Turns out we don’t get 300 days of sunshine in Colorado and we’re just as shocked as you!

Most Coloradans know to expect 300 days of sunshine but that’s simply not true and never has been.

The Denver Post

For areas of the northern Front Range, there is an average of 60 days of completely overcast conditions — think drizzly, dreary or damp days, according to Doesken’s research. So, for the claim to be true, one has to consider a partly or mostly cloudy day to be a sunny day since technically the sun shined for a least an hour and although this is a stretch, it’s the only way to validate us having 300 days of sunshine per year.

The truth is that Colorado does see a lot of sunshine but whether or not a day is deemed sunny or cloudy is based on updated definitions by the National Weather Service and hourly observations.

• A mostly clear or clear day is defined as cloud cover covering less than 25% of the sky.
• A partly cloudy day is defined as cloud cover covering about 26% to 69% of the sky.
• A mostly cloudy day is defined as cloud cover covering more than 70% of the sky.
• A completely overcast day is defined as cloud cover covering more than 88% of the sky.

Last year, Denver saw just 103 sunny days. The rest were partly to mostly cloudy. So far this year, we have only had 54 clear days as of Friday. You can do the math, but to hit the point home, we have more than 100 days left in the year and even if every day was completely clear, we’d barely even get half of the advertised number of sunny days this state boasts.

Sorry, Colorado — it’s not as sunny here as you thought!

Andy Stein is a freelance meteorologist.

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300 days of sun in Colorado? Turns out it's a myth and we're just as shocked as you (denverpost.com)