The changing daylight hours thread

[markyo]

On 13/12/2021 at 07:54, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

I must be a bit of an oddball as I am a little disappointed that we have now reached that peak. I love the long dark evenings as they are more atmospheric, quieter and I tend to sleep better. Whilst I like spring and summer as much as anyone does, I do think the long dark evenings are underrated. Though I do understand about dark mornings as it can at times make it difficult to get out of bed. So swings and roundabouts really.

I think the daylight hours around the equinoxes would be a good compromise as day and night are of more or less equal length.

No oddball at all. Just someone who likes a good nights sleep! Summer months for so many is a sleep deprived season, humid nights, the early bright sunlight, 4am chorus, the list is long. For me nothing can touch this time of year, just feel so much more alert and healthy, love it. Sadly the journey back to misery has begun....

[matty40s]

8 hours ago, Jan said:

Can't wait for the lighter nights

Unfortunately, I woke up last night, thought "bloomin heck, I'm gonna be late for work as it was so light". Thought my alarm had failed to go off.

Shot out of bed, went to put kettle on, then grabbed phone....03.24.

Full moon amplified by fog.

Kettle off, back to bed for a few hours more.

[Summer Sun]

Shortest day today. Not long until we get the lighter evenings again!

[cheeky_monkey]

3 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Shortest day today. Not long until we get the lighter evenings again!

what about lighter mornings though?..they seem to lag behind by a week to ten days before we reach the bottom..i dont care about light evenings

[Bradley in Kent]

On 20/12/2021 at 17:20, markyo said:

No oddball at all. Just someone who likes a good nights sleep! Summer months for so many is a sleep deprived season, humid nights, the early bright sunlight, 4am chorus, the list is long. For me nothing can touch this time of year, just feel so much more alert and healthy, love it. Sadly the journey back to misery has begun....

It really is amazing how something such as light can affect us to such degree. It's also amazing how different we can react as I am the opposite to you. I seem to find in Summer I sleep less but feel more awake and have more energy in the day. In Winter, it's reversed, I sleep a lot more but feel groggy in the day then just want to go to bed again when it gets dark. I for one do not feel alert and healthy this time of year, although I do try!

Us humans are silly, most other mammals move off somewhere else when they don't like the conditions, Summer or Winter, or just go to bed for a few months!

[sarahng]

Just thank goodness it is the shortest day today - it will all get better (albeit slowly) from now on.  Roll on spring!!

[mb018538]

13 hours ago, sarahng said:

Just thank goodness it is the shortest day today - it will all get better (albeit slowly) from now on.  Roll on spring!!

What's made this year fly by even quicker is the fact that autumn has been so mild and fairly dry. Lessens the pain a bit.

2 more months of properly dark stuff and then a good 6 months of light to enjoy again, hurrah!

[Summer8906]

4 hours ago, mb018538 said:

What's made this year fly by even quicker is the fact that autumn has been so mild and fairly dry. Lessens the pain a bit.

2 more months of properly dark stuff and then a good 6 months of light to enjoy again, hurrah!

Perhaps not even 2 months, by mid February sunset is approaching 17:30.

I always find reaching 16:30 sunset (mid Jan) ends the most intensely dark, solstitial period of the year and reaching 17:00 sunset (opening days of Feb) means that the dark months, in general, are almost over - the latter being a particularly important milestone.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 02/12/2021 at 23:10, cheeky_monkey said:

the clock go forward here 1st week of march ...you are then robbed of an hour a daylight in the morning..which means you are plunged back into past 8am sunrises for another 2/3 weeks feels like a kick in the teeth when its been cold and dark for 4 months

Mind you on the UK's timezone, the sun is rising before 7am (winter time) by the start of March, so we could easily move forward to BST a month early. Mornings draw out dramatically during February. I find March and early November are the times when the days feel the most lop-sided, with too much morning daylight and not enough evening daylight.

Up to and including 1980 we used to switch to BST on, I think, the third Sunday in March. The last-Sunday-in-March pattern was established in 1981 - so anything to do with the Thatcher government I wonder?  "Thou shalt not enjoy yourselves with early-spring light evenings!"

Regarding the October change, that used to be the Sunday following the 4th Saturday, so the 23rd-29th, slightly worse than now, up to 1994. For example this year we'd have had an extra week of evening darkness at the end of October if we were still under the 1971-94 regime.

Something strange happened in 1995, which I have mentioned before I think, we switched to winter time on the 22nd Oct, the earliest date since the all-year-BST trial ended in 1971. Not sure why. Thankfully 1995 was one of the warmest and sunniest Octobers on record, which compensated for it being the darkest October for evening daylight of recent times!

Edited December 22, 2021 by Summer8906

[ManiaMuse]

Morning darkness has finally turned the corner as well now.

