ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Nothing like a little bit of sunshine to lift your spirits. Unfortunately, any sun of late has been minimal. The record shows that over the last two weeks the amount of cloud cover has been substantial. This is illustrated over the last 13 days at the Rochester Airport where the measurement for sky cover has been for either “cloudy” or “mostly cloudy” for each day. 

Part of the equation is our proximity to the Great Lakes. Living near Lake Ontario and Lake Erie adds moisture to the atmosphere which obviously contributes to cloud cover. In addition, this time of the year brings a lower sun angle and consequently much of that incoming solar radiation does not penetrate into the lower atmosphere. Not a good if you want some vitamin D here in Western New York.

But we should be more optimistic about the trending astronomical conditions. Since December 21^st (the winter solstice), we have added an additional two hours of daylight.  As the days get longer, sunrise is earlier each day and sunset is gradually getting later. The start of this week shows a sunrise at 6:54 A.M. and a sunset at 5:54 P.M.  That is 11 hours of daylight.  In just three weeks, on St. Patrick’s Day, the amount of daylight increases to 12 hours.

I wish we could say that it will be the luck of the Irish, but hopefully it is spring season that is in full swing!