According to The Guardian, this winter has been one of the least sunny winters in history in Europe, with many places only receiving a few hours of direct sunlight this month. That is a small fraction of what they normally get. I can remember very cloudy winters in western Michigan when I was growing up due to lake effect clouds from Lake Michigan, but this covers a much wider area, including most of the European continent. You can read more here.

Paris had only 10 hours of sunshine in the first half of January. Photograph: Christophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images