Jonathan Buffett, founder of WWW.CAPEBRETONWEATHER.CA mapped out total sunshine hours and percent possible sunshine for February and March at the 7 stations that measure solar radiation. Interesting to see how much variation there was from west to east in February compared to relatively no variation across the island in March. February featured above normal sunshine for the eastern side of the island while March had well above normal sunshine for the entire island.
As usual, Sydney and surrounding area had the highest amount of sun while the northwest side of the island had the least. The difference was almost negligible in March however, largely due to sea ice covering the entire gulf and Bras d’Or Lake. Goes to show how much variation the water creates in our weather on Cape Breton. Cover it all up with snow and ice and you get less variation in temperature and clouds.
The only station with somewhat long term solar records is Sydney Mines (beginning October 2010). This was the sunniest March since then with 235.0 hours (63.6%). The previous record was 197.2 hours (53.5%) in March 2015. There was quite a bit of sea ice kicking around then as well.
See FB Page for more images.
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