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Numbers never tell the whole story in Pittsburgh either. Many "gloomy" winter days in Pittsburgh look like this:
There are plenty of gray days in Pittsburgh in the winter, but there are plenty of "silver" days too. There are even a few clear days per month, though those days tend to be very cold.
To me these are cloudy days. Look at the ground, it is really dark. But I live in Austin, when you get even a mostly cloudy day it's bright. A partly cloudy day is basically no different than a sunny day here except you get breaks from the sun now and then.
Compare to the brightness of this "mostly cloudy" winter day in Austin:
I have to admit, I was having a discussion with other Mets on twitter regarding NWS's "Cloud Cover, Sunny days" numbers and they convinced me those numbers suck.
For those that don't know they can see these numbers under the CLI reports from their local NWS offices.
The sensors sometimes don't capture true sky cover. Not saying they aren't right most of the time but they aren't accurate a lot of times.
We really need human eyes on that sort of thing to see sunshine and sky cover stuff.
Back in the day we had a recorder that "ticked off" each minute of sunshine. Day total was divided by total possible for %. No more. Machines with sensors now.
Blue Hill, Massachusetts been doing it the same way since the 1880s with a glass pyrheliometer!
To me these are cloudy days. Look at the ground, it is really dark. But I live in Austin, when you get even a mostly cloudy day it's bright. A partly cloudy day is basically no different than a sunny day here except you get breaks from the sun now and then.
Compare to the brightness of this "mostly cloudy" winter day in Austin:
Now you understand why those are called cloudy days in Pittsburgh.
I wouldn't compare Austin to Pittsburgh or Seattle. They are at completely different latitudes. I have been to Austin around Christmas time it was beautiful 75 degrees, weather that we see mainly in the summer.
Which is great, because I'll be in Palo Alto for a conference and I don't want to be missing out on any good cold here at home.
It really sucks to go to a warm place during winter, even if only for a week (I even voluntarily dropped out of a fully funded trip to Bangalore during January, for the same reason). Got lucky this time.
Last edited by volosong; 12-07-2018 at 07:16 PM..
Reason: please, no vulgar language
Which is great, because I'll be in Palo Alto for a conference and I don't want to be missing out on any good cold here at home.
It really sucks to go to a warm place during winter, even if only for a week (I even voluntarily dropped out of a fully funded trip to Bangalore during January, for the same reason). Got lucky this time.
Lucky you. I only ever get to go to New England, which is colder than here.
Just curious why we're in the winter thread while it's technically still fall?
Beats me. These guys go by some strange system. Winter don't come until Dec 21st for me. And it really don't come for FL at all anymore it seems.
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