When Does It Get Dark Where You Are ?

[Essan]

It makes no odds what time you shift the clock to. The time between sunrise and sunset remains the same. We need to work round it and realise that it means different things to different people in different parts of the UK.

And the rest of the world seem to manage fine. You don't here the Germans moaning about wanting to be on Russian time, or the Spanish saying that tourism is affected because it's gets dark in the evening in summer!

Noticed it was still pitch black at 5pm this morning, despite fairly clear skies at the time.

[Bottesford]

And the rest of the world seem to manage fine. You don't here the Germans moaning about wanting to be on Russian time, or the Spanish saying that tourism is affected because it's gets dark in the evening in summer!

Noticed it was still pitch black at 5pm this morning, despite fairly clear skies at the time.

Yeah but the Spanish are on Euro time (i.e. UK time + 1). When I went to Spain one summer it got dark post 9pm and light around half 6 in the morning - that's spot on for summer!

Yes we should 'work round' the sunrise/sunset times but unfortunately for most of us that isn't possible. Although I might be able to adjust my work times a bit, none of my friends nor the missus could do so as their jobs don't allow it.

It'd take quite a shift in attitudes to work to daylight patterns moving the 'standard' 9-5 working day to 7-3 (which makes more sense daylight wise in summer). Can anyone actually see that happening? It's just easier to move the clocks!

[laserguy]

It's alright us moaning,imagine the misery of living in,say,Iceland and having to put up with perpetual daylight in the summer. If there was no way out I'd top meself in short order,for sure. Be nice in winter,tho'.

[Bottesford]

I went to Iceland in June- it was fantastic! Endless daylight with sunshine at 11pm (and again by 2am) - fantastic for outdoor activities as you've got no chance of getting stuck somewhere after dark!

Feels quite weird though - sleep patterns get disrupted a bit.

Up there they consider the light season as a time for working/having fun 24/7. During the dark season they have a lot of problems with depression however.

[Milhouse]

Surely the advantage of long daylight hours is that you have the option to stay inside or go outdoors, you have a choice. When its dark you can only stay inside. At the moment the amount of daylight in the evening is still at a respectable level so i can at least make the most of the evenings i have off work to do stuff after tea. There is still useable daylight until about 8.30pm, and although its decreasing rapidly i will still be happy when i can be outside until 7.30pm. After that i have to admit defeat and face the realization that the long dark nights are round the corner.

I find the days seem so much longer in Summer due to the long daylight hours. When i'm not at work i have from when i get up to when i go to bed to do what ever i want, whether its indoors or outdoors so i not a day goes by in summer when i dont do something worthwhile with my time e.g playing cricket or going cycling. However In winter i find sunset signals the end of the day, just 6/7 hours after it started so i always get bored on the long dark evenings between 4 and 10pm and struggle to find ways to occupy my time. Thankfully i work 4 evenings in the week so it doesnt bother me as much as it could.

[Methuselah]

I know it's another subject, but I'm already dreading the arrival of GMT. I wish they'd stick to Summer Time all year round. What a waste of an hour's daylight!

About 8pm or so...

[skifreak]

In this part of the World BST all year round would be the pain with no gain. If such a plan was seriously muted, I'd rather a shift to Central Euro Time, though families with younger kids might be aghast as dusk gets pushed beyond midnight in mid summer!

Edited August 25, 2010 by skifreak

[Summer of 95]

Yeah but the Spanish are on Euro time (i.e. UK time + 1). When I went to Spain one summer it got dark post 9pm and light around half 6 in the morning - that's spot on for summer!

Yes we should 'work round' the sunrise/sunset times but unfortunately for most of us that isn't possible. Although I might be able to adjust my work times a bit, none of my friends nor the missus could do so as their jobs don't allow it.

It'd take quite a shift in attitudes to work to daylight patterns moving the 'standard' 9-5 working day to 7-3 (which makes more sense daylight wise in summer). Can anyone actually see that happening? It's just easier to move the clocks!

Yeah the Spanish have it spot on regards time- it's light there till 10pm in summer, but stays dark till 6am. The trouble with England in midsummer is that it gets dark, but only for a very short time- in the Arctic I'd get used to it being light all the time, whereas here it gets just dark enough for your body to realise it's night, but then it's light again at 3-4am. 3am for a night-owl is late evening and not the right time for dawn.

