The changing daylight hours thread

[MP-R]

Definite difference now. This time of year doesn’t quite have the glumness that December does, helped majorly recently by the sunny days. Very grey today though - a kind of lights on all day sort of day.

[Wold Topper]

13 minutes ago, MP-R said:

Definite difference now. This time of year doesn’t quite have the glumness that December does, helped majorly recently by the sunny days. Very grey today though - a kind of lights on all day sort of day.

A positive Notable difference now but today was a 'lights on' afternoon, shame really because yesterday we nearly had a modicum of daylight at 5pm

Edited January 23, 2022 by Wold Topper

[damianslaw]

Oh dear another woefully dull day - lights on all day kind of day, and plenty more to come this week!

Edited January 24, 2022 by damianslaw

[Summer8906]

Some sun still shining on the tops of the trees until around 16:41 tonight, perhaps 45 minutes later than the darkness at its worst in mid-December. Reminiscent of the light level around Halloween, in fact, with the unseasonable mild, the whole effect was rather like late October with the leaves removed from the trees. The next 10 days or so will give us a taste of what December late afternoons would be like if we kept on BST all year.

A reminder that despite the rather uninspiring forecast, we're finally starting to drift towards the end of the annual disappointment that is the northwest European winter, a season which excels at darkness but disappoints with frost and snow.

In better news, today might be the day when daylight is first detectable at 18:00, for the first time since about Halloween again. Will post back if this is so...

Edited January 27, 2022 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

Some sun still shining on the tops of the trees until around 16:41 tonight, perhaps 45 minutes later than the darkness at its worst in mid-December. Reminiscent of the light level around Halloween, in fact, with the unseasonable mild, the whole effect was rather like late October with the leaves removed from the trees. The next 10 days or so will give us a taste of what December late afternoons would be like if we kept on BST all year.

A reminder that despite the rather uninspiring forecast, we're finally starting to drift towards the end of the annual disappointment that is the northwest European winter, a season which excels at darkness but disappoints with frost and snow.

In better news, today might be the day when daylight is first detectable at 18:00, for the first time since about Halloween again. Will post back if this is so...

Daylight was indeed faintly visible to the west just after 18:00. Slowly signs of light at the end of the tunnel...

[Cheshire Freeze]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

Some sun still shining on the tops of the trees until around 16:41 tonight, perhaps 45 minutes later than the darkness at its worst in mid-December. Reminiscent of the light level around Halloween, in fact, with the unseasonable mild, the whole effect was rather like late October with the leaves removed from the trees. The next 10 days or so will give us a taste of what December late afternoons would be like if we kept on BST all year.

A reminder that despite the rather uninspiring forecast, we're finally starting to drift towards the end of the annual disappointment that is the northwest European winter, a season which excels at darkness but disappoints with frost and snow.

In better news, today might be the day when daylight is first detectable at 18:00, for the first time since about Halloween again. Will post back if this is so...

Personally nothing depresses me more than light at 4am.

[cheeky_monkey]

1 hour ago, CreweCold said:

Personally nothing depresses me more than light at 4am.

if you are a morning person like me ..id love it to be light at 4am..i don't give a monkeys how dark or light it is in the evenings..dark mornings i loathe

[mb018538]

10 more days until we cross over the 5pm sunset threshold...things really accelerating now with over 3 minutes of light gained per day 

[Nick L]

14 hours ago, CreweCold said:

Personally nothing depresses me more than light at 4am.

I agree. Especially during heatwaves. Struggling to sleep, then that sinking feeling where you can see the light filtering through the curtains already.

[damianslaw]

1 hour ago, mb018538 said:

10 more days until we cross over the 5pm sunset threshold...things really accelerating now with over 3 minutes of light gained per day 

Mid February marks the turning point for me. Coincides with light levels holding on to about half 5 and on clear evenings lingering light until 6pm. Always remember half term Feb holidays having that turning off the darkness feel about them. Also it's when in old folk saying 'winter's back breaks', yes can still have freezing weather thereafter but generally on average the worst of winter's cold is less likely once get past middle of Feb. 

I have the same feeling opposite end of the year, mid August sees change to loss of high summer feeling and light levels drop markedly. 

Right now I'm still firmly in winter mode, in 3 weeks it changes..

[ManiaMuse]

For me we are definitely past the worst of it. We have a whole hour of extra light in the evenings for a start. Dusk starts to last longer as well as the sun starts setting from a higher position in the sky.

