Marti, of Castle Rock, asked about the statistic, made-to-order for the Chamber of Commerce and travel guides, that Denver boasts more than 300 days of sunshine a year. She wanted to know where it came from and how it was determined.

Robert sent a link (ccc.atmos.colostate.edu/questions.php) to the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University that had the answer, and I confirmed it with the National Weather Service.

According to the weather service's Denver climate summary for 2006 (www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/include/showProduct.php?product=annsum06.txt), 81 percent of Denver's days last year were sunny, which works out to 296 days - pretty close to 300. Another way of looking at it is that we had 62 fair days, 245 partly cloudy days and 58 cloudy days, or 307 days with at least some sun. (The discrepancy comes from rounding and averaging.) A weather service spokesman said those figures are roughly accurate year after year.

On a fair day, according to the weather service, up to 30 percent of the sky is cloudy, based on hourly observations; partly cloudy is 30 to 70 percent cloudy, while cloudy means at least 70 percent cloud cover.

Here's your next challenge:

Which saying is correct and where did it come from: "It is not all it is cracked up to be" or "It is not all it is cranked up to be." - Joanna

OK, wordsmiths, what's the answer? Post it on the Ask! blog, blogs.RockyMountainNews.com/denver/ask. While you're there, check out the other questions on the Ask! home page, or post one of your own by clicking on the link to the left on the page.