Cloudy Skies: Friend & Foe

Cloud cover can be very pesky this time of year, and while there are some obvious negatives to cloudy skies, those same conditions can also work to our advantage.

If you hate the cold of winter, cloudy skies at night are a great thing. Cloud cover at night acts much like a blanket. It keeps any warmth at the ground from escaping up into the atmosphere, which makes for relatively warmer lows at night. On the flip side, cloudy skies during the day blocks out the sun. Less sun means relatively cooler highs for the afternoon.

The Stateline experience both of these scenarios on Thursday. Morning lows stayed in the upper 20s to around 30° thanks to heavy cloud cover.

Unfortunately, cloudy skies stuck around all day, meaning temperatures only warmed a handful of degrees.






So before you complain about how gloomy things look on a cloudy day, remember... even those clouds can be your friend. -BA