ROCHESTER, N.Y. – From my experience, it seems to be this time of year when folks have some difficulty with the weather. It may be the snow or the very cold temperatures. But I think most of us would have more of a tolerance for this cold, snowy weather if we had a little more sunshine to brighten our day.

The amount of “gray” in our skies is reflective of the statistics measuring the amount of cloud cover we see throughout the year. On average, the amount of possible sunshine during June and July will average close to 68 percent. However, by November, December, and January, that percentage of possible sunshine drops significantly to nearly 30 to 35 percent. This varies from year to year, but in general, we have a lot of moisture trapped in the lower layers of the atmosphere.

Consequently, there is nothing to scour out that moisture which is partly due to the low angle of the sun. Some would say it is just a bit dismal and this is evident just during the last two weeks as observations show Rochester saw a significant amount of cover each day. It has been uniformly gray for this entire time.

We can probably agree that it is not the most uplifting weather and probably a significant contributor to the “winter blues”. However, the trend is for brighter skies in the coming days.