The changing daylight hours thread

[damianslaw]

7 hours ago, Dangerous55019 said:

Morning @cheeky_monkey 
The weird thing is I'm the exact opposite, I'm counting down the days to the summer solstice because I suffer with reverse SAD, so I'm the exact opposite of most of the good folk on this forum, and looking forward to the returning of the darkness. 

Its the same every year for me, as soon as April arrives, I just feel this wave of hopelessness come over me, and most of the time all I want to do is just hide away or cry, but I have bills to pay etc, etc... But once the solstice has passed, I look ever so hard for the first signs of the shortening of the days, and once I see it (normally in a morning as I work shifts) it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders, which is utterly bonkers, as there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

The flip side of being a reverse SAD sufferer is that come October/November/December time, I feel absolutely full of life, when most normal folk feel as I do now.


Edit: I've just read that back after I had posted, and god I'm starting to sound like laserguy! Lol ... Whatever happened to him? 

Psychologically I always find September a struggle, closely followed by August, the lessening light levels being a major reason I think. Once the clocks go back I'm ok, with christmas on the horizon, if it wasn't for christmas though... mmm I think December would be a very low point.

[Frost HoIIow]

7 hours ago, Dangerous55019 said:

Morning @cheeky_monkey 
The weird thing is I'm the exact opposite, I'm counting down the days to the summer solstice because I suffer with reverse SAD, so I'm the exact opposite of most of the good folk on this forum, and looking forward to the returning of the darkness. 

Its the same every year for me, as soon as April arrives, I just feel this wave of hopelessness come over me, and most of the time all I want to do is just hide away or cry, but I have bills to pay etc, etc... But once the solstice has passed, I look ever so hard for the first signs of the shortening of the days, and once I see it (normally in a morning as I work shifts) it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders, which is utterly bonkers, as there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

The flip side of being a reverse SAD sufferer is that come October/November/December time, I feel absolutely full of life, when most normal folk feel as I do now.


Edit: I've just read that back after I had posted, and god I'm starting to sound like laserguy! Lol ... Whatever happened to him? 

Yes and mokidugway where is he as well? had some proper characters on here 

[hillbilly]

7 hours ago, mb018538 said:

Yep, we're definitely into that 3 month period now (May/June/July) where it feels truly summer-like with it staying light until 9/10pm. At least the weather has been mainly playing ball with some warmth and sunshine!

Yes it does stay light until 10.45 here around the solstice but the weather can make an enormous difference.A cloudy day can take a whole hour off that yet if i am working on the farm in the fields at night with a small amount of moonlight and do not put on the tractor lights i can work relatively easily throughout the night,you can clearly make out anything in the field so long as no lights are used as that sets your eyes back 20 minutes.

[Dangerous55019]

Farewell darkness my old friend… Enjoy your summer break, and I’m looking forward to your return in late July.

 

Sorry… Morning everyone

Well during the night at 01:34 my part of the world here in North East Wales entered the world of the lingering  twilight for another year. The darkness returns for me on the 29th of July.

The final long, hard slog up to the solstice is now underway. *sigh* 
 

Having said that, it also means that I can start looking for Noctilucent cloud’s again.

[ANYWEATHER]

Yes the long light nights are with us now it's that time of year when the sun rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest giving even north facing houses a brief burst of sunshine both early morning and later evening.....alas make the most of it ,only about five weeks left to we are on the slippery slope once again.....

[Dangerous55019]

On 06/05/2022 at 18:38, damianslaw said:

Psychologically I always find September a struggle, closely followed by August, the lessening light levels being a major reason I think. Once the clocks go back I'm ok, with christmas on the horizon, if it wasn't for christmas though... mmm I think December would be a very low point.

Morning @damianslaw

Thats pretty much me, but in April, May and throughout a major chunk of June, but once the solstice has passed, I find myself looking ever so hard for those first noticeable changes of receding light, (being as I work shifts, I normally see this during the early hours of the morning). Once I actually see a change towards increasing darkness, it feels like a huge weight is being lifted off me. Strange I know… But hey.

The funny thing is that I’m really not a fan of Christmas.

But having said that, I find the time around the October clock change and Halloween particularly magical.

