ManiaMuse

Cycling into work was pretty depressing with it still being dark by the time I got to work and misty rain that just soaks through everything. But then the sun magically made an appearance so went for a stroll at lunchtime. How bad is Thursday going to be with the wind? Not much chat about it in the model thread, just lots of toy throwing.

That time of year where the differences from day to day stop being so noticeable. Sunset doesn't get any earlier now, 12 minutes still to lose in the mornings which drag out until the end of December. Cloud cover makes a big difference to how light it actually feels. Obviously grey, dank weather like we have at the moment doesn't help things. It's a while until it feels like we start to make progress but one step at a time.

Feels like the strongest gusts of the winter so far here. Cat is very spooked by the house creaking. Suprised so little was mentioned about this in the forecasts.

Only another 2 minutes of evening light to lose here now. Sunset time just stays about the same for quite a while but at least it doesn't get much worse.

Personally I would prefer mild, dry and sunny. However that combination is about as rare as the winters that many in the model thread dream of.

Cloud levels in the afternoon makes a big difference to how it feels during this time of year. The model thread is always some light amusement to read first thing in the morning.

Cold rain is the worst kind of rain for cycling in. On the plus side we do seem to be having quite a good run of mostly dry weekends recently.

Yeah this time of year is the worse but it isn't too long before we start the long drag back to longer days. Sunsets only get another 10 minutes earlier here which isn't really that noticeable in the grand scheme of things. With a bit of luck we will have more clearer days like today during the cold spell which really makes a difference to how dark the afternoons/evenings feel. People start putting their Christmas lights up around now which makes December a bit more bearable. It is a shame that we take them down when we get to January/February. My tip is to make sure you get outside as much as possible during the daytime, even when it is not sunny. Just getting outside for 20-30 minutes at lunchtime can improve your mood.

Only about 3 weeks left untill sunset stops getting later! Just another 14 minutes of evening light left to lose where I am so it stops feeling like such a drastic change in the light levels compared to in September when we are losing the most daylight day-on-day. Still quite a drudge until late February when things start to feel noticeably better but we will get there eventually.

We keep plowing through the days until things start to get better. The first date I look to is around 13 December when the sunsets stop getting later. Only 4 weeks away, we will be there soon enough.

Yes saw it from the office in the city this afternoon as well. Sky looked really bizarre, pitch black in one direction under the heavy thick cloud and a really brilliant yellow colour in the other half of the sky.

It was lovely and sunny this morning then suddenly fog rolled in from nowhere really rapidly.

It's a strange one, been fairly dry most of the day. Roads were actually drier when I cycled home this evening than they were this morning. But the Mersey has burst its banks near Stockport in the same places that it did a couple of years ago.

There was some heavy rain early in the morning around 4-5am but otherwise the rain shadow seems to have been pretty effective around Greater Manchester. Just a wet and windy day but nothing unusual. Crazy to think that just over the hills there are places that are getting absolutely hammered.

For a change it looks like other areas will be getting the worst of it. There will be some rain but it won't stall like in the warning areas.

Like a cup of tea when you add milk.

Describes my feelings to a tee with those timings. By December you kind of just accept the darkness but the run up to it through October and November is so depressing. Also agree about the ridiculous situation with the clocks. Stupidly early sunrises in March and wasted daylight in the evenings.

Put the lights on my bike this morning when I set off at 7.45am because it was so dark with the rain. Always one of the first things I associate with the dark season. Lights will probably stay on the bike until mid March now. It's a long drag and it only gets worse before it gets better

Yeah definitely. A few people at my workplace were on holiday in Cornwall/Devon that weekend and managed to escape our washout. Not quite sure how this is a storm though, the leaves on the trees are barely moving at the moment.

Actually stopped raining now and looks a bit brighter and not too bad on the radar. Better than last weekend at least. Looks like the south is getting it worst for a change.

One of the worst days for rain in a long time. Coming after yesterday which was one of the worst days for rain in a long time. The whole day looking at the radar it looked like it was going to shift North a bit but for some reason it has never shifted and just been continuous rain all day. A day for the slugs.

Yes and tomorrow's sunset is equivalent to the sunset on the day after we put the clocks back an hour in October which makes it seem silly that we have to wait another two months before putting the clocks back forward.

Yeah cloud cover makes a big difference to how it feels. That being said the evenings are already at the equivalent of 21 November here and things do pick up quite quickly as we get later into the month. Mornings are pretty dark and depressing at the moment though.

Totally agree the timings for the clock changes are not balanced around the solstice and waste daylight. The mornings do get very dark towards the end of December/early January but lots of people are on holiday then anyway and we have had a few months to get used to the dark by then. Personally I would put the clocks back mid to late February rather than waiting until all the way at the end of March. By the time we put the clocks back it is light by 5am here in Manchester which is ridiculous given that for most people that light would be more welcome in the evenings.

Condensate pipe outside my house has frozen so could do with some warmer temperatures to defrost it. Boiler is on first floor and pipes are in an annoying place which is too high to reach safely with a jug of hot water. Thankfully I figured out it was easy to disconnect the condensate pipe from the boiler which made the boiler happy to start up again. Got the condensate dripping into a bucket which is a bit annoying but less annoying than having no heating. Looking at forecast pipes outside will probably not defrost naturally until Sunday.