Just shame we have to wait so long for the clocks to change. We are already at the point where if we changed the clocks now sunset would still be later than at the point when they went back in October.

[kold weather]

On 27/01/2022 at 19:20, cheeky_monkey said:

if you are a morning person like me ..id love it to be light at 4am..i don't give a monkeys how dark or light it is in the evenings..dark mornings i loathe

I'm not a morning person but I still much prefer light mornings than not. Makes it much easier to get up.

Not light yet when I wake but by the time I'm getting ready it's no longer totally pitch black and even that modest amount of light makes life somewhat more bearable.

January is still such a hard month though, none of the Xmas lights, still very dark mornings. The sunny weather has made it far more manageable this year though compared to the usual huge cloud levels.

[Nick L]

2 hours ago, ManiaMuse said:

For me we are definitely past the worst of it. We have a whole hour of extra light in the evenings for a start. Dusk starts to last longer as well as the sun starts setting from a higher position in the sky.

Just shame we have to wait so long for the clocks to change. We are already at the point where if we changed the clocks now sunset would still be later than at the point when they went back in October.

But then we'd be dark until half 8 in the morning. No thanks!

[Wynn D Woo]

On 29/01/2022 at 08:48, ManiaMuse said:

For me we are definitely past the worst of it. We have a whole hour of extra light in the evenings for a start. Dusk starts to last longer as well as the sun starts setting from a higher position in the sky.

Just shame we have to wait so long for the clocks to change. We are already at the point where if we changed the clocks now sunset would still be later than at the point when they went back in October.

Yes it is absolutely ridiculous we have to wait until the end of March to change the clocks. Such a waste of leisure time...

[ManiaMuse]

On 29/01/2022 at 11:28, Nick L said:

But then we'd be dark until half 8 in the morning. No thanks!

I understand that morning light lags evening light. But by the time the clocks change we can be having sunrise as early as 5.45am depending on when the last weekend in March falls. In October we seem to be happy with waiting until sunrise is as late at 8am before changing the clocks.

[cheeky_monkey]

On 29/01/2022 at 04:18, kold weather said:

 

January is still such a hard month though, none of the Xmas lights, still very dark mornings. 

not in Canada lots of people and facilities leave their Xmas lights up until March

On 29/01/2022 at 04:28, Nick L said:

But then we'd be dark until half 8 in the morning. No thanks!

welcome to my world ..in the depths of winter sunrise isn't until after 9am..and they had a vote late 2021 to leaving summertime hours all year which would mean sunrise after 10 am in the winter 

[Glaswegianblizzard]

On 29/01/2022 at 08:48, ManiaMuse said:

For me we are definitely past the worst of it. We have a whole hour of extra light in the evenings for a start. Dusk starts to last longer as well as the sun starts setting from a higher position in the sky.

Just shame we have to wait so long for the clocks to change. We are already at the point where if we changed the clocks now sunset would still be later than at the point when they went back in October.

If we did that then here in Glasgow it would be dark until after 9am still - further north would be worse.

But yes, definite change in afternoon light now. Still have some light at 5pm here.

[ManiaMuse]

1 hour ago, Glaswegianblizzard said:

If we did that then here in Glasgow it would be dark until after 9am still - further north would be worse.

But yes, definite change in afternoon light now. Still have some light at 5pm here.

What I am saying is that the clock changes are not equally balanced around the equinoxes. They should really change a few weeks earlier in March and it would still be perfectly light enough for the school runs in Scotland, perhaps the 2nd weekend of March.

[Methuselah]

2 hours ago, ManiaMuse said:

What I am saying is that the clock changes are not equally balanced around the equinoxes. They should really change a few weeks earlier in March and it would still be perfectly light enough for the school runs in Scotland, perhaps the 2nd weekend of March.

Either the last Sunday in February or the fist Sunday in March would do me.

[damianslaw]

On 31/01/2022 at 15:08, cheeky_monkey said:

not in Canada lots of people and facilities leave their Xmas lights up until March

welcome to my world ..in the depths of winter sunrise isn't until after 9am..and they had a vote late 2021 to leaving summertime hours all year which would mean sunrise after 10 am in the winter 

We have 'winter lights' in Windermere village centre. Last year they went up first weekend November and came down mid Feb. This year they went up a month later but will stay up until mid Feb. The taking down of lights 5 Jan mark end Christmas is very premature..  if ever there is time we need light and cheering up its January and much of February.

