2016 Weather- Did We Make 300 Days of Sunshine?

My experiment is over! I can't believe I kept track of the amount of sun we had every day for the year. I had to check and see if the "300 days of sunshine in the Tri Cities" was true. It seemed to good to be true!! However, I kept track and our total days of lots of sunshine were.....

298 DAYS OF SUNSHINE A YEAR!!

That is pretty darn close to 300 days of sunshine a year!


We had 235 days that were perfectly sunny all day long. There was barely a cloud in the sky and you could count on the whole day to be sunny and pretty.

We also had 63 days where at LEAST half the day was sunny. Days like these were days where it was cloudy in the morning and then by lunchtime it was beautiful. Other days may have been beautiful and sunny and then clouds rolled in in the late afternoon. These were the days where you could get outside and spend lots of time without worrying about getting rained on.

So the total sunny days were:  298 days.

We had 68 cloudy/overcast days.

 I counted a cloudy/overcast day as any day with 2-3 or less hours of sun. Most of these 68 days were cloudy and overcast from morning until night. There were 14 or so days where there might have been an hour or two of sun, but it wasn't enough to make it worth counting as a "sunny days." Often times, this might have been the hour before sunset in the winter. That seemed to happen a lot in January and December. It would be cloudy all day and then an hour or so before sunset, it would get sunny.  I still counted them as cloudy days though.

As I kept track of weather, I kept track of days where we had winds of +20 mph. We had 27 days like this. I honestly thought it would be more. I guess it's not as windy as we thought! Well, we still had a breeze frequently, but it wasn't the crazy kind of wind where you couldn't even stand to go outside.

Also, for being known as a desert, we had 47 days where we had some rain. That seems a lot for a desert! Now, granted, we probably didn't get much rain and I didn't measure how much rain we actually got, but we still had 47 days where we had at least some rain. Most of these 47 days were on the "cloudy/overcast" days.

Our yearly weather total for 2016 through December: 

Sunny: 235 days
Some sun/some clouds: 63 days
Cloudy: 68 days

Snow: 9 days
Fog: 14 days
Rain: 47 days
Crazy Winds (over 20 mph): 27 days
Smoke from Fires: 2 days

December Weather

Here is the sun report for December. 

Sunny: 15

Some Sun/Some Clouds: 5

Cloudy: 11

We had  6 snowy days. 

We had  1 day with some fog. 

We had  0 days with some rain. 

We had 2  days with crazy wind (over 20 mph)

It was cold this month!! We think it was colder than usual. It was interesting that we had 0 days of rain because it was always too cold to rain. Instead, we had snow! We had a couple of really good snowfalls (two days of 4-6 inches of snow) and a few days where there were 2 inches or less. We only had 1 day with any fog. 

Our yearly total for 2016 through December: 

Sunny: 235 days
Some sun/some clouds: 63 days
Cloudy: 68 days

Snow: 9 days
Fog: 14 days
Rain: 47 days
Crazy Winds (over 20 mph): 27 days
Smoke from Fires: 2 days

Christmas in Yakima

Since Jeremy worked on Christmas, we did not have a chance to celebrate Christmas Day with any of his family. However, today, we celebrated the 6th day of Christmas with them! We're still within the 12 days of Christmas so it works! 

Papa Ray and Kim got a new house so the kids got to see it for the first time. Kim had it all decorated and it looked great! 

Having dinner. Kim did a fabulous job making a Nathan safe meal! 

Before they dug into all their presents. 

Elizabeth's new dollies. 

Nathan wanted stuffed fish and he got them! Here is his new stuffed trout. 

Elizabeth got some pretty sparkly headbands. 

Nathan got a stuffed catfish!

He also got a cool arrow set. 

The kids spent a LONG time playing in the hot tub. Then, they spent a long time playing hide and seek in the new house. As it turns out, the new house is a great place to play hide and seek! There are secret passage ways and lonely toilets rooms! Very fun for kids!! They could have played there all day long. 

Jeremy and I wearing the new hats that LeAnne got for us. Thanks LeAnne. They were very cozy on a day like today! 

Elizabeth got a "Mega Gemstone Mine Kit." The minute we got home, she wanted to dig in. She's finding gemstones in a big brick of plaster. As I type this, she has found 3. She's dug 1 out, but 2 are still in the extraction process. 

Fresh Snow

A fresh coat of snow fell while we were at Gram's. It was too dry for sledding, but it was fun for the kids. 

Elizabeth loves her new hat. 

Nathan headed out to hunt for birds again. 

Pippa looking cute in the snow. 

Nathan shooting at birds. 

December Videos

 

Boys and BB Guns

Papa Norm and Nathan got their first BB guns for Christmas! The BB guns are matching guns. They decided to go try them out. 

Trying to figure it out. We couldn't figure out how to make the BB guns work. I made a call to Jeremy and he walked us through it even though he wasn't even there. Now, I am an expert too! 

Checking for accuracy. 

Henry was regal in the sun. 

After doing some target practice, Nathan headed off to find some pigeons or crows. Basically, Papa has an arch nemesis and those are the yucky birds who make messes all over his sheds and vehicles. He told Nathan to never shoot at an owl or a hawk, but pigeons, starlings, and crows are varmints with wings. 

When they came inside later, Henry gave Nathan the sign of trust. 

Auntie Laura braided Elizabeth's hair and Elizabeth did something to Henry's hair! 

Christmas

Jeremy had to work Christmas, but said it was ok for us to leave. Nathan woke up Christmas morning with no fever! Finally! It took 3 days. We loaded up the car and drove up to Royal. 

The kids in the Christmas tree corner. 

Pippa and Henry got new toys!

Auntie Laura got Nathan this great new cougar hat!

Auntie LeAnne got the kids lots of books!

Pippa and Henry wrestled around. 

Papa never had a bb gun as a little boy, but he got one 60 years later!

Pippa helping open presents. 

Elizabeth's cute new hat from Auntie Laura. 

Nathan and Auntie LeAnne discussed dogs. 

Nathan got the whole Harry Potter series! Thanks Gram! 

I wish I had taken more pictures of the nice updates Papa and Gram have done in their house! I will have to next time once they get all new furniture and bed comforters and things like that. You can see the nice new carpet  and windows in the pictures. 

Gram had a scrumptious dinner of ham and potatoes. 

Oh, later that evening, Elizabeth said she wanted to go to bed early. That was extremely suspicious. I took her temperature, and yes, it was 102 so I knew we were in for 3 days of a fever. Nathan laid around for 3 days. Elizabeth; however, ran around like nothing was wrong even though she also had the fever for 3 days. Interesting.