Sunshine duration in hours per year. United States vs Europe

Posted by MaddoxBlaze

43 Comments

  1. I don’t know why but this befuddling me. Is this a shape of the Earth + axis tilt thing? Is this with overcast?

  2. YouInternational2152 on

    FYI, Yuma Arizona leads the world in hours of sunshine per year at just over 4000 hours.(Phoenix, El Paso, El Centro, and Las Vegas are also in the top 10 world wide).

  3. FYI: Toronto has about the same latitude as Monaco, and is much further south than Paris

  4. MovieNightPopcorn on

    Had an American acquaintance who got a job in the UK for a couple years. They were losing their minds by the time they moved back to North America, for this reason.

  5. So. Clearly moving to US as a vampire is a stupid idea. No but, things like Frasier, Twilight and other media gives this idea of constant rain in the north-western US, when in reality it seems to be a drop in the metaphorical bucket compared to northern Europe.

  6. More_Particular684 on

    Zagreb and Karlobag are quite close each other, yet there is a noticeable difference in sunshine duration in the two cities. That’s really interesting.

  7. USA is the proof suicide rates have nothing to do with sunlight exposion, USA has much more exposion than Italy yet Italy has atleast 10 times smaller suicide rate.

    Probably shit created by nordics to “Hide” their social (not socialism) system problem because of their superiority complex

  8. This can’t be accurate. I have it on good authority that it is in fact always sunny in Philadelphia.

  9. What metrics are taken into consideration for this? Is it purely the hours per year each area has between sunrise and sunset? Does this measure cloudy days also? Like would a completely cloudy day with no sun-break be considered a 0 sunshine hour day?

  10. SomeItalianBoy on

    I’m curious of outliers, like 1200-1600 in Switzerland. I bet it’s cause of Alps? But the 1800-2000 in Sweden?

  11. fartalldaylong on

    Live in Durango, CO and grew up in New Mexico…I absolutely love the sun…all seasons. I spent a couple of weeks in Switzerland on a business trip recently and became pretty down without the warm glow of open high desert wilderness. The four corners from Durango, to Albuquerque, to Flagstaff, to Moab is just the greatest.

  12. MedicinianMaple on

    While it is very true that Europe generally gets less sun hours than the US, the US uses a different, more sensitive instrument to measure sunlight which skews the results. Take a look at two US/Canada border towns to see.

    Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario: 1919.7 hours: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario#Climate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Ontario#Climate)

    Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan: 2238.6 hours: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Michigan#Climate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sault_Ste._Marie,_Michigan#Climate)

    Therefore, while the map says that a place like NYC or Chicago gets the same amount of sun as Rome, it is not actually the case

  13. I remember when fox news claimed during Germany’s solar boom last decade that Germany gets more sun than most of the US… Absolutely hilarious how a sunless country was leading in solar while a country IDEAL for solar didn’t do anything (or at least the right wing parties where actively suppressing, while in Germany conservatives were fully food the energy transformation..)

  14. Europe is at a much higher latitude than the USA.

    The reason why it’s still so warm (compared to Canada which is a t a similar latitude) is the Gulf Stream, which transports warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe. Without it, Europe would be just as cold as northern Canada

  15. Reemus_Jackson on

    As a Vegas resident, I can attest. It is literally sickening how much sun we get. People not from here always say “ohhh it must be nice! warm and sunny everyday!”. Its not…..

    For example, this year, it has rained 3 times. THREE. In 312 days, 3 times. And those 3 times, it might’ve been 20-25 min of a light rain/drizzle. We are projected to get MAYBE another 2-3 days of rain from now until Dec 31st….every other day will be beaming sun, no clouds, nothing….just sun and wind.

  16. p0pularopinion on

    Living in the orange area, and feeling like i almost live in hell, I cannot comprehend how hellish it is going to be in red and deep red areas

  17. OppositeRock4217 on

    Btw, northwestern Europe has a similar climate as the PNW region of the US but with significantly cloudier summers resulting in low sunshine