How much does snow reduce solar production in Sullivan County?

Less than most people expect. A pitched array here sees roughly 15 to 40 days a season with enough cover to stop production — the glass is slick and the array runs warmer than the shingles around it. Cloud cover through November and December costs more production than snow cover does. What snow really drives is the structural spec: design ground snow load here is 45 to 80 psf, and racking must be engineered and stamped for it.

What is the seasonal production curve in Sullivan County?

Jul is the strongest month and Dec the weakest, by roughly 3.6 to one. December through February combined account for about 12% of annual output — roughly one month's worth of production spread across three months. A proposal that shows a smooth, near-flat monthly production curve for this county is not modeling this climate.

Is Sullivan County too far north or too cloudy for solar?

No, but the honest framing is that the climate sets the ceiling and the electricity rate sets the value. A 10 kW array here produces roughly 11,900 kWh a year. That is real output — the question is what a kWh is worth where you live, which is a rate question rather than a weather one.

Does cold weather help or hurt solar panels in Sullivan County?

Cold helps efficiency — panels produce more per unit of sunlight at low temperature, which is why a clear February day can outperform a hazy July one on a per-hour basis. What hurts is daylight hours and cloud cover, and this climate is short on both between November and February. The two effects do not cancel out; the daylight loss dominates.

Catskills · Catskills

Sullivan County weather and solar

What the climate here actually does to a solar array — production by season, the structural spec the snow load forces, and the roof decisions that follow from both.

The climate

Catskills

Sullivan, Delaware, Greene, and the higher parts of Ulster. Heavily wooded, hilly, and outage-prone. Second-home density is high, which changes what backup power is for.

Specific yield

1,120–1,260 kWh / kW-DC / yr

A 10 kW array averages about 11,900 kWh a year here.

Modeled NREL PVWatts v8 · verified Jan 2026

Mean annual snowfall

60–120 inches

No lake-effect exposure.

Modeled NOAA/NWS seasonal snowfall records · verified Jan 2026

Design ground snow load

45–80 psf

Racking and structural review are engineered to this figure. Ask which number your proposal used.

Filed ASCE 7 ground snow load data · verified Jan 2026

Winter quarter share

12% of annual

December, January, and February combined.

Derived NREL PVWatts v8 · verified Jan 2026

Days with snow on the array

15–40 per season

Far fewer than days with snow on the ground — panels shed.

Observed GridReady quote and bill review sample · verified Jan 2026

Seasonality

Production month by month on a 10 kW array

Jul outproduces Dec by roughly 3.6 to one here. This is the shape a real proposal should show you — if yours is a gentle wave, it is not modeling Sullivan County.

457

Jan

543

Feb

849

Mar

1,189

Apr

1,415

May

1,472

Jun

1,528

Jul

1,415

Aug

1,189

Sep

906

Oct

509

Nov

428

Dec

kWh per month from a 10 kW-DC array at the midpoint of the Catskills yield band. Bar height is relative to the peak month.

Show the arithmetic

10 kW × 1,190 kWh/kW/yr (midpoint of the Catskills band) = 11,900 kWh a year, distributed on a northern-temperate seasonal curve anchored so December through February sums to 12% of the total.

A modeled shape, not a measurement of your roof. Orientation, pitch, and shading move individual months more than they move the annual total.

Derived NREL PVWatts v8 · verified Jan 2026

Local weather

What the weather here specifically does

Tree cover is the number-one production constraint. Whole hillsides here have no viable unshaded roof plane.
Weekend-and-vacation homes mean an outage can run for days before anyone notices. Remote monitoring matters more here than a bigger battery.
Well pumps are near-universal, so an outage means no water.

The roof

Consequences for the array itself

A real shade study is non-negotiable in this terrain.
Ground mounts in a clearing frequently outperform a shaded roof by a wide margin.

The one question worth asking every installer here

“What ground snow load is this racking engineered for, and can I see the stamped calculation?” The right answer in Sullivan County is 45–80 psf. At this load, structural review is genuine engineering and some roofs will need reinforcement. That is a finding, not a sales objection.

By location

Elevation across Sullivan County

Within a single county, elevation is usually the strongest predictor of how much snow a roof sees.

Place	Elevation	Climate zone	Guide
Monticello	1,500 ft	Catskills	Costs & production

Questions

Sullivan County climate FAQ

How much does snow reduce solar production in Sullivan County?: Less than most people expect. A pitched array here sees roughly 15 to 40 days a season with enough cover to stop production — the glass is slick and the array runs warmer than the shingles around it. Cloud cover through November and December costs more production than snow cover does. What snow really drives is the structural spec: design ground snow load here is 45 to 80 psf, and racking must be engineered and stamped for it.
What is the seasonal production curve in Sullivan County?: Jul is the strongest month and Dec the weakest, by roughly 3.6 to one. December through February combined account for about 12% of annual output — roughly one month's worth of production spread across three months. A proposal that shows a smooth, near-flat monthly production curve for this county is not modeling this climate.
Is Sullivan County too far north or too cloudy for solar?: No, but the honest framing is that the climate sets the ceiling and the electricity rate sets the value. A 10 kW array here produces roughly 11,900 kWh a year. That is real output — the question is what a kWh is worth where you live, which is a rate question rather than a weather one.
Does cold weather help or hurt solar panels in Sullivan County?: Cold helps efficiency — panels produce more per unit of sunlight at low temperature, which is why a clear February day can outperform a hazy July one on a per-hour basis. What hurts is daylight hours and cloud cover, and this climate is short on both between November and February. The two effects do not cancel out; the daylight loss dominates.

Next step

Turn this into your own numbers

The climate sets what a roof can produce. Your rate sets what that production is worth, and your roof sets how much of the band you actually get.

Badge key:Filed — from a tariff, statute, or government datasetModeled — from a published model or datasetDerived — calculated by us from the inputs shownObserved — from proposals and bills readers send us

How this page is built

This is a generated page: the structure is shared across locations, the numbers are not. Every figure comes from the source cited beside it, with the date we last checked it. Nothing here is a quote, an appraisal, or tax advice, and none of it is specific to your roof.

Rates and incentive programs change. We re-verify utility tariffs and NYSERDA program status on a rolling schedule and stamp the date on each number rather than on the page, so you can see which specific figures are fresh. Full methodology · Program status tracker · About the Local Energy Playbook

Page content last reviewed April 2026.

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