The changing daylight hours thread

[Wynn D Woo]

Complete waste of time moving back to GMT, still needed to put the light on this morning when I got up so no benefit there, but now I will also be leaving work in the dark. Whilst the total amount of daylight will reduce, so neither time zone would alter that fact, at least the descent to darkness would have been more gradual.

[Bottesford]

First post in ages, nice to be back!

This argument goes on every year and I guess nothing would suit everyone. I personally would prefer remaining on summer time (CEST over here) as I detest the sudden plunge into darkness (sat here working now at sunset is not nice!).

But I do understand why people prefer GMT in winter, it does help in the three darkest months in making mornings be a little better although with so little light it isn't easy. 

Certainly staying on GMT (or CET here) would not be sensible. Sure solar noon would be at noon and perhaps we should follow the sun patterns more. But the reality is society is skewed towards PM. Little wonder given that 10-6 are considered core sleeping hours (not 8-4 say), public transport often stops around midnight and starts at 5am and office hours are often 8:30-5. All shifted later.

Also almost everyone bar shift workers are awake in the early evening but only those who have to/like earlies/have kids are up at 6am so surely it makes sense to try to give more light later to save on energy costs? This effect is even more pronounced in late Feb and into March (clock should return to summer pattern a month earlier!).

[Lauren]

And the winter dip in mood has kicked in. Yay

[damianslaw]

A very early dusk this afternoon thanks to overcast we skies, it became dark before 4pm, a good half hour before sunset and when the street lights typically come on, indeed overcast wet days by this stage in the year produce a general darkness throughout the day. Oh dear. How different everything feels now compared to late May and early June - almost feels like two places.

Edited November 4, 2016 by damianslaw

[markyo]

Loving the winter feel to the weather,so much more colourful this Autumn than for quite a few years,stunning colours,dropping leaves leaving a wonderful carpet of crisp leaves to kick through,seen many bundled up little ones doing so and loving it!,so much better than the blandness of mid and late summer,gone is the blandness,you can watch a stunning sunrise,see a beautiful sunset and its not to cold! Whats not to like!!

[Costa Del Fal]

I don't mind the shorter days especially in the run up to Christmas as I do enjoy the cosy evening a indoors. However, being so far south here in the UK makes a noticeable difference at this time of year. Currently we have 30 mins more daylight than Newcastle and just over an hour more daylight than Lerwick! Our extra daylight ensures travel at rush hour is a least in the light for longest.

Edited November 4, 2016 by Costa Del Fal

[Frost HoIIow]

20 minutes ago, markyo said:

Loving the winter feel to the weather,so much more colourful this Autumn than for quite a few years,stunning colours,dropping leaves leaving a wonderful carpet of crisp leaves to kick through,seen many bundled up little ones doing so and loving it!,so much better than the blandness of mid and late summer,gone is the blandness,you can watch a stunning sunrise,see a beautiful sunset and its not to cold! Whats not to like!!

Yeah gone are those ridiculous 4:30am sunrises and muggy bedroom temps. Be a while before we see a return to those.

[Summer Sun]

Not long till the shortest day now we only have 4 minutes of daylight to lose here in Darlo now during the afternoon's

[davehsug]

 

[Nick L]

Love these dark evenings in this weather! Feels so festive.

[Bobd29]

11 minutes ago, Nick L said:

Love these dark evenings in this weather! Feels so festive.

Could not agree more, when it's also cool/cold in December there is no other month like it.....come on Santa let's see the white stuff

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Makes me a bit sullen. 

[Relativistic]

Best month of the year for daylight hours, enjoy it while it lasts!

