Thanks for the data, Tom. Excellent points Maybe as we get older our = minds fabricate the "good old days" into something better than they = were? Dick -----Original Message----- From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx = [mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Polakis Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 9:07 AM To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Weather in AZ --- Richard Harshaw <rharshaw2@xxxxxxx> wrote:=20 > I'm not a big fan of the "man is causing global warming" scare-- I = think it > is more likely due to solar activity and natural planetary cycles. = But one > does wonder if this may not be due to a global climate change? I am a big fan of analyzing data, and drawing conclusions from it, as = everybody on this list should be. If I am not intimately involved in a = particular discipline such as climatology, I trust the conclusions of = the science community more than anybody. The recent cloudiness in Arizona hasn't been any more than slightly = below average. Brian Skiff has been gathering cloudiness data for = Flagstaff since 1980 = (http://www.lowell.edu/Research/cloudiness_data/clouds.html), and i have = the yearly data plotted through 2006 here. http://members.cox.net/tpolakis/astro/clouds1.jpg You can see that there really was no "golden age" when it was always = clear in Arizona. Now look at this monthly plot of average with 1-sigma standard = deviation. http://members.cox.net/tpolakis/astro/clouds3.jpg Typical number of "clear" nights for for Winter are: December: 11 +/- 4 January: 10.5 +/- 4 What we have so far for 2007-08 (assuming cloudy nights through the rest = of January) are: December: 8 January: 7 So you could say that this Winter storm season has been worse than = average for observing, but only slightly so. Tom -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and = please=20 send personal replies to the author, not the list. -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.