[ManiaMuse]

4 hours ago, damianslaw said:

We have 'winter lights' in Windermere village centre. Last year they went up first weekend November and came down mid Feb. This year they went up a month later but will stay up until mid Feb. The taking down of lights 5 Jan mark end Christmas is very premature..  if ever there is time we need light and cheering up its January and much of February.

My Christmas tree is still up in my living room spreading bad luck

[damianslaw]

3 minutes ago, ManiaMuse said:

My Christmas tree is still up in my living room spreading bad luck

I was wrong in my statement the winter lights were switched off yesterday sadly.. they normally stay on until half term holidays. It is making for a rather sad dark village centre especially given many restaurants and cafe bars etc remain closed for the winter season. 

3 minutes ago, ManiaMuse said:

My Christmas tree is still up in my living room spreading bad luck

Ah that's the reason for lack of cold and snow! 

Edited February 2, 2022 by damianslaw

[Summer8906]

On 02/02/2022 at 13:46, ManiaMuse said:

What I am saying is that the clock changes are not equally balanced around the equinoxes. They should really change a few weeks earlier in March and it would still be perfectly light enough for the school runs in Scotland, perhaps the 2nd weekend of March.

Evenings are clearly lighter now, with even Fort William achieving a post-5pm sunset. Notable also how the mornings are already starting to draw out down here, it's already semi-light by 7am.  The rate of increase of daylight in the next few weeks is quite dramatic, and they could probably get away with beginning BST at the start of March.

For example, even in far-north Inverness, sunrise on March 5 is 07.00. Switch to BST then and it becomes 08.00, which is earlier than the latest sunrise down here in Hampshire.

But I'm not too bothered about it really, as at least this time of year the daylight is increasing and it isn't so long to go until BST. The thing that does annoy me a bit is how early we switch to GMT, at the end of October, leading to some very lop sided days (sunrise before 7am, sunset before 5pm). So the change I would most want to make is delaying the onset of GMT by two or three weeks. Essentially, minimise the period when solar noon is before 12.00 local time. But thankfully about nine months still to go before the time of the year this becomes an issue anyway!

Edited February 7, 2022 by Summer8906

[cheeky_monkey]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

Evenings are clearly lighter now, with even Fort William achieving a post-5pm sunset. Notable also how the mornings are already starting to draw out down here, it's already semi-light by 7am.  The rate of increase of daylight in the next few weeks is quite dramatic, and they could probably get away with beginning BST at the start of March.

For example, even in far-north Inverness, sunrise on March 5 is 07.00. Switch to BST then and it becomes 08.00, which is earlier than the latest sunrise down here in Hampshire.

But I'm not too bothered about it really, as at least this time of year the daylight is increasing and it isn't so long to go until BST. The thing that does annoy me a bit is how early we switch to GMT, at the end of October, leading to some very lop sided days (sunrise before 7am, sunset before 5pm). So the change I would most want to make is delaying the onset of GMT by two or three weeks. Essentially, minimise the period when solar noon is before 12.00 local time. But thankfully about nine months still to go before the time of the year this becomes an issue anyway!

we move our clocks forward in early March..i prefer to have them change the same as the UK..i dont like moving back to a post 8am sunrise esp after it has been post 8am since Mid October..it really is quite depressing when you feel like you have turned the corner only to be plunged back into morning darkness even if it is only for 3 weeks or so.

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, cheeky_monkey said:

we move our clocks forward in early March..i prefer to have them change the same as the UK..i dont like moving back to a post 8am sunrise esp after it has been post 8am since Mid October..it really is quite depressing when you feel like you have turned the corner only to be plunged back into morning darkness even if it is only for 3 weeks or so.

Sounds like, presumably due to your timezone, you get much darker mornings than southern England where sunrise is only post 8am for a few weeks between mid Dec and mid Jan, or so.  (Also looks like Edmonton is further north than I expected, more like the latitude of Manchester than that of London, which would contribute to shorter days).

However we have to endure more than three months of pre-5pm sunsets, from Halloween to the end of last week, which thankfully have just about finished. Guessing your timezone therefore doesn't have such dark evenings at least?

The UK seems to be unusual in that respect, being in the extreme east of its timezone. Wonder how many other cities on our latitude see sunset as early as 4pm in Dec? 

Looks like Warsaw, only slightly north of London, is on CET, not EET as I might have expected, meaning that even now the sun is setting only just after 4.30, and at its worst it was 3.23pm! Somewhere with even darker winter evenings than the UK... really sounds like Poland ought to be on EET.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Summer8906