Cloudiest Cities in America

Heavy Cloud

The west coast cities of Portland and Seattle top the list of cloudiest large cities in the United States.

Overall, ten major American cities have solid overcast for more than 180 days a year. Besides the Pacific Northwest, cities with frequent cloudy weather are mainly near the Great Lakes.

The major cities included in the weather rankings represent the 56 metropolitan areas in the United States with over one million people in 2020. Cloud cover information is not available from the National Climatic Data Center for San Jose and Riverside California, so they were left out of the cloudiest city ratings.

Cloudiest major US cities, where over half the days a year cloud covers more than three-quarters of the sky

City	Days of Heavy Cloud	% of Days
Seattle, Washington	226	62
Portland, Oregon	222	61
Buffalo, New York	208	57
Grand Rapids, Michigan	205	56
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	203	56
Cleveland, Ohio	202	55
Rochester, New York	200	55
Columbus, Ohio	190	52
Cincinnati, Ohio	186	51
Detroit, Michigan	185	51

Most Cloudy Days

Days of partial cloud are more common in Buffalo than in Seattle or Portland. Partial cloud is defined as cloud covering from over one-quarter to as much as three-quarters of the sky.

When days with partial cloud are added to the days of heavy cloud, to include every day that cloud covers more than one-quarter of the sky, then Buffalo's average of 311 days a year edges out Seattle's 308 days. Portland drops down to the country's sixth cloudiest major city.

Large US cities that average at least 275 days a year, when cloud covers over one-quarter of the sky

City	Cloudy Days a Year	% of Days
Buffalo, New York	311	85
Seattle, Washington	308	84
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	306	84
Rochester, New York	304	83
Grand Rapids, Michigan	301	82
Cleveland, Ohio	299	82
Portland, Oregon	296	81
Columbus, Ohio	293	80
Detroit, Michigan	290	79
Miami, Florida	290	79
Cincinnati, Ohio	284	78
Hartford, Connecticut	283	78
Chicago, Illinois	281	77
Indianapolis, Indiana	278	76
Orlando, Florida	277	76
Honolulu, Hawaii	275	75
Milwaukee, Wisconsin	275	75
Houston, Texas	275	75

Partial Cloud

Fifteen of America's major cities average over 110 days a year of partially cloudy weather. These are days when cloud covers between one-quarter and three-quarters of the sky.

None of these partially cloudy cities have enough days of heavy overcast, when cloud covers more than three-quarters of the sky, to rank among the cloudiest cities in the United States.

Major US cities that average over 110 partially cloudy days a year

City	Partially Cloudy Days	% of Days
Honolulu, Hawaii	181	50
Miami, Florida	175	48
Orlando, Florida	147	40
Tampa, Florida	143	39
Denver, Colorado	130	36
Jacksonville, Florida	127	35
New York, New York	127	35
San Antonio, Texas	119	33
New Orleans, Louisiana	118	32
San Diego, California	117	32
Los Angeles, California	116	32
Houston, Texas	114	31
Austin, Texas	114	31
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	112	31
Birmingham, Alabama	111	30