By the end of January you start to notice the change more. Just a shame we wait so long before putting the clocks forward again. We end up wasting so much morning light by the end of March.

[damianslaw]

Beginning to notice slight increase in light levels in the afternoon. Take today for instance despite it currently a bit overcast there is a chink of blue sky and there isn't a sense of a rapid descent into dusk. Compared to 2-3 weeks some days by half 3 were notably dusk like. The evenings do start to draw out quite quickly through January but the mornings barely so. Still it's a long time until the clocks go forward...

[mb018538]

Definitely a noticeable change now - it’s 4:30pm and only just getting dark. Onwards and upwards!

[Sunny76]

On 01/01/2022 at 12:00, ManiaMuse said:

Morning darkness has finally turned the corner as well now.

By the end of January you start to notice the change more. Just a shame we wait so long before putting the clocks forward again. We end up wasting so much morning light by the end of March.

Still a long way to go. No major improvements for longer daylight until early March.

 

[Wynn D Woo]

19 hours ago, mb018538 said:

Definitely a noticeable change now - it’s 4:30pm and only just getting dark. Onwards and upwards!

Yes very noticable now, starting to feel like we are getting some of the late afternoon back and not long before we start gaining the evenings...

[johnholmes]

Something lie 30 or so minutes increased daylight in this part of the world, mostly a pm gain

[ChannelThunder]

We've made it through the most dark and depressing two months of the year! Really noticeable too what with the clear skies every day at the moment. Time to begin to look forward to the clocks going forward, albeit that's still something like ten weeks away, but it'll soon come around now.

[damianslaw]

The clear skies we've had recently certainly doing wonders for light levels. Today it was still fairly light at 5pm despite sunset at 4.30pm. However, on Monday under grey leaden skies it was nearly dark by half 4. I've not been experiencing the long miserable dark feeling that lingers in an average year well into January. 

Edited January 20, 2022 by damianslaw

[cheeky_monkey]

its a weird lopsided situation in my location..the earliest sunset occurred on Dec 12th and we have gained 42 mins of daylight in the evening..however the latest sunrise occurred on Jan 2nd and have only gained 15 mins of daylight in the morning..which sucks for me as i do most of my walking in the morning between 6-7am so its still pitch black.

[kold weather]

As others have said the sunshine in recent weeks has done wonders for the evening and this year more than many I can really feel the nights starting to draw out.

Once we get more cloud again that progress nay well stop but we are probably deep enough past the shortest day that the ever onward march towards daylight won't be stopped for long even by cloudy/wet weather

[Frost HoIIow]

Not really noticed a big increase in daylight here yet. Especially on days like today where it's been completely dull and overcast. To be honest I don't feel like we are in the lighter half of the year until we surpass 12 hours daylight......so after mid March in this part of the country. From thereafter I'm in spring mode.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Frost HoIIow

[Weather Enthusiast91]

The later sunset becoming noticeable feels early this year, thanks to the lovely clear skies we have been having.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[ManiaMuse]

On 21/01/2022 at 20:00, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

The later sunset becoming noticeable feels early this year, thanks to the lovely clear skies we have been having.

 

Yeah this time of year it makes a huge difference in how light it seems if we have clear skies in the evenings. Last week was lovely although today felt a lot darker because it was cloudy and it goes from being twilight to dark quicker as well.

Sun is setting after 4.30pm here now. Next milestone for me is sunset after 5pm which we should get in about two weeks.

 

[Sunny76]

We’ve gained about an extra hour of evening daylight, but it’s still nowhere near the feel or longer evenings just yet. That doesn’t come around until early March, for me anyway.

To add to that, mornings are still painfully dark and dreary, even with a clear sky. Seen the moon a good number of times on my way to work this past week or so. 
 

Once we see the daylight creeping in around 6am, and post 6pm in the evenings, I feel this is where we start moving into a lighter time of year. 

[emmett garland]

The mornings are still fairly darkish but the real noticable evening extension of light is most notable between the 24th and 29th of January so good times ahead but its an amazing sequence  of high pressure sticking around and I,ve mentioned it before and WOW if we had these syptontics in July.

[damianslaw]

As others have said, fine clear skies in the afternoon help significantly to delay the rapid descent into darkness at this time of year, and lift the spirits. Conversely drab overcast grey skies bring a quick onset. Today brought the latter, never really felt light all day, and is making for a long evening it seems..

Mornings are still very dark, as dark as they are in early December.

Its not until we see sunset around 6pm I feel the turn is made... on a clear sunny fine day by late February we are in such territory, another month to go then before I feel we shake off the winter feel. Mother nature though does begin to shake off the winter coat through February.

Late January for me feels like the low point in general feel though, just when you think the gloomy winter feeling will never end it suddenly does.. 'its always darkest before the dawn' so the saying goes..