Weather Terminology–“Partly Cloudy”

Ah yes! How many times have you heard those two words over the years–maybe 25 zillion!

No doubt, if you could review every weather forecast ever made, those two words would surely win first place.

Probably the most used and over used of all weather descriptions. The advantage, it could be used day and night. Cannot use “partly sunny” at night and certainly not “partly moony.” I must admit that I once almost used “mostly moony” on a full moon night but backed away.

I was looking at a forecast for one city several days ago and the word “partly cloudy” was repeated eight times. Part of that is due to the fact that the NWS went to a 10-day forecast a number of years ago and it had to be separate wording for each individual day and night. Back in the late 50s and early 60s, the extended part of the forecast was a separate product.

At one point in the 1960s, (I think) we got an official memorandum from either our regional office in Ft. Worth or maybe national headquarters in Washington. They requested for us to start using “partly sunny” in daytime forecasts to, as they said, make the forecast sound a little more upbeat. So that did away with saying partly cloudy today and tonight.

So, what does “partly cloudy” vs. “partly sunny” mean? After I retired from the NWS in 1989, I asked a long-time NWS employee in another state what he thought. He said to him “partly cloudy” means you would get more sunshine in daytime than “partly sunny.” That was the conclusion I had reached, but I do not think there is an official answer.

(This story is one of a series.)

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