Q&A

What is cloud cover percentage?

What is cloud cover percentage?

As part of the project, NASA has collected data from several geostationary and polar orbiting satellites. This shows the average percentage global cloud cover at any time is about 65 per cent.

How much of the sky is covered by clouds?

One study based on nearly a decade of satellite data estimated that about 67 percent of Earth’s surface is typically covered by clouds. This is especially the case over the oceans, where other research shows less than 10 percent of the sky is completely clear of clouds at any one time.

Why is BC so cloudy?

Cold air is more dense than warm air so it sinks to the valley floor, and stays there, for almost the whole season, never to mix out with the heat of the sun. The reason for this is that the sun angle keeps most of the daytime heating behind the mountains, never to truly mix out the layer of fog or cloud.

What is the difference between scattered and broken clouds?

(If a sky is clear, then it is 0-1/10th covered with clouds; if it is scattered, then it is 1/10th-5/10th covered; if it is broken, then it is 5/10th-9/10th covered; if it is overcast, then it is 9/10th-10/10th covered.)

Why is cloud cover measured in eighths?

The unit of cloud amount – okta – is an eighth of the sky dome covered by cloud. Sky needs to be mentally divide it into eight boxes, then all the visible clouds are squashed into these boxes. The number of filled boxes is how many oktas of cloud there are.

How does the cloud cover differ from year to year?

Colors range from blue (no clouds) to white (totally cloudy). Cloud cover values only vary by 0.03 from year to year, whereas the local, day to day variability in cloud amount typically rises to 0.3 over the globe. Most data sets agree on the fact that the land is covered by 0.10-0.15 less cloud than the oceans.

What’s the average cloud cover in Buffalo NY?

Partial cloud is defined as cloud covering from over one-quarter to as much as three-quarters of the sky. When days with partial cloud are added to the days of heavy cloud, to include every day that cloud covers more than one-quarter of the sky, then Buffalo’s average of 311 days a year edges out Seattle’s 308 days.

What’s the difference between cloud cover and land cover?

Cloud cover values only vary by 0.03 from year to year, whereas the local, day to day variability in cloud amount typically rises to 0.3 over the globe. Most data sets agree on the fact that the land is covered by 0.10–0.15 less cloud than the oceans.

What’s the average altitude of a cloud cover?

Altitude of typical cloud cover. Although clouds can exist within a wide range of altitudes, typical cloud cover has a base at approximately 4,000m and extends upward about 1,000m to an altitude of about 5,000m.