Reposted from the Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Twice today I was asked about the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny. And that inquiry is one of the most frequent I get, for reasons I do not understand.
OK…let’s settle this for once and for all.
Here is an image of a partly cloudy sky:
And here is an image of a partly sunny sky:
They are the same.…. during the day, partly cloudy and partly sunny denote exactly the same thing: a sky with between 3/8 and 5/8 coverage of clouds. Obviously, partly cloudy would be a better choice at night.
Mostly cloudy is 5/8 to 7/8 coverage, while mostly sunny indicates 1/8 to 3/8 coverage during the day.
Now, a harder one. What does it mean to have a sky obscured? Is it the same as an overcast sky?
The answer to the second question is NO–they are not the same.
The sky is obscured when you can not see the sky, when you are in middle of cloud or smoke or dust storm. Here are two examples of an obscured sky, one from smoke and the other from low clouds/fog:
An overcast sky is when the entire sky is covered by clouds or smoke, but you are not in them. You can see the base (bottom part) of the clouds or smoke. Here is an example:
With this knowledge, you can amaze your friends at the next cocktail party…. whenever cocktail parties start again.
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A friend once phoned me up and asked if I knew what the weather was doing.
I told her – “looks like scattered small clouds borne on a gentle Easterly breeze and mild to warm”
She said – “oh, that sounds perfect, what weather site are you looking at?”
I said – “it’s the SYHOTFW site”
She said – “is that .com or .com.au?”
I said – “Neither. It means Stick Your Head Out The F’n Window”
“An overcast sky is when the entire sky is covered by clouds or smoke, but you are not in them.”
I always thought an overcast sky was a cloudy sky. Apparently, smoke can also cause an overcast sky if it is high up and you are not in the smoke. Good to know, I guess.
If you live anywhere in the soggy parts of the Pacific Northwest (like Western Washington and Oregon), then partly sunny is what everyone else would call partly cloudy.
I disagree.
The sky can be Partly Cloudy without having a single minute of cloud covering the sun.
If the sky is Partly Sunny that means there are times when the sun is blocked.
Partly sunny has less minutes of sunshine than partly cloudy
One cloud can black out a whole town!
Oopsie solar-battery fail? Cloud causes System Black event at Alice Springs affecting thousands (15 Oct)
Is a single cloud partly sunny or partly cloudy?
Trick question as it is both.
I honestly thought this post would lead to a much more boisterous discussion.
Sort of like a conversation Rorschach Test.
No, boisterous refers to wind, sometimes caused by hot air which is nor unknown here.
Partly sunny is during the day, partly cloudy is at night.
For obscured we use veiled.
Here in Germany, we often hear both at the same time: partly clear and partly cloudy 😀
Have to add, that is in forecasts for the whole day, when clouds and sunshine often change over the day.
The other say, I saw an old Nissan Sunny with cloudy headlights. Does that help?
I love this site! Never let go of the child within.
Partly Cloudy: A term used by negative thinking liberals.
Partly Sunny: A term used by optimistic conservatives who never whine over that half glass of spilled milk.
I’ve been wondering the same thing for years! Partly cloudy is the same thing as partly sunny!!! But weather people ALWAYS say partly cloudy. Why? Partly sunny gives you more optimism. And it’s the same weather forecast! It’s like saying “you only have 1/2 a tank of gas.” Makes it sound negative like you’re in peril. But if you say ” you have 1/2 a tank of gas.” By not using only it makes it more positive. You’re not going to run out of gas with 1/2 a tank unless you’re in Chicago and live in Miami. Just choice of word(s) that gives same phrase a whole different meaning. Weird. But yet weather people never seem to get it! As above “I get asked this question all the time.” Duh! Do you get it now?!
Now that you cleared that up, what is the differance between scatered showers and a 10, 30 30 40 50% chanch of rain?
My favorite weather report phrase often heard in the Pacific Northwest is “overcast with a possibility of sun breaks”.
Every area of work has it’s own lingo and weather is no exception . Good to get some of it cleared up.
As a former operational weather forecaster, I never thought that partly sunny and partly cloudy were equivalent. As Edward Joseph Tiegs wrote above, partly sunny should denote less sun than partly cloudy through the day.
And now for a brief rant: with the advent of ASOS in the 1990s, younger meteorologists generally do not have the atmospheric observational training and capability of meteorologists of yore. Back in the days before ASOS, when a Weather Observer took an observation the whole hemisphere of the sky was observed, and lots of detail was noted, often useful to an analyst or forecaster. The “bright brains” around 1990 decided that nothing of import happened above 12 thousand feet anyway. I believe this has been a loss of knowledge about atmospheric observations from one generation to the next, and this is not a good thing. At one time, ASOS was thought to be a gap-filler type of observational platform, but then the bureaucrats became involved and the rest is history.
A old (sexist?) definition of a meteorologist: a meteorologist is a guy who can take one look at a girl and tell whether.
Rexx Shelton, scattered showers means 30% to 50% coverage. An isolated shower is 20% coverage, numerous (or likely) refers to 60-70%, and widespread (or occasional) is 80-100%.
I always thought that “partly cloudy” means that it’s slightly more cloudy than “partly sunny”, and “partly sunny” means that it’s slightly more sunny than “partly cloudy.” Clear enough, eh? 😉
‘Partly sunny’ means you might be lucky enough to get a short period when the sun shines down between the clouds, before it becomes obscured again.
‘Partly cloudy’ means an occasional cloud might obscure the sunshine you’re enjoying, before said cloud passes and the sunshine resumes.
They don’t mean the same thing.
“And that inquiry is one of the most frequent I get, for reasons I do not understand.”
Yeah, gotta ask if you get more of these in the spring than any other time, ’cause I’m pretty sure this question is asked in every garden center, every year…