How Many Days Until Xmas Australia?

Does Sydney Australia have over 340 cloudy days or sunny days?

• In the Mediterranean it doesn't rain at all almost 5 months during long summer. Mediterranean coast has around 300 sunny days a year. In Sydney it rains whole year. And it doesn't have a true summer because of rain and unstable weather. For example we have now left the first month of summer behind. Sydney scored average 22 degrees max temperature during the summer days in December 2011. Average rainfall was 83mm. Sydney received 60% more rain than rainy London, and 25% more rain than Athens where December is the wettest month. Can someone explain how do the Australians count 340 sunny days? Do the skip over the odd numbers? http://www.sydney-australia.biz/tourist/ http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/ASXX0112 http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/UKXX0085

• Answer:

  How you count clear and cloudy days depends on your definition. The definition used by the Bureau of Meteorology is that a clear day has no more than one eighth of cloud during the day while a cloudy day has four eighths or more. The Bureau of Meteorology gives Sydney a yearly average of 103.9 clear days and 133.3 cloudy days. The rest would be partly cloudy. December, on average, has 7.6 hours of sunshine a day with 6.6 clear days and 12.8 cloudy days. As the BoM takes all the observations and keeps all the records, their data are the most reliable. You can see all Sydney's climatic averages here: http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_066062_All.shtml Sydney has a true summer. Just because it rains in summer does not mean it is not summer. Many parts of the world and about half of Australia have summer maximum rainfalls. The cause of Australia's climate is the sub-tropical ridge. This is a belt of high pressure around the world. It moves north and south with the sun so in the summer it is about 40°S(about Hobart) while in winter it is about 30°S (about Coffs Harbour). The winds to the north of the ridge are the southeast trade winds. Easterly winds come onto the east coast of Australia off the Tasman and Coral Seas bringing moist air which forms clouds and produces rain. The same easterlies into Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth come off the land and are dry. Sydney and Brisbane have wet summers/autumns, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth have dry summers. In winter the ridge moves north and takes the trade winds north with it. The prevailing wind across southern Australia is a west to southwesterly. This comes off the southern ocean bringing moist air, cloud and rain to Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne and dry weather to Sydney and especially Brisbane. Sydney has dry weather in late winter and spring which is why the Olympic Games were held in September/October.