[damianslaw]

Light levels in the evening bottom out now with little variation, until around the 13th when we hit the low point and then slowly see them picking up a bit through the rest of the month, conversely we still have a month or so to go before light levels in the morning reach their lowest point.. its the dark mornings by the end of the month that are really notable, and that dreaded first week in Jan when they hit their low point... the gloomy southwesterlies next week will make for a thoroughly miserable feel here, with a dark light all day I imagine right at the darkest point of the year.. with very early dusks, I'm not looking forward to them, low cloud shrouding everything - I detest southwesterlies at anytime of year, but especially now (unfortunately when they are most likely). The recent high pressure spell has done wonders making for much longer feeling days with late dusks and earlier dawns..

[hillbilly]

Yes we have just about reached that point again ,evenings are darkest at their earliest point,what is different this year however is the misty ,foggy days which will give our darkest feeling earlier than for many years,there seem to have been a long run of clearer skies at this time in recnt years.If the skies clear next week it will almost be noticeably lighter at nights anyway !

[Summer Sun]

Today marks the point where the sun sets at it's earliest in the afternoons the only change over the next week will be the later rise

[damianslaw]

6 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Today marks the point where the sun sets at it's earliest in the afternoons the only change over the next week will be the later rise

Yes we now level off with light levels in the evening, but mornings still continue to get darker.. and don't bottom out until the very end of the year, indeed the first week of Jan always seems to deliver the latest sunrises - not least in recent years when it has been a thoroughly overcast period, I remember the first 10 days of 2012 or 2013 not sure which one, which produced not one hour of sunlight. 

Recent mid Decembers conversely have been generally quite bright in recent years.

The next few days will make for very dark skies overall though due to low level cloud, so it will feel very dismal this year. Indeed today it never really got light again, street lights on at 3.30pm. Could be worse though we won't see particularly rain leaden dark skies

[ManiaMuse]

On 12/12/2016 at 21:23, damianslaw said:

Yes we now level off with light levels in the evening, but mornings still continue to get darker.. and don't bottom out until the very end of the year, indeed the first week of Jan always seems to deliver the latest sunrises - not least in recent years when it has been a thoroughly overcast period, I remember the first 10 days of 2012 or 2013 not sure which one, which produced not one hour of sunlight. 

Recent mid Decembers conversely have been generally quite bright in recent years.

The next few days will make for very dark skies overall though due to low level cloud, so it will feel very dismal this year. Indeed today it never really got light again, street lights on at 3.30pm. Could be worse though we won't see particularly rain leaden dark skies

Yeah, sunrise still to get about 6 minutes later where I am before the end of the year. Although it is always good to know when the tide is turning and lighter evenings are much more useful to me than mornings.

It creeps later so painfully slowly though, it's not until the the end of January/early February that we really start to claw back daylight at a rate of knots.

Milestone for me is when I can start to cycle home without lights on my bike, probably not until the end of February though.

This winter has been reasonably bearable so far, a lot more sun in late Autumn compared to recent years and no constant wind and rain. Hopefully the storms stay away for Christmas though looks like some of the models are getting interested...

 

 

 

[snowflakey]

Yes the effect of the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise not falling on the shortest day, is known as the Analemma .

http://www.analemma.com/Pages/framesPage.html

Edited December 16, 2016 by snowflakey
off topic

[Summer Sun]

Welcome to the shortest day

Onwards and upwards now

[markyo]

Sadly its the long road back to those sleepless mornings being woken at stupid O'clock by those ruddy birds!! Much better this time of year,so quiet!!

 

[Summer Sun]

 

[ManiaMuse]

Yay, daytime will be 4 seconds longer tomorrow here in Manchester!

Still it's progress, mornings still get darker for a week or so. I hate this period just after the solstice where you know things are getting better but progress is so slow until the end of January when we start to gain 3-4 minutes per day.

Edited December 21, 2016 by ManiaMuse

[Summer Sun]

The summer solstice in Antarctica today

Edited December 21, 2016 by Summer Sun

[March]

8 hours ago, markyo said:

Sadly its the long road back to those sleepless mornings being woken at stupid O'clock by those ruddy birds!! Much better this time of year,so quiet!!

 

How lightly do you sleep?! Get some exercise amigo!