Mount Washington is one of least-sunny spots in country
Climate data gathered from a New England mountaintop has earned it the title of second least-sunny spot in the country.
The observatory at the summit of Mt. Washington routinely records minutes of sunshine in addition to other weather standards, like temperature and wind speed. That data is submitted each hour to the National Weather Service and the National Climatic Data Center.
The NCDC crunches the numbers and calculates the percentage of time that sunshine reached the earth between sunrise and sunset. Those results reveal the sunshine reaches the summit of Mt. Washington only about 33 percent of the time.
"The summit spends a good portion of the year in the clouds, which can quickly suffocate your view from 130 miles, to barely able to see your own feet in a short period of time," an observer wrote in their comments on Monday morning.
Mt. Washington is tied with Quillayute, Washington, for the title of second least-sunny location in the nation. Juneau, Alaska took the top spot with only 30 percent of possible sunlight reaching the earth.
In terms of major New England cities, Boston is among the sunniest throughout the year. At the peak in July, the city gets about 68 percent of possible sunshine.