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Southwestern Pennsylvania among least sunny regions

By Olivia Goudy ogoudy@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Kelly Tunney | Herald-Standard

A recent survey has tagged southwestern Pennsylvania as one of the cloudier places in America, which could indicate problems for the viability of solar energy in the region. Sunny summer afternoons like Monday, seen here from the Great Cross at Jumonville, may not outweigh the gloomy weather of fall, winter and spring.

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Holly Tonini

A partly cloudy summer sky casts occassional shadows over Charleroi and the Speers bridge in the Mon Valley.

Though the sun has made an appearance just about every day so far this summer, a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention plots southwestern Pennsylvania in a band of the least sunny states.

Though the New England states lead the way as the least sunniest region, Pennsylvania falls primarily in a dark blue region that accounts for 13.945 kilojoules of solar radiation per square meter.

The study gathered daily sunlight data from 1979 through 2011. Results confirmed that the southwestern part of the country were among the sunniest with Imperial County, California, leading as the county with the most sunlight.

Fayette and Greene counties ranked 2,979 and 2,858 respectively out of 3,111 counties in the 48 mainland states. Washington County ranked 2,861 while Westmoreland county placed 2,984.

Dave Meredith, an associate professor of engineering at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, attributed some of our ranking to inclement weather off of the Great Lakes.

But for those interested in utilizing solar energy, Meredith says it can still be done in our region.

“On the map, we’re in a gray area,” Meredith said. “The Southwest is the red hot zone.”

“But solar is more economical; it’s a bargain,” he continued.

For more than 35 years, Meredith has maintained a solar water heating system in his home. For more than half of the year, the sun heated all of their hot water, he said.

“There’s an ugly stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas were the sun doesn’t show up as much, but we do have sunny days for most of the year,” he said. “If solar can work in our region, it can work anywhere.”

“The first step to alternative energies is to reduce usage to the lowest possible number,” Meredith said. “We waste more energy than we use.”

To do so, Meredith recommends “buttoning up” the house, or making sure it’s fully insulated with storm windows and caulking around the borders.

“I’ve always been a proponent of renewable energy; sunshine will be here forever. Fossil fuels will not,” he said.

Medically speaking, Vitamin D is needed in the human body and can be gathered by sunlight or diet.

Lauren Aversman, a family practitioner with the Monongahela Valley Hospital, said it might be necessary to take Vitamin D supplements to make up for the lack of sunlight in the region.

“You need to also make sure there’s enough calcium in your diet, since calcium and Vitamin D help to absorb one another,” she said. “Sunlight is the best thing, though.”

According to Dr. Linda Burstynowicz, executive director of medical services at Uniontown Hospital, one of the sources of the vitamin is skin synthesis during exposure to sunlight.

“Vitamin D from the skin or diet is then converted to its active form by the liver and kidneys,” she said in a statement, adding that the formation of Vitamin D by the skin can be affected by geographic location, season of the year, skin pigmentation and the use of sunblock.

Burstynowicz also advised those who will be exposed to the sun to take precautions to avoid potential adverse effects from UV radiation exposure.

“Sunscreens should be applied liberally and repeatedly to sun-exposed skin areas. Application of sunscreen should be completed 15-30 minutes prior to the onset of sun exposure,” she said, adding that the time lapse allows a protective barrier to form on the skin.

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