As for winter, having the sun set around 3.30 pm, which to me is the middle of the day, is just daft and no amount of December afternoons spent in darkness while people in subarctic latitudes plead against year-round BST will get me to alter that perception. I'd rather have it dark till 10am (breakfast time), and if that sets off the "kids will walk to school in darkness" brigade there's an easy solution- start school at 10.30 not 8.30.

Sunset here currently around 8.30 but fast getting earlier- now dark by 10pm when you can still read a book in June.

[weatherobsuk]

At least the good thing about Autumn/Winter in the UK is the dark nights and cold at 5pm means all the chavs/drunk idiots you'd normally see in the summer evenings are all tucked up in their homes. And the streets are isolated again, without having to worry about anything.

[Stormyking]

Sunset here is at 20:06pm tonight and sunrise in the morning is at 6:08am :o

[Essan]

Yeah the Spanish have it spot on regards time- it's light there till 10pm in summer, but stays dark till 6am.

Well there's the solution, move Britain 2,000 miles further south

btw anyone else find it easier when midday is at 12.00 and the 06z chart refers to 06.00? :unsure:

Playing silly buggers with the clock doesn't change our latitude. We get lots of dayight in summer and not much in winter. Live with it. Or move to the tropics

[Bottesford]

At least the good thing about Autumn/Winter in the UK is the dark nights and cold at 5pm means all the chavs/drunk idiots you'd normally see in the summer evenings are all tucked up in their homes. And the streets are isolated again, without having to worry about anything.

That's a very depressing way of looking at things! You might as well have said 'I like darkness as I don't like other people' I guess it depends where you live really - I remember sometimes feeling similar myself in my old house - hoping for rain to get the chavette next door back indoors so I didn't have to hear her whining/throwing fags in our garden!

Gladly I've moved to somewhere where warmth and light = a parade of attractive student ladies walking through from the city to studentland whereas darkness/cold = mass of coat covered hulks that you can barely see their faces...

Sticking to BST here would be great. At present I hardly ever cycle to work in darkness (setting off at sunrise around the solstice - 0815) but have to endure cycling home in it for four months (clock move weekend through to end of Feb). Now cycling at night is ok in spring/summer/early autumn as its long after the rush hour but the combo of sudden rush hour darkness, student drivers new to the area and very heavy traffic (especially when it rains) is extremely unpleasant - you often spend most the journey feeling very unsafe.

If we stuck to BST I'd probably only have two months of darkness in the evenings - two weeks of which are xmas holiday anyway. I'd get dark mornings for maybe 5-6 weeks (with two xmas hols again). Sounds great to me - it would centre daylight hours around my working day and maybe avoid the awful headaches/depression I get as it gets dark while still in the office.

[Essan]

Question remains: why do the English have such problems living in their time zone but no-one else does?

The Germans are happy on CET. The Americans are happy with which ever time zone they are in (all 6 of them). It's just the English who cannot survive ..... No wonder we're called whinging poms!

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

Gladly I've moved to somewhere where warmth and light = a parade of attractive student ladies walking through from the city to studentland whereas darkness/cold = mass of coat covered hulks that you can barely see their faces...

So basically summer time is perving time?

[0000]

Question remains: why do the English have such problems living in their time zone but no-one else does?

The Germans are happy on CET. The Americans are happy with which ever time zone they are in (all 6 of them). It's just the English who cannot survive ..... No wonder we're called whinging poms!

And given it was Britain who set GMT maybe we should have thought about it more,that said the country is so far north there is no easy compromise....and without the dark nights there'd be no Winter lamp post watching...always a bright side huh?

[Bottesford]

So basically summer time is perving time?

Bang right! Although the hot weather makes the long rain coat look even more suspicious...

Got a sunny morning here making it very noticeable how much lower the sun has got since June (the last time we had lots of sunny mornings!). No longer any sun in the house by time I set off in the mornings nor on the garage door. It's much closer to eye level too which gives some tricky blind junctions at times!

[Weather-history]

,but the uk has a dramatic daylight shift from north to south.

And there lies the problem.

The idea that has been banted about in the past is that Scotland should have their own time zone is quite frankly a dumb idea and not thought out. Timezones are based on lines of longitude not latitude and no country as small as the UK has a time zone.

