Difference between Dry and Sunny weather.

Factual Questions
1

In Melbourne, Australia the weather forecasters usually say it is going to be sunny. Sometimes though they say the weather will be ‘Dry’.
Todays forecast- Max 27 - Dry day.Chance of any rain: 10%. Rainfall amount: 0 to 0.2 mm.Melbourne area-Partly cloudy. Patchy fog early this morning. Areas of smoke haze. A possible shower tonight. Light winds becoming southeast to southwesterly 15 to 20 km/h in the early afternoon then becoming light in the evening.
www.bom.gov.au

Todays weather so far has been a little overcast with sunny periods. There has been no rain.
I do not understand why they sometimes say it will be ‘Dry’ rather than sunny or overcast.
Can anyone help?

2

Not sure about the Australian weather surface, but here it’s not a problem.

We a get a lot of sunny, humid days in the summer. A lot.

OTOH, there are some times when it’s cloudy all day, not a drop of rain, so definitely dry.

This is not the same distinction you are hearing, but note how differently the terms can be used.

3

In the American West, dry is used to mean no rain in the forecast discussions. It could be sunny or overcast or anything in between, just as long as water isn’t actively falling from the sky. We rarely get humid weather though, as temperatures go up, relative humidity plummets.

4

I’ve lived in Albuquerque and Hawaii and Thailand. The first was very dry. Desert dry. The second may not have been exactly dry, but there was an amazing lack of humidity most of the time since the trade winds would blow it out to sea. (Hawaii really is the most perfect climate imaginable.) In Thailand we have lots of sunny days that are heavy with humidity – there’s a real difference between a sunny day in the American Southwest and one over here.

Is that what the OP is asking about?

5

I have asked people here. But noone seems to really care. They all just take ‘Dry’ as meaning it will not rain.
There are a few humid days in Melbourne. But the weather forecasters never seem to mention that. Yesterday was hot- 30C and humid and overcast. I found and worse than last Saturday when it 39C and not at all humid.
It would be nice if they mentioned when it was going to be humdi or not.