When the sky is covered by a layer aloft that hides 2/8 of the sky, what is the sky cover and contraction?

When assessing sky cover, it is important to understand the terminology used to describe cloud cover and how it translates into numerical values. Sky cover is typically reported as oktas, which is an eighth of the sky.

In this case, when the sky is covered with a layer aloft that obscures 2/8 of the sky, this indicates that there are some clouds present but not enough to categorize them as significant. The sky cover would fall into the "SCT" (scattered) category, which typically describes conditions where 1/8 to 4/8 of the sky is covered.

However, the correct answer identifies that with an entire sky cover of 8/8, the right category would be "OVC" (overcast). The confusion may arise from interpreting the fraction as the full extent of coverage rather than interpreting it as 4/8.

In this scenario, the sky is actually classified based on the level of coverage as being broken clouds ("BKN") when the sky is obscured between 5/8 to 7/8, while "OVC" indicates complete cloud cover. Hence, for 2/8, the cloud condition would be categorized under "SCT," and for the