Science Says Chicago Is One of America’s Cloudiest Cities

Chicago is known as the Windy City, but perhaps there's an alternate that would also be accurate. According to a new scientific revelation, Chicago could also be the Cloud City as the number of overcast days makes it one of the cloudiest in the nation.

If you spend any amount of quality time in Chicago, this is a frequent view

Jonathan J Castellon via Unsplash

There's a new ranking that's just been shared by World Atlas which counts all of the days of sunshine (or not) that each American city records. In their top 10, you'll find Chicago which is among the cloudiest cities in America. They say that Chicago only has 2,508 hours of sunshine a year which sounds like a lot, but isn't when you consider there are 8,760 hours total every year.

Why is Chicago so cloudy?

There are a lot of meteorological reasons including regional weather patterns, but the primary reason is Lake Michigan which is responsible for why you often see blanket-like stratus clouds over or near Chicago which limits the amount of sunshine. There's also the frequent precipitation which is born out of lake-effect weather. I have friends who live in or near Chicago that are convinced that the sometimes dreariness is part of the character of the city and there's now science to back up their beliefs.