Average Annual Sunshine in American Cities

The tables below pull together figures on the amount of sunshine each of the largest cities in the United States usually has in a year.

The % Sun number measures the percentage of time between sunrise and sunset that sunshine reaches the ground. Total Hours is the average number of sunny hours the city normally has in a year. Clear Days is the average number of days annually when cloud covers at most 30 percent of the sky during daylight hours.

Hours of sunshine are the means calculated for 1961 to 1990. The other data are averages taken from years of weather watching.

Average annual sunshine
% Sun City Total Hours Clear Days
60 Atlanta, Georgia 2738 110
60 Austin, Texas 2644 115
57 Baltimore, Maryland 2582 105
58 Birmingham, Alabama 2641 99
58 Boston, Massachusetts 2634 98
48 Buffalo, New York 2207 54
62 Charlotte, North Carolina 2821 109
54 Chicago, Illinois 2508 84
50 Cincinnati, Ohio 2335 81
49 Cleveland, Ohio 2280 66
50 Columbus, Ohio 2183 72
61 Dallas, Texas 2850 135
69 Denver, Colorado 3107 115
53 Detroit, Michigan 2436 75
79 Fresno, California 194
46 Grand Rapids, Michigan 64
56 Hartford, Connecticut 2585 82
71 Honolulu, Hawaii 90
59 Houston, Texas 2578 90
% Sun City Total Hours Clear Days
55 Indianapolis, Indiana 2440 88
63 Jacksonville, Florida 2880 94
60 Kansas City, Missouri 2810 120
85 Las Vegas, Nevada 3825 210
73 Los Angeles, California 147
56 Louisville, Kentucky 2514 93
64 Memphis, Tennessee 2888 118
70 Miami, Florida 3154 74
54 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2484 90
58 Minneapolis, Minnesota 2711 95
56 Nashville, Tennessee 2510 102
57 New Orleans, Louisiana 2649 101
58 New York, New York 2535 107
68 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 3089 139
56 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2498 93
85 Phoenix, Arizona 3872 211
45 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2021 59
% Sun City Total Hours Clear Days
48 Portland, Oregon 2341 68
58 Providence, Rhode Island 2606 98
58 Raleigh, North Carolina 2606 111
63 Richmond, Virginia 2829 100
51 Rochester, New York 2298 61
78 Sacramento, California 3608 188
66 Salt Lake City, Utah 3029 125
60 San Antonio, Texas 2629 105
68 San Diego, California 3055 146
66 San Francisco, California 160
47 Seattle, Washington 2170 58
57 St. Louis, Missouri 2594 101
66 Tampa, Florida 2927 101
85 Tucson, Arizona 193
62 Tulsa, Oklahoma 127
60 Virginia Beach, Virginia 2695 106
56 Washington, DC 2528 96
Reference

National Climatic Data Center. Comparative Climatic Data.

World Data Center for Meteorology. Climate of the World.

US City Sunshine
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