Dear Tom,
Cloudy skies are a major bummer. What city gets “bummed out” the most? Frank Turgeon
Dear Frank,
You will want to avoid the coastal Pacific Northwest. Moist air, fog, stratus clouds and frequent storm systems that sweep inland from the Pacific Ocean make the coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and Alaska the cloudiest non-mountainous locations in the United States. Cities there register the largest number of cloudy days per year.
Valdez, Alaska, leads the pack with 255 cloudy days annually; then come Quillayute, Wash. (242 days); Astoria, Ore. (239); Anchorage (238); Seattle (228); and Portland, Ore. (225).
Chicago registers a comparatively paltry 175 cloudy days in an average year.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