Also what about the counties of the far north of England? The far south of Scotland would be an hour behind the far north of England so people who live in say Carlisle will have sunrise at say 9am and yet someone just across the border will have sunrise at 8am.

How do you square this circle? You can't because it ain't as simple as a solution as the people who thought of this idea in the first place think it is.

Edited August 27, 2010 by Mr_Data

[stewfox]

Question remains: why do the English have such problems living in their time zone but no-one else does?

The Germans are happy on CET. The Americans are happy with which ever time zone they are in (all 6 of them). It's just the English who cannot survive ..... No wonder we're called whinging poms!

Unless you live in Alaska, North Dakota , Arizona, Nebraska etc and don’t talk about 500 border towns. Always petitions to change.

China all people more then happy with their time zones.

However like the weather we in the UK like talking about it the most I believe.

The only time I hear the word whinging poms is from people who live here because they don’t want to live in their own country

[WBSH]

Question remains: why do the English have such problems living in their time zone but no-one else does?

The Germans are happy on CET. The Americans are happy with which ever time zone they are in (all 6 of them). It's just the English who cannot survive ..... No wonder we're called whinging poms!

I think that may be because in Britain we are not too far from mainland Europe, who are one hour ahead. What i'm saying is, we are just on the "one side of the boundary" between GMT/BST and CET/CEST if that makes sense, so I think its natural to debate if we are better off on the other side i.e one hour forward. Personally i'm in favour of moving our clocks forward an hour, I guess I just like the thought of it still beign daylight at 10pm during June and July!

[Bottesford]

I'd prefer CET/CEST time personally. Yes GMT is our 'right' time (and I know some people would prefer to stick to it) but unless everyone shifts their perception of what 'time' it is then it just won't work. Somehow you've got to make 7pm feel like 9pm e.g. by showing post 'watershed' tv! Work schedules must change, public transport would start earlier/finish earlier, rush hour would be earlier and so on...

Otherwise it'll be like northern Japan (who don't move the clocks) where it's sunrise is around 4am but its dark at 7pm in summer - crazy!

[laserguy]

Work schedules must change, public transport would start earlier/finish earlier, rush hour would be earlier and so on...

I work a 3-shift rota and don't know where the hell I am at the best of times. It's alright for you nine-to-fivers. Lets just have 24-hour darkness then I'll be able to find my feet !

[Terminal Moraine]

Otherwise it'll be like northern Japan (who don't move the clocks) where it's sunrise is around 4am but its dark at 7pm in summer - crazy!

I'll be investigating property prices in northern Japan. They get loads of snow in winter too. Perfect!

[Bottesford]

I'll be investigating property prices in northern Japan. They get loads of snow in winter too. Perfect!

They do indeed - for around 5 months of the year! Had a friend who lived & worked on the northern tip of Japan (where you could see Russia across the sea!) who told me of the crazy daylight hours. They were on about changing it as it made no sense at all working 8/9-4/5 when the sun was up at 4am but gone at 7pm. They definitely got sick of the snow too - crazy as it sounds to us here :blink:

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

I'll be investigating property prices in northern Japan. They get loads of snow in winter too. Perfect!

Kon'nichiwa tÄminarumorÄ“n. HÅpu de wa, yuki o tanoshimu.

(Hello Terminal Moraine. Hope you enjoy the snow!)

[reef]

Yeah but the Spanish are on Euro time (i.e. UK time + 1). When I went to Spain one summer it got dark post 9pm and light around half 6 in the morning - that's spot on for summer!

Yes we should 'work round' the sunrise/sunset times but unfortunately for most of us that isn't possible. Although I might be able to adjust my work times a bit, none of my friends nor the missus could do so as their jobs don't allow it.

It'd take quite a shift in attitudes to work to daylight patterns moving the 'standard' 9-5 working day to 7-3 (which makes more sense daylight wise in summer). Can anyone actually see that happening? It's just easier to move the clocks!

Back when I worked Mon-Fri I did 7am-3pm and it was pretty good, as well as missing the rush hour you got to see daylight throughout the year.

Its pitch black when I get up for work on day shifts at 5am, it'll be that way until next April now. If we had daylight hours like Spain then Id go to work in darkness all year round. BST all year around wouldnt bother me though, as I prefer dark mornings when coming off night shifts - much easier to get to sleep!

Sunrise/Sunset here are exactly 6am and 8pm right now.