November Cloudiness

The sunshine Wednesday afternoon felt pretty nice, despite temperatures warming only into the low to mid 40's.  Wednesday was the first day we've had full sunshine since October 20th!  But as we enter into the heart of fall and set our sights towards winter, we've also entered into what is typically our most cloudy months.


Frequent cold fronts from the north pull down cold air, but often times have a lot of cloud cover associated with them.  As the days get shorter, it gets harder for our atmosphere to warm helping burn off those clouds.


November and December are typically the two most cloudy months for northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, with nearly 70 percent of the month either mostly cloudy or cloudy.  Around the Great Lakes that number is higher due to more lake effect snow showers.


The further west and southwest the amount of cloudy days is lower as temperatures aren't as quick to cool like further north.


So when we do have these sunny days, soak them in because this time of year they don't happen that often!  Unless we get a strong high pressure system.  But that usually comes with colder air.