On Sunday, 21 December 2014 10:26:34 UTC, Graham wrote:
Been through there, it rained with sunshine all around :-)
Miserable, bit like Graham :-)

Spot on Will!
Don't worry when it's cold enough for snow there won't be a cloud in
sight


Graham (NORTH STAFFS)

What kind of clouds were they old boy?

Seems a bit of nonsense to post about clouds without describing them and their orientation.
Hint: Lay out the lie of the land from Mow Cop to that bit of a lump on the other edge of Cheshire before the hills start.

On Monday, 22 December 2014 09:22:58 UTC, wrote:
On Monday, 22 December 2014 12:02:13 UTC+13, Norman wrote:
Graham wrote:


Blimey, Graham.
Sounds like Desolation Row down there between you and Norman!
Another 5hr sun here yesterday in the rain shadow (it's not working
yet today!) 60hr so far this month (;0)

I know Ken, 6.8 hours in the last 8 days!
Winter's bad enough without weeks of gloom.
I wouldn't mind but in the so called colder, brighter spells it's
still cloudy. We won't get near 60 hours for the whole month


Graham (NORTH STAFFS)

Yes Graham, it really has been dire in our part of the country in
recent weeks. Any airstream, not matter what its origin, produces
endless cloudy skies. In this run of westerlies I think we've been
getting our rain, plus most of Ken's and a few other people's as well.
I drove down to Sussex yestreday and after passing Chesterfield it was
like moving into another world with dry roads and sunshine.Cloudy back
in Tideswell today but at least it was dry.

I agree entirely with your sentiments about the weather forecasts. They
really have been well wide of the mark for our bit of the country on
many occasions recently.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

Annual sun at Tideswell (and Weston Coyney) is approx. ...??

Who the feckless cares?
We get the weather we need, same as everyone else. This stuff is about to break and he thinks it is out to get him.

Weatherlawyer, 10 minutes from Wetherspoons (just this side of Paradise.)

On Sunday, 21 December 2014 10:24:40 UTC, Graham wrote:
Might I suggest that you add a sig that includes your location so that
you won't be bothered in future by people wondering where "this place"
is?
Sorry guys I thought the word CLOUDY may have been a dead giveaway
There can only be Norman at Tideswell duller than Weston Coyney!


Graham (NORTH STAFFS)

One last time gentlesuckers:
Tuesday 23 December 2014:
http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-p...b/abiosair.jpg

If you have a superabundance of cloud you don't need no Davis stuff. You just need some simple FitzRoyesque charm (and a lot more patience apparently.)

On Sunday, 21 December 2014 13:12:07 UTC, Graham wrote:
And which part of North Staffs might that be?

DM.Somewhere in Yorkshire.

Would that be North or South Yorkshire!!!


Graham (Weston Coyney) JUST FOR U!!!

W E S T E R N

C O Y N E Y

in case he is dawlish.

RW wrote:

On Tuesday, 23 December 2014 06:48:36 UTC+13, Norman wrote:


Annual sun at Tideswell (and Weston Coyney) is approx. ...??


Between 950 and 1000 hours in Tideswell.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

That's very low even compared with some of Scotland - do you lose
daylight from proximity to hills?

Can lose up to 45-60 minutes at the end of the day due to the lie of
the land but if it's cloudy, as it very often is at that time of day,
nothing gets lost :-) For much of the year the sunniest part of the day
is often the first few hours of the morning, before the convection gets
going. We have very good exposure to morning sunshine so nothing gets
lost in the morning.

For the period Mar-Oct home-grown convective cloud spreading out to a
sheet of Sc is very much the norm resulting in a couple of hours of
early sunshine then not a lot after that. During the period Nov-Feb
it's often just cloudy, much like the rest of the country.

We have the disadvantage of being exposed to the whole sector from NW
through S to NE. It's only between NW and NE that we get into a proper
shadow from hills and see some real sunshine and that isn't a very
common wind direction. It's very different from what Ken in Copley
experiences. He gets lots of sunshine in a westerly due to bing in the
shadow of hills to the west.

Most places in Scotland are very shelterd from one sector even though
they may be very exposed to others.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

On Tuesday, 23 December 2014 22:14:27 UTC+13, Norman wrote:
RW wrote:

On Tuesday, 23 December 2014 06:48:36 UTC+13, Norman wrote:


Annual sun at Tideswell (and Weston Coyney) is approx. ...??


Between 950 and 1000 hours in Tideswell.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

That's very low even compared with some of Scotland - do you lose
daylight from proximity to hills?

Can lose up to 45-60 minutes at the end of the day due to the lie of
the land but if it's cloudy, as it very often is at that time of day,
nothing gets lost :-) For much of the year the sunniest part of the day
is often the first few hours of the morning, before the convection gets
going. We have very good exposure to morning sunshine so nothing gets
lost in the morning.

For the period Mar-Oct home-grown convective cloud spreading out to a
sheet of Sc is very much the norm resulting in a couple of hours of
early sunshine then not a lot after that. During the period Nov-Feb
it's often just cloudy, much like the rest of the country.

