Meteorological summer is from June 1 until August 31. The summer of 2022 here in Youngstown, Ohio has not been too sunny when you look at the numbers.
How to determine a sunny day
The National Weather Service uses a scale to determine whether a day is clear, partly cloudy or cloudy. Think of the sky cover as a number from zero to 10. Ten would be cloudy and zero would be clear.
Looking at the numbers in % of Opaque Cloud Coverage:
Cloudy/Overcast = 88% to 100% Opaque Cloud Coverage
Mostly Cloudy = 70% to 87% Opaque Cloud Coverage
Partly Sunny = 51% to 69% Opaque Cloud Coverage
Mostly Sunny = 26% to 50% Opaque Cloud Coverage
Sunny = 0% to 25% Opaque Cloud Coverage
Each day, the climate report will show a number for the amount of clear or cloud coverage. Below, you will find the scale that is used. This is how the records are kept in order to show if a day is clear, partly cloudy or cloudy.
NWS Sky Condition Scale
CLEAR = (Scale 0-3)
PARTLY CLOUDY = (Scale 4-7)
CLOUDY = (Scale 8-10)
Summer 2022: Clear – Partly Cloudy – Cloudy Days
The chart below lists the number of days in each category so far this summer. This was created on August 22, 2022. The final numbers are still to be determined.
| Month | CLEAR | PARTLY CLOUDY | CLOUDY |
| JUNE | 6 | 17 | 7 |
| JULY | 3 | 22 | 6 |
| AUGUST | 1 | 13 | 8 |
| SUMMER TOTAL | 10 | 52 | 21 |
June had 6 clear days, 17 partly cloudy days and 7 cloudy days. July had 3 clear days, 22 partly cloudy days and 6 cloudy days. August (so far) had 1 clear day, 13 partly cloudy days and 21 cloudy days.
The chart below is the number of clear, partly cloudy and cloudy days in a normal meteorological summer in Youngstown, Ohio.
| Month | CLEAR | PARTLY CLOUDY | CLOUDY |
| JUNE | 6 | 12 | 12 |
| JULY | 7 | 13 | 11 |
| AUGUST | 7 | 12 | 12 |
| SUMMER TOTAL | 20 | 37 | 35 |
When you compare the normal numbers to the exact numbers for this summer, you find that we are running way behind in clear/sunny days here in Youngstown.
The number of clear days in June was exactly even to the normal at six days.
The number of clear days in July was under, with four days less than normal.
The number of clear days to this point of August is running behind too as we have only picked up one. We typically see seven. We will need some sunshine to make it to normal before the month ends.
Where we stand for summer 2022
This summer has been a partly cloudy/sunny one! The number of days at partly cloudy/sunny has outweighed the normal with 52 to this point.
This summer has not been a clear/sunny one. In fact, to this point, we have only picked up 10 clear/sunny days out of 83 as of 8/22/2022.
Only 12% of the summer days have been clear/sunny to this point! 63% of the days have been partly cloudy. The other 25% have been cloudy.
We will have to see how the month plays out to get a final number for summer 2022 here in Youngstown, Ohio.
