LANSING — Do you know where your sunglasses have been hiding? It’s been awhile since they have been needed, so it’s understandable if you can’t find them.
Thankfully, the sun is making a comeback after a more-dreary-than-usual January. The sun was out so seldom it tied for the second darkest first month of the year in the last 100 years.
Michigan, one of the darkest states, has what is either the only, or one of only a few, public sunshine sensors in the nation, which tracks sunlight.
Here’s how meteorologists track sunlight and what we know about Michigan’s winter history with the sun since 1903.
How do we know it’s been dark?
The photoelectric sensor is at the Grand Rapids National Weather Service station, and it found that only about 8% of the daylight hours had sunshine in January. It’s normally around 22%.
The sunshine sensor reads data for Grand Rapids, which tends to get more lake effect that can boost clouds and keep a weaker winter sun at bay, he said. But it’s the only such mechanism in place in the state.