Why Are Grand Rapids and Detroit the Cloudiest Cities in Michigan?

If you want to bask in the sunshine, don't move to Grand Rapids, or Detroit, Michigan. Both metropolitan areas are among the cities that consistently see the most cloud cover in the United States.

Two Michigan Cities Make the Top 10

Weather and Science Facts crunched the data from the National Climatic Data Center to determine which US cities see the most cloud cover each year. Surprisingly, Anchorage, Alaska doesn't top the list (and doesn't even make the Top 10), while two of Michigan's largest cities do.

It may be less of a surprise to learn that Seattle, Washington is the US city that sees the highest number of cloudy days each year. Residents of Seattle see cloud cover about 226 days each year (62%), followed by Portland, Oregon, and Buffalo, New York to round out the top three.

Grand Rapids comes in at number four with an average of 205 cloudy days each year and Detroit rounds out the top 10 185 cloudy days per year.

Why Do These Michigan Cities See So Much Cloud Cover?

There's a simple reason Michiganders see so much cloud cover each year:  The Great Lakes.

According to WOOD-TV's Ellen Bacca, clouds need three essential ingredients to form:  moisture, relatively cold air and cloud condensation nuclei.

Cloud condensation nuclei are made up of specks of dust, sand, salt, or dirt particles small enough to hover in the sky. Relatively cold air that is blown over the Great Lakes enters into Michigan to combine with these particles to form clouds.

You've heard of "lake effect" snow. In this video, Bacca goes on to say that in the winter, Michiganders can also see an abundance of lake effect clouds or "a blanket of clouds even on days when there isn't quite enough moisture for snow."