Mass. Chases A Dreary Record For Cloudiest May
WESTON (CBS) - The sun has finally started to break through but clouds still dominate. In fact, this May just may be one of the cloudiest on record.
Bob Skilling has been recording the daily weather observations at the Blue Hills Weather Observatory for 50 years.
"We've had only 33 percent of the possible sunshine, that's only one third of what it could be if it were sunny every day," said Skilling.
WBZ-TV's Joe Joyce reports
He says this cloudy pattern is unusual, but has happened in the past 10 years
"We've had a couple of Mays, '03 and '05 which had 35 percent of the possible sunshine and that is though 31 days, so we are not there yet, but we seem to be on our way," he explains.
This May has produced only 84 hours of sunshine, the equivalent of six days. If this cloudy trend continues, it could end up being one of the five cloudiest Mays on record..
It will definitely be in the top 10.
At the observatory to measure the sunshine they use this crystal ball otherwise known as a sunshine recorder. The suns rays go through the ball and actually burn holes through these cards. You can see the amount of sunshine occurring through the course of the day.
Obviously in the past 6 days we have seen nothing but clouds. We have no holes burnt through the cards and we have been stuck in the overcast.
But you won't hear any complaints from Bob. Weather like this makes his job easier.
"There's not much to do to figure the relative humidity because it is always 100 percent."
