Thursday, May. 16, 2024
Does Colorado get 300 days of sunshine per year?
While Colorado sees sunny skies for more than two-thirds of the year, the state falls short of 300 days of sunshine.
In 2020 the Denver area had 115 days where the sky cover was considered fair, 208 partly cloudy days and 43 cloudy days, according to a 2020 National Weather Service annual climate summary.
The National Climatic Data Center ranked U.S. cities based on annual possible sunshine through 2004 using several years of data. Using 46 years of climate data, the center found that Denver ranked 30th with the sun shining 69% of days every year — or about 252 days. Two Colorado cities ranked higher but did not break the 300 day mark, either.
In Pueblo, 76% of days were sunny while Grand Junction boasted 71% of days with sunshine.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- NOAA Ranking of cities based on % annual possible sunshine
- National Weather Service 2020 Annual Climate Summary
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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