The beginning of March 2021 has surely been a bright one after a winter barrage in February. Through March 12, the area has seen 83% possible sunshine.
The way we calculate possible sunshine is by taking the number of minutes we see the sun in a certain day and dividing it by the maximum possible sunshine we could see. The max amount of possible sunshine would be if it is completely sunny from sunrise to sunset. Several days this March have been completely sunny from start to finish, leading to our possible sunshine being 100% for the day.
If we were to compare the amount of sunshine we have seen this month to the average sunshine in the sunniest month of the year, July, the comparison isn't even close. The average sunshine for July is 69%, which is 14% less than the sunshine we have seen this March! The sunniest month of March happened over 100 years ago in 1918. That month we had 76% sunshine, so if we continue our 83% sunshine this month, we would shatter that record. One other fun fact, the average March sunshine is 48% so we have seen nearly doubled that this year.
This weekend will definitely help keep our sunny March going strong. Plentiful sunshine is expected both Saturday and Sunday. A few high thin clouds could move in at times, especially on Sunday, but this is not expected to cut into the sunshine too much. After the weekend, we will likely be around 85% sunshine for the month.
