19 hours Ago By John Wheeler
FARGO — The sky today notwithstanding, there has been a high percentage of sunny days since the start of the year. The sunshine has followed a lengthy period of gloomy, drizzly weather to close out December. It is amazing how often it works out approximately this way.
The cloudiest time of the year in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest is in November and December but sunny days, most years, begin to increase in January and February. The increasing frequency of very cold air during January and February brings with it an increasing frequency of high pressure systems from the Arctic region, which are made of air that is desert dry as well as Arctic cold. The presence of this very dry air makes sunny days more likely.
We can still experience long periods of cloudy and even foggy weather along with storms in January and February, but we can also plan on more sunny days with the new year..
