Does the sun shine everyday?

Does the Sun Really Shine Every Day? Let’s Get Real.

Okay, let’s cut to the chase: does the sun actually shine every single day? Well, yes and no. I know, classic non-answer, right? But hear me out. The sun, that giant ball of fire in the sky, is always pumping out light. It’s its job! But whether that light makes it down to you, wherever you are, every day… that’s where things get interesting.

Think about it. The Earth’s round, and it’s spinning. That’s why we have day and night. At any given moment, half the planet is bathed in sunlight. Obvious, I know. But what about those pesky clouds? What about fog, mountains, and all the other stuff that gets in the way? That’s where “sunshine duration” comes in.

Sunshine duration is basically a fancy way of saying “how much sun a place actually gets.” We’re talking hours per year, or even per day. It’s a measure of how cloudy a place tends to be. It’s not the same as insolation, which is all about the power of the sun’s rays. Sunshine duration is just about how long you get to see it.

So, what messes with sunshine duration? A bunch of things, actually:

• Where you are on the planet: Places near the poles can have crazy long days in the summer. The sun just hangs out near the horizon for ages.
• Atmospheric weirdness: Sometimes, the atmosphere bends the light just enough that you can see the sun even when it’s technically below the horizon. Pretty cool, huh?
• Clouds, duh: This is the big one. A thick blanket of clouds can block the sun completely. No sun for you!
• Mountains and buildings: Ever been in a valley where the sun disappears way before sunset? That’s terrain messing with your sunshine.

Places Where the Sun Plays Hide-and-Seek

Okay, so we know the sun’s always there. But some places just don’t see it much. I’m talking about places famous for being gloomy. Here are a few:

• Tórshavn, Faroe Islands: This place is often called the cloudiest city on Earth. They only get about 840 hours of sun a year. That’s like, two hours a day! It’s stuck in the North Atlantic, where warm and cold air crash into each other all the time, making for constant clouds and fog.
• Bergen, Norway: “The City of Rain,” they call it. Bergen gets hammered with cloudy days – around 240 a year! Mountains trap all the moisture, so it’s basically cloud central.
• Lima, Peru: This one’s weird. Lima’s in a desert, but it’s almost always covered in a thick fog called “La Garúa.” Grey skies all year round.
• El Danubio, Colombia: Hold on to your hats, folks, because this region has an average cloud cover of 98.6%! That’s barely any sun!

There are other gloomy spots too, like Dikson in Russia, Malabo in Equatorial Guinea, and São Joaquim in Brazil. Seems like there’s a lot of competition for the cloudiest place on Earth!

The Bottom Line

Even in the dreariest, cloudiest corners of the world, the sun’s still up there, doing its thing. It’s the only star in our solar system that shines with its own light, and that light is constantly streaming towards Earth. Sunshine duration just tells us how much of that light we actually get to enjoy, depending on where we are and what the weather’s doing.

Sunshine in the USA

Here in the States, we see a lot of variation. Take New York City, for example. They average around 2,544 hours of sunshine a year. July’s the sunniest, with about 9 hours a day, while December’s the gloomiest, with less than 5.

When the Sun Goes Wild

Sometimes, the weather throws us a curveball. Back in 2018, a lot of Europe had way more sunshine than usual. Germany even had its sunniest year ever!

So, What’s the Verdict?

Does the sun shine every day? Technically, yes. The sun is always shining. But does that sunshine reach you every day? That depends. Location, time of year, clouds… they all play a role. Some places are sun magnets, while others are cloud magnets. That’s just how it goes!