# of Cloudless Days in a Period?

Is there a source that will tell me how many clear days a particular region
(city) has had over some period of time? In particular, I'd like to know
how many clear (reasonably cloudless) days we've had since Oct. 1, 2004.
--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews

Calif. ? Would that be with or without Rain?


--


SIAR
www.starlords.org
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord


"W. Wat son" wrote in message
nk.net...
Is there a source that will tell me how many clear days a particular
region
(city) has had over some period of time? In particular, I'd like to know
how many clear (reasonably cloudless) days we've had since Oct. 1, 2004.
--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:44:58 GMT, "W. Wat son"
wrote:

Is there a source that will tell me how many clear days a particular region
(city) has had over some period of time? In particular, I'd like to know
how many clear (reasonably cloudless) days we've had since Oct. 1, 2004.

Why don't you run your allsky camera during the day and start collecting
that data for yourself?

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:44:58 GMT, "W. Wat son"
wrote:

Is there a source that will tell me how many clear days a particular region
(city) has had over some period of time? In particular, I'd like to know
how many clear (reasonably cloudless) days we've had since Oct. 1, 2004.

Contact the National Climatic Data Center (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov).

Chris L Peterson wrote:

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:44:58 GMT, "W. Wat son"
wrote:


Is there a source that will tell me how many clear days a particular region
(city) has had over some period of time? In particular, I'd like to know
how many clear (reasonably cloudless) days we've had since Oct. 1, 2004.


Why don't you run your allsky camera during the day and start collecting
that data for yourself?
Who would have guessed that California would have had such an amazing days
of rain? I doubt the camera as currently configured could do it. There is
no way to sample on a regular basis, say, every hour. However, I am working
on improvements to it. Maybe I'll add the feature too. I suppose I could
put a thermometer in view, so that the temp gets recorded too. I'll leave
that for another rainy day.

I believe the data is available from a national weather source. I have
statistical data for average cloudiness in many parts of the country, but
nothing on a day by day basis.

There's probably a cheaper way to collect such data. Forrest Mims, wrote
numerous books for Radio Shack, developed some sort of simple device to
collect weather daily, $30. I'm not sure it could be connected a computer
though. I do recall some such program that would do it. Possibly an article
in Sky&Tel.

It doesn't really seem like many people are interested in the weather on a
partictular day; however, I suspect someone deep in the bowels of the
weather service does.


--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 21:31:51 GMT, "What Sun? Calif."
wrote:


Who would have guessed that California would have had such an amazing days
of rain? I doubt the camera as currently configured could do it. There is
no way to sample on a regular basis, say, every hour. However, I am working
on improvements to it. Maybe I'll add the feature too. I suppose I could
put a thermometer in view, so that the temp gets recorded too. I'll leave
that for another rainy day.

A good project. My allsky camera looks for meteors at night, but during
daylight collects sky images every two minutes. I have about four years
of data.


I believe the data is available from a national weather source. I have
statistical data for average cloudiness in many parts of the country, but
nothing on a day by day basis.

If you don't need real high resolution (spatially or temporally) you can
use the data at http://weather.unisys.com/archive/ . The IR satellite
images go back to 1997, with 12-hour spacing.


It doesn't really seem like many people are interested in the weather on a
partictular day; however, I suspect someone deep in the bowels of the
weather service does.

I collect my local data (temp, RA, average cloud cover, wind speed and
direction) with 5-minute resolution, and have a solid record back almost
five years. It's nice to be able to go back to some image, either DSO or
meteor, and check what the conditions were when it was made.

I haven't found a good source of high temporal resolution weather data.
I have contacts at NOAA, but the data is hard to come by. Finer than
twice daily may be a problem. You might check with a local airport.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

Chris L Peterson wrote:

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 21:31:51 GMT, "What Sun? Calif."
wrote:

....


I collect my local data (temp, RA, average cloud cover, wind speed and
direction) with 5-minute resolution, and have a solid record back almost
five years. It's nice to be able to go back to some image, either DSO or
meteor, and check what the conditions were when it was made.d

What is DSO?

I haven't found a good source of high temporal resolution weather data.
I have contacts at NOAA, but the data is hard to come by. Finer than
twice daily may be a problem. You might check with a local airport.

....

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 02:04:23 GMT, "What Sun? Calif."
wrote:

What is DSO?

Deep space object. You know, galaxies, nebulas, that sort of stuff. The
allsky camera mostly runs itself, leaving me free to do some imaging
with a telescope and astronomical camera.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

W=2E Wat son wrote:
Is there a source that will tell me how many clear days a particular
region
(city) has had over some period of time? In particular, I'd like to
know
how many clear (reasonably cloudless) days we've had since Oct. 1,
2004.
--
Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City,
CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39=B0 15' 7" N, 121=B0 2' 32" W, 2700
feet

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews



For such info on a monthly basis for cities throughout the U.S. try:

http://www.city-data.com/

I didn't check their source of data but I'm sure all or almost all of
it came from NOAA's data center in Asheville, NC.