I swear I’m wired differently to other people. Lol

[Dangerous55019]

2 minutes ago, ANYWEATHER said:

Yes the long light nights are with us now it's that time of year when the sun rises in the northeast and sets in the northwest giving even north facing houses a brief burst of sunshine both early morning and later evening.....alas make the most of it ,only about five weeks left to we are on the slippery slope once again.....

Morning @ANYWEATHER

Funny isn’t it? Most normal people (like your good self) are all saying exactly the same, where as I just want to crawl into a cave or a hole until after the solstice. 
I swear I should have been born a bat or a mole, or some other darkness loving creature.

Yet once we’re passed the solstice, I don’t see it as a slippery slope, I tend to feel like it’s a chance to freewheel, after a long hard, and torturous climb. 
Oh the joys of being a reverse SAD sufferer. Lol 

Ahhh well… Here’s hoping for a summer of thunderstorms storms to make it more bearable. ?⛈

[Earthshine]

Lovely to see daylight here until 9pm now.  Just need to get some proper warm and sunny weather to really get that summer feeling.  

[Summer8906]

On 06/05/2022 at 18:38, damianslaw said:

Psychologically I always find September a struggle, closely followed by August, the lessening light levels being a major reason I think. Once the clocks go back I'm ok, with christmas on the horizon, if it wasn't for christmas though... mmm I think December would be a very low point.

I don't find September too bad, probably because it tends to be significantly sunnier and much more settled than August these days which counteracts the shorter days. The typical switch between a protracted mid-late summer unsettled spell and anticyclonic spell which occurs in late Aug or early Sep does wonders for counteracting the shortening days.

I find the immediate aftermath of the clocks going back a little difficult (because it suddenly goes very dark in the evening, darker even than late January - and it's incredibly annoying having sunrise before 7am but sunset before 5pm, feels like we're on the wrong time zone), and also December and first half of Jan.

If February is dull and gloomy (2020 being the obvious recent example) that can be a struggle too but late winter very much depends on sunshine levels. If Feb is bright it really feels like spring is on the way. The psychological contrast between Feb 2018/9 (both bright, albeit one cold one mild) and Feb 2020 (very dark and damp) was truly immense.

Edited May 16, 2022 by Summer8906

[Dangerous55019]

The time is 22:51, and I’m just taking the dog for a quick walk after getting home from work… And this is how much light we’ve currently got in the sky!

[damianslaw]

3 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I don't find September too bad, probably because it tends to be significantly sunnier and much more settled than August these days which counteracts the shorter days. The typical switch between a protracted mid-late summer unsettled spell and anticyclonic spell which occurs in late Aug or early Sep does wonders for counteracting the shortening days.

I find the immediate aftermath of the clocks going back a little difficult (because it suddenly goes very dark in the evening, darker even than late January - and it's incredibly annoying having sunrise before 7am but sunset before 5pm, feels like we're on the wrong time zone), and also December and first half of Jan.

If February is dull and gloomy (2020 being the obvious recent example) that can be a struggle too but late winter very much depends on sunshine levels. If Feb is bright it really feels like spring is on the way. The psychological contrast between Feb 2018/9 (both bright, albeit one cold one mild) and Feb 2020 (very dark and damp) was truly immense.

Feb 2020 was made worse by an increasing sense of gloomy doom with covid cases on the rise not a month to remember fondly but how much worse would it have been had the epidemic started in October for example with March 20 instead being Dec 19! 

[Earthshine]

February 2019 seemed to have fantastic daylight hours despite being a winter month.  Cloudy days during the winter really do significantly shorten the perceived day length since the sun spends much more of its time close to the horizon (the sun at its highest point in December is the same as the sun's altitude at 7:30pm in June).

[cheeky_monkey]

On 14/05/2022 at 02:37, Dangerous55019 said:

Morning @ANYWEATHER

Funny isn’t it? Most normal people (like your good self) are all saying exactly the same, where as I just want to crawl into a cave or a hole until after the solstice. 
I swear I should have been born a bat or a mole, or some other darkness loving creature.

