November Kicks Off the Cloudiest Time of Year in Parts of the Midwest, Northeast, Northwest

But is November actually the cloudiest month of the year in the North, or does it just seem that way after the frequent sunny days of summer and early fall?

(MORE: November Outlook)

For virtually all of Wisconsin, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a good part of Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and parts of North Dakota, November is indeed the cloudiest month of the year, according to Dr. Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.

This includes Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin; Minneapolis, Duluth, International Falls and Rochester, Minnesota; Marquette and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Waterloo, Iowa; Fargo, Bismarck and Williston, North Dakota.

In November, much colder air masses spilling over the still unfrozen, relatively warmer Great Lakes manufacture bands of lake-effect rain and snow, contributing to a cloudy month downwind of the Great Lakes.

Despite an average of more than 80 percent cloud cover downwind of lakes Ontario and Erie and in western Oregon and Washington, November is not the cloudiest month in these regions – it's actually December. However, the average percentage of cloud cover between November and December is so close, it's almost a toss-up.

(MORE: Seven Things You May See in November's Weather)

It's very similar in Buffalo, New York. November's average cloud cover is 82.42 percent, while December's is 84.54 percent. Without the exact numbers from Brettschneider, no one would probably be able to notice that December's average cloud cover is two percent higher in western New York.

By looking at the map of average December cloudiness below, you can see the 80-plus-percent contour expands just a bit in December across the Pacific Northwest and downwind of the Great Lakes.

If you were wondering what's the cloudiest location in the continental U.S., it's Cold Bay, Alaska, located over 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, averaging 87.5 percent cloud cover over the entire year. Its cloudiest month is August, when there's an average of 94.7 percent cloud cover.

In the Lower 48 states, Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, is the cloudiest location, with an average annual cloud cover of 78.9 percent. Their cloudiest month is July, when it averages 82.1 percent cloud cover.

If you don't want to count Mt. Washington due to its extreme weather, Astoria, Oregon, is the runner-up with an average annual cloud cover of 73.6 percent. Astoria's cloudiest month is December, with an average of 79.8 percent cloud cover.