Cloudiness of Summer 2003

The start of the summer of 2003 brought considerable cloudiness to both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. When comparing the sky cover from this past summer to the summer of 2002, one would have thought a general above average trend in the number of cloudy days, however for most of the seven big cities of Pennsylvania, the number of cloudy days stayed below average.

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were the only exceptions. Pittsburgh stayed above the normal count of cloudy days for all of the summer months, and experienced the greatest amount of cloudy days in the entire state of Pennsylvania. In fact, for the month of June, Pittsburgh topped out with a total of 17 cloudy days. Philadelphia was the only city that came close to this total, with approximately 15 cloudy days in June. Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, and Williamsport, although starting out cloudy, managed to escape the clouds for much of July and August and stayed well below the average total. Both Scranton and Allentown recorded only one cloudy day for the month of July, while Harrisburg recorded none for the month of August.

Table 1: Cloudy days for the seven big cities of Pennsylvania. Data from this past summer and the summer of 2002 was not available for Erie, PA.

	Pittsburgh	Philadelphia	Scranton	Allentown	Erie	Williamsport	Harrisburg
June	17	15	8	9	n/a	10	8
Normal (rounded)	13	13	12	11	11	12	12
June, 2002	9	7	4	3	n/a	4	3
July	15	9	1	1	n/a	3	2
Normal (rounded)	13	13	12	11	10	12	12
July, 2002	8	7	3	3	n/a	3	1
August	14	14	2	2	n/a	3	0
Normal (rounded)	13	13	12	11	11	12	12
August, 2002	11	8	3	3	n/a	4	3

Even though most of Pennsylvania did not get an over abundance of clouds, rain was a big factor in dampening summer plans. Harrisburg, ranking in with the greatest number of rainy days, recorded 18 days with measurable rain for the month of June. Allentown and Scranton ranked number two with 16 rainy days in June. All seven major cities stayed above the average number of rainy days for all of June, July and August and stayed well above the recorded total days with rain from the summer of 2002.

Table 2: Days with measurable precipitation in the seven big cities of Pennsylvania.

	Pittsburgh	Philadelphia	Scranton	Allentown	Erie	Williamsport	Harrisburg
June	14	15	16	16	13	14	18
Normal (rounded)	11	10	12	11	10	12	11
June, 2002	10	12	12	10	10	9	8
July	14	16	10	11	15	12	12
Normal (rounded)	11	9	11	10	10	12	10
July, 2002	8	8	7	6	7	9	7
August	12	14	11	14	11	14	16
Normal (rounded)	10	9	11	10	11	11	9
August, 2002	10	4	12	9	8	9	11