WEST MICHIGAN — Prior to Monday, had you noticed something had been missing in the skies over West Michigan for the past few weeks?
SUNSHINE!
In the Great Lakes, it's typical for perpetual cloudiness to prevail during the colder winter months. Through the first five days of January, Grand Rapids had officially recorded only 20-MINUTES of sunshine!
Sunshine finally emerged Monday, as the clouds broke apart and skies brightened for a few hours. Officially, Grand Rapids recorded 180-minutes of sunshine; which translates into 33% of available sunshine for the day.
This stretch of cloudiness extending back into the final days of 2024 makes this lack of sunshine even more impressive. Nine of the past eleven days have featured ZERO percent of available sunshine! (Fifteen of the past twenty-two days have featured ZERO sunshine!)
January is typically the month when sunshine begins to become a bit more plentiful. According to climate statistics, November (28%) and December (22%) are the cloudiest months of the year in West Michigan, with January's average percentage of available sunshine up to 31%.
Here's a look at the "month-by-month" averages:
- January (31%)
- February (38%)
- March (45%)
- April (51%)
- May (55%)
- June (61%)
- July (63%)
- August (61%)
- September (55%)
- October (44%)
- November (28%)
- December (22%)
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