Yet once we’re passed the solstice, I don’t see it as a slippery slope, I tend to feel like it’s a chance to freewheel, after a long hard, and torturous climb. 
Oh the joys of being a reverse SAD sufferer. Lol 

Ahhh well… Here’s hoping for a summer of thunderstorms storms to make it more bearable. ?⛈

when i was a kid and into my teens i used to love autumn and winter and the darker evenings..as February rolled on there was a tinge of sadness as the days lengthened and spring approached..however i did also love love the long days of high summer..as i have got older and since i moved to Canada i now dislike the decent into Autumn as i know each winter is going to be a long cold and dark affair...it feels a lot longer than a UK winter (because technically winter is 6-7 months rather than 3)...but even though im on the same latitude the darkness of the days seems to last a lot longer also not just the cold..its got to the point where im thinking of spending  the month of February in the UK just to get a break from the dark

[Summer8906]

10 hours ago, Earthshine said:

February 2019 seemed to have fantastic daylight hours despite being a winter month.  Cloudy days during the winter really do significantly shorten the perceived day length since the sun spends much more of its time close to the horizon (the sun at its highest point in December is the same as the sun's altitude at 7:30pm in June).

An interesting fact there, so 7.30pm in June would be presumably equivalent to about 7pm in the second half of May.

So at  around 7 maybe we should look out and think that "this is literally as good as it ever gets in December!"

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, cheeky_monkey said:

when i was a kid and into my teens i used to love autumn and winter and the darker evenings..as February rolled on there was a tinge of sadness as the days lengthened and spring approached..however i did also love love the long days of high summer..as i have got older and since i moved to Canada i now dislike the decent into Autumn as i know each winter is going to be a long cold and dark affair...it feels a lot longer than a UK winter (because technically winter is 6-7 months rather than 3)...but even though im on the same latitude the darkness of the days seems to last a lot longer also not just the cold..its got to the point where im thinking of spending  the month of February in the UK just to get a break from the dark

I never used to mind the dark days of winter; in the 80s and early 90s when I was at school or university I used to like the winter months.

Possibly for me it's a psychological association, I had several challenging periods in autumn and winter during my 20s and 30s and perhaps that has now tainted the darker months permanently - as if the darkness "reminds me" of those earlier times. Or perhaps there are physiological reasons for it - the body has more need for light to perform biochemical processes as you get older.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Summer8906

[damianslaw]

4 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

I never used to mind the dark days of winter; in the 80s and early 90s when I was at school or university I used to like the winter months.

Possibly for me it's a psychological association, I had several challenging periods in autumn and winter during my 20s and 30s and perhaps that has now tainted the darker months permanently - as if the darkness "reminds me" of those earlier times. Or perhaps there are physiological reasons for it - the body has more need for light to perform biochemical processes as you get older.

Tend to associate Sept to Nov with less pleasing times generally. 

[Dangerous55019]

It’s 03:45 in the morning!
It’s what most normal people would call the middle of the night.
But there is no escaping the light at this time of year. 
this is my current view looking north.

[Weather-history]

Lingering twilight

[Bogman]

Can't believe we're almost half way through the chuffin year.

[Seasonal Trim]

Although I love the Summer and I'm thoroughly enjoying this seasonal weather we're currently experiencing. I've still got one eye on the decent into the Autumn period. From the 26th of this month in my part of the woods, the slow decent towards Winter begins. 

For someone like me, who enjoys what all seasons bring, my favourite has to be after the summer solstice, the sites and smells of Autumn, I can't wait! 

[Stewart M]

Amazing to think the longest day is almost upon us and then the days start to shorten again.  Time seems to just fly by sometimes

[Dangerous55019]

Here it is folks… The day of the solstice!
10:13 is the time… I’ll see you all on the other side of it. 

[Boydie]

This year is going quickly. Or I’m just getting older (is 42 old?). Still lots of good usable light and weather to come.

[davehsug]

On 20/06/2022 at 07:08, Weather-history said:

Lingering twilight

Love these videos. Although less than 30 miles further South, the hilly nature of our area and the light pollution means I can't see it. I suppose I could spend the night on a hill, but maybe not!

[Dangerous55019]

10:13 on Tuesday the 21st of June 2021, and the summer solstice has just occurred!
Yes folks, the pendulum has finally reached the end of its stroke! ️
Today we have got nine hours and twenty seven minutes more daylight than we had back in December! 

As a sufferer of summer S.A.D. I for one look forward shortening days, gathering mists, ripening fruits, and look forward to welcoming the increasing darkness; like an old friend returning. ?
I’m fully aware that summer has still got one or two nasty tricks up it’s sleeve, but this is an important milestone/turning point that needs celebrating.

The summer sun is fading as the year grows oldAnd darker days are drawing near…