We have the disadvantage of being exposed to the whole sector from NW
through S to NE. It's only between NW and NE that we get into a proper
shadow from hills and see some real sunshine and that isn't a very
common wind direction. It's very different from what Ken in Copley
experiences. He gets lots of sunshine in a westerly due to bing in the
shadow of hills to the west.

Most places in Scotland are very shelterd from one sector even though
they may be very exposed to others.

--
Norman Lynagh
Tideswell, Derbyshire
303m a.s.l.

Thanks for that excellent description, gives one a vivid idea of your sun regime. I have noticed on the sun maps for the UK the enhanced averages of many of the coastal zones, as compared with inland areas. In my country the convective effects seem to be much less important, but hill or mountain sheltering is a major factor. A somewhat bizarre climate is found at Mt Cook village just east of the Southern Alps - in a rain shadow (of sorts) with its 4400mm annual rainfall (west of the divide there are areas with at least 13000mm and possibly quite a bit more) and with considerable variability in cloudiness. Overall it is quite sunny with 50% of the possible recorded, no less than on the main plains much further east.

On 23/12/2014 19:06, RW wrote:
Thanks for that excellent description, gives one a vivid idea of your sun regime. I have noticed on the sun maps for the UK the enhanced averages of many of the coastal zones, as compared with inland areas. In my country the convective effects seem to be much less important, but hill or mountain sheltering is a major factor. A somewhat bizarre climate is found at Mt Cook village just east of the Southern Alps - in a rain shadow (of sorts) with its 4400mm annual rainfall (west of the divide there are areas with at least 13000mm and possibly quite a bit more) and with considerable variability in cloudiness. Overall it is quite sunny with 50% of the possible recorded, no less than on the main plains much further east.

For the last 9 years that I have been recording sunshine here near near
the south coast of Devon we have averaged around 1850 to 2000 hours of
sunshine a year.

The biggest factor is the supression of cumulus cloud in the spring,
summer and early autumn through regular sea breezes. Often the sky is
cloudless here whereas just a few kilometres inland cumulus builds up
and there may even be showers/thunder, especially in the spring.

Higher ground to the west also helps.

--
Nick Gardner
Otter Valley (and with beavers too), Devon
20 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk

On Wednesday, 24 December 2014 08:16:45 UTC+13, Nick Gardner wrote:

For the last 9 years that I have been recording sunshine here near near
the south coast of Devon we have averaged around 1850 to 2000 hours of
sunshine a year.

The biggest factor is the supression of cumulus cloud in the spring,
summer and early autumn through regular sea breezes. Often the sky is
cloudless here whereas just a few kilometres inland cumulus builds up
and there may even be showers/thunder, especially in the spring.

Higher ground to the west also helps.

--
Nick Gardner
Otter Valley (and with beavers too), Devon
20 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk

Interesting. There is only a small bit of NZ's coastline where that sort of thing would be seen much, and in those cases steep hills or mountain ranges would not be far away.

On Wednesday, December 24, 2014 2:06:19 AM UTC, RW wrote:
On Wednesday, 24 December 2014 08:16:45 UTC+13, Nick Gardner wrote:

For the last 9 years that I have been recording sunshine here near near
the south coast of Devon we have averaged around 1850 to 2000 hours of
sunshine a year.

The biggest factor is the supression of cumulus cloud in the spring,
summer and early autumn through regular sea breezes. Often the sky is
cloudless here whereas just a few kilometres inland cumulus builds up
and there may even be showers/thunder, especially in the spring.

Higher ground to the west also helps.

--
Nick Gardner
Otter Valley (and with beavers too), Devon
20 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk

Interesting. There is only a small bit of NZ's coastline where that sort of thing would be seen much, and in those cases steep hills or mountain ranges would not be far away.

HI Rupert and a Merry Christmas. The bad thing about onshore winds in this part of the world are summer fogs/haars/sea frets. Real spoilers!

The biggest factor is the supression of cumulus cloud in the spring,
summer and early autumn through regular sea breezes. Often the sky is
cloudless here whereas just a few kilometres inland cumulus builds up
and there may even be showers/thunder, especially in the spring.


Nick Gardner
Otter Valley (and with beavers too), Devon
20 m amsl
http://www.ottervalley.co.uk

The affect of this in Spring/Summer is so great it more than compensates (in a normal year - 2012 was a bit of an exception) for Autumn/Winter when onshore coasts tend to be cloudier.

This is well demonstrated by http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/...aries/anomacts

Select Annual, Actual sunshine and take a look at the last 5 or 6 years.

Every year (except 2012) shows the sunniest areas in the SW to be Scilly, Land's End peninsula & north Cornwall, and the area from about where you are Nick, to Portland. East of this the whole south coast does very well, with the sunniest bits where it's relatively exposed, like the Isle of Wight & Eastbourne.

In the south west, where the prevailing wind is offshore, such as in Torbay, it is normally cloudier. (Not what you might assume by the repeated forecasts of more sunshine to the east of high ground)

It's a shame there is no sunshine recorded out at Sennen, I'm confident that area is the sunniest in Cornwall, nothing land around (apart from to the E-NE) to generate Cu. The sunshine's often unbroken in Summer when there's a 50% cloud cover even in Penzance. East Cornwall is much cloudier, especially to the SE of Bodmin Moor.

Graham
Penzance