a year. Besides the Pacific Northwest, cities with frequent cloudy weather are mainly near the Great Lakes.
The major cities included in the weather rankings represent the metropolitan areas in the United States with over one million people in 2010. Cloud cover information is not available from the National Climatic Data Center for San Jose and Riverside California, so they were left out of the cloudiest city ratings.
| City | Days of Heavy Cloud | % of Days |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle, Washington | 226 | 62 |
| Portland, Oregon | 222 | 61 |
| Buffalo, New York | 208 | 57 |
| Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 203 | 56 |
| Cleveland, Ohio | 202 | 55 |
| Rochester, New York | 200 | 55 |
| Columbus, Ohio | 190 | 52 |
| Cincinnati, Ohio | 186 | 51 |
| Detroit, Michigan | 185 | 51 |
Most Cloudy Days
Days of partial cloud are more common in Buffalo than in Seattle or Portland. Partial cloud is defined as cloud covering from over one-quarter to as much as three-quarters of the sky.
When days with partial cloud are added to the days of heavy cloud, to include every day that cloud covers more than one-quarter of the sky, then Buffalo’s average of 311 days a year edges out Seattle’s 308 days. Portland drops down to the country’s sixth cloudiest major city.
| City | Cloudy Days a Year | % of Days |
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo, New York | 311 | 85 |
| Seattle, Washington | 308 | 84 |
| Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 306 | 84 |
| Rochester, New York | 304 | 83 |
| Cleveland, Ohio | 299 | 82 |
| Portland, Oregon | 296 | 81 |
| Columbus, Ohio | 293 | 80 |
| Detroit, Michigan | 290 | 79 |
| Miami, Florida | 290 | 79 |
| Cincinnati, Ohio | 284 | 78 |
| Hartford, Connecticut | 283 | 78 |
| Chicago, Illinois | 281 | 77 |
| Indianapolis, Indiana | 278 | 76 |
| Orlando, Florida | 277 | 76 |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 275 | 75 |
| Houston, Texas | 275 | 75 |
I tried to find stats on smaller cities along the Great Lakes coastal areas, the data is there however it hasn’t been set in a database format as far as I can tell.
In the last 19 days we have had just 4% of sunshine. We have had several nights with clear to partly cloudy skies such as last night. It has become clear we may see the rise of the mole people soon.
We have had little variation between daytime and nighttime temps over the past few days and nights:
There is talk of a polar disruption coming late next week or the second week of February however this is not engraved in stone as of yet and there is low confidence in what the computer models are spitting out. We may see normal to slightly below normal temps in February and yes, maybe some snow.
I have been growing out my beard this winter with the expectation of cold and snow, I told my wife yesterday if I shave it down we would probably return to a real winter.
Breaking weather news! The updated 8 to 14 day cpc shows below normal temps and above average snow! How could it be?
Bring it!
https://www.instantweathermaps.com/GFS-php/conussfc.php?run=2020012818&time=PER&var=ASNOWI&hour=384
It’s so funny how much that map changes every run!!!
Yes it simply shows the latest trend for the long range GFS!
Come on it never snows in Zland Michigan lol..INDY
Bring on the best part of winter and the cold and the snow! February = cold and snow unless you are delusional! We will be getting hammered with tons of snow! I love long winters! Start in the beginning of November and last through April! Incredible!
Really liking the 10 Day forecast! Still no arctic air to speak of! Love these short winters!! Who Knew?!?!
https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/7f39432f98eef2d300f773cf914253d5f248e7131cb69cb63b087ebda662f574
How can that be with the “big time cold” coming at the beginning of February?
Average temps now are on the rise.. Awesome news !!
I found the book that has the number of cloudy days at several Michigan cities. I think I will post that in Saturdays post LOL. But I will say the numbers are going to be a lot different then the numbers for the cities above as a different formula is used. As some of the cloudy days in the above chart are partly cloudy days. So while above Detroit has 290 cloudy days in the book I have the cloudy days are just that cloudy. Any way in Michigan Detroit is the sunniest location and they have on average 183… Read more »
Yes there was some snow here last night a whole trace fell. I have some older written (as in books) information some where in the house on cloud cover here in Michigan I will try to find it. In one of the books I have in hand where there is a comparson of cloud cover at Madison, WI to Muskegon. In the 50 year period from 1900 to 1950 the average cloud cover in January at Madison was 67% and at Muskegon it was 89% in July it was 57% at Madison and 49% at Muskegon. For the annualy amounts… Read more »
Are the web cams not working? They don’t want to load when I click on them.
just checked, both are working
Hmm, works on my desktop but not my phone or ipad. Must be something with the portables.
I can’t remember such a long stretch with such little variation in temps. Since last week Thursday morning the temp has not gone below 32 or above 37. Looks like that will break next week as we start February with temps in the mid to upper 40’s. Wow!
Yeah the constant cloud cover can be a bummer at times. We love going out at night when it’s clear, nothing better than a star filled sky. There’s a lot to see in the Winter time sky, but we rarely get to see anything. But at least this year we haven’t had to deal with much of any snow, that’s always a big bonus.
Grand Rapids is one of the cloudiest places in the entire country.
yes it is.
Slim
Yesterday was our 5th double digit above average day in a row. And now we have two 40’s in the upcoming forecast. Love it!
Becareful out on the roads snow covered and very slippery this morning ….INDY…
Big time cold and big time lk effect snows coming around the 5th of February its called a pattern change folks and it happens this will White out about have of the thoughts we been reading on here lately over and over lol reminds me of a good old song by Metallica its called “Sad but Truth”…..On that cold thought have a super Tuesday ….INDY
Don’t worry Indy the warm weather fanatics said no attic air and minimal if any snowstorms the rest of this season! Winter is almost over according to them! Incredible!
Lol!!! INDY
I love living in Michigan. The lack of sunshine is probably the one thing that bothers me most.
Need that Vitamin D!