Bottesford

Summer deffo the best but swiftly followed by spring as you've got all the good stuff still to come. Plus spring has a lot of interesting variety and ever increasing light. Autumn - bah, my least favourite. Leaves look nice but otherwise its just decay of everything - light, temperatures, plants, fun, freedom of outdoors etc. Winter beats it as you can get exciting snow and such - plus just after it follows spring!

Met some Australians here and they're stunned by how late it stays light - something you certainly don't get there! Everyone of course loving it, as am I - total freedom to enjoy the day without worrying about it getting dark - well not until almost time to head to bed anyway. So so so much easier. I'm up early (like 0430) to see a client tomorrow - how glad am I it's this time of year - a gazzillion times easier to drag yourself out of bed after only 4-5 hours sleep. Don't want to think about how hard it'd be in January! ugh even uttering that 'J' word fills me with dread - long live the living time of year!

It's been wonderful to have experienced some proper summer style warmth in Berlin knowing there is still over a month of it still getting lighter. Frequently in the UK we're still trying to shake the winter chill off right up to the solstice!

Lets all be very glad the above 3 posters have zero control of our weather!!

Air is very hazy over here too. Yesterday was hazy but sun was still strong. Today is haze is much thicker and still no wind at all. Lovely temperatures but not sure about what I'm breathing!

1. Yes but it isn't June yet and as of today sunrise & sunset times are much more suited to when people are awake. Sunrise pre 6am but sunset pre 7pm is not efficient with daylight in the current way society operates. The DST change is at its most useful from now till mid May (and again in August & September). Why does the "days are long enough in June anyway" always be the first point on this? Think of the other inbetween months too! 2. I'd agree - I'm happy to stay on this timezone all the time. It makes it so much easier to communicate with colleagues (and friends) in Asia. For the next many months both my colleague & I will work shifts that cross over by 5 hours instead of 4. Much more useful! 3. What about the other clock shift then? The sudden plunging of the evening rush hour into darkness is horrendous on the roads. I'd say if you can't get up 1 hour earlier then something is deffo wrong with you! For someone who is posting on a forum at 0353 you certainly weaken your argument! Try going to bed closer to sunset rather than sunrise and you'll find it much easier to get your 5-a-day sleep in full.

I'm starting to get similar issues in my flat. It came completely bare with no lights, no curtains, nothing. Installed blinds to the small lower windows in the bedroom but the large upper window will require something pretty big to keep out the light. Mostly its no issue - it faces SSW so only (so far) on weekend lie-ins are we getting sunblasted. Not quite sure how it'll be by June mind! Loving finishing work in the light now - feels so much nicer. Now I finish at 6pm instead of 5pm it's taking that bit longer. Previously it'd be Feb that'd take me from twilight to full light but now it's March. Not such a fan of 9-6 working hours - preferred starting and finishing earlier and working better with the light.

Iceland is deffo not that cold - for its latitude it is very mild in winter but cool in summer. There's even less temperature variation from season to season than in the UK although the change in daylight is much more extreme. For me I like a somewhat more continental feel to things than we get in the UK. I do enjoy the proper cold in winter (although not for months on end) and of course a reliably warm summer is much better than the lottery we get in the UK. I've just completed my first winter in Berlin and it was exactly how I like it - we had a couple of weeks of very cold conditions dipping to -13c with snow all around for the whole cold period. It then warmed up rapidly and we've just had dry, sunny & mild weather ever since. Not quite sure if my ideal climate exists but I'd want a long very warm summer (25-30c most days) then a brief but very cold winter broken up with mild sunny bits. Certainly not months of 2c under lead skies (which is more normal for this location.. but not this year gladly).

Last year those cold easterlies badly affected June and we had a few drizzly periods (inc a weekend) in July but still a vast improvement on last year.

Look up the climate for this little place- suit you down to the ground! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_Island

I certainly had a sun warmed face after being out in it all day on Monday. A sort of mild afterglow during the evening - was lovely to feel again! Certainly a bit of UV does you a lot of good. Not too much of course...

Will be interested to see how this spring goes both here & in the UK. The constant Atlantic weather you've had has simply resulted in very dry, mostly mild/sunny conditions here (bar the two week extreme cold spell we got). Now you've settled a bit (and under the same high we have at the moment) and we're now looking at colder/wetter conditions moving in on Saturