Well … technically they say 4.2% less clouds. But that does mean more sunshine (except at night).

The emergence of satellite-based cloud records of climate-length and quality hold tremendous potential for climate model development, climate monitoring, and studies on global water cycling and its subsequent energetics. This article examines the more than thirty-year PATMOS-x AVHRR cloudiness record over North America and assesses its suitability as a climate-quality data record. A loss of ~4.2% total cloudiness is observed between 1982 and 2012 over a North American domain centered over the contiguous United States.

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00068.1?af=R&

 

As you know, land base sunshine monitoring is atrocious in North America. Once upon a time Canada had over 300 stations collecting sunshine data. How do we know whether major ups and downs in climate aren’t because of more or less clouds?

 

(h/t Hockey Schtick)