Toronto hasn’t had a sunny day in more than 3 weeks, but that will soon change

Toronto has seen an unusual lack of sunshine recently and hasn’t had a mostly sunny day in more than three weeks.

Global News meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the city typically sees around 3.4 hours of sunshine per day in January when it’s averaged out, but so far this month there hasn’t even been 3.4 hours of sunshine in total.

But there’s a bit of good news, he said, with a sunny weekend ahead, though even that won’t last.

“Typically November and December are the cloudiest months of the year and it starts to become more sunny in January, mostly due to large Arctic high pressure systems that deliver cold air but also sinking air and clear skies,” Farnell said.

“This month has been dominated by air mostly originating from the south and from the Pacific which means the clouds have been locked in like it’s November or December. Temperatures have also been more typical of those months.”

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Another reason for the extensive cloud cover is the higher-than-normal rainfall totals that has been seen since early December, with the large amount of moisture in the ground leading to increased clouds above.

There was some sunshine on Christmas Day, but the last mostly sunny day was Dec. 21, Farnell said.

This weekend is expected to be “very sunny,” Farnell noted, but the weather pattern “doesn’t really change until later this month, so expect more clouds than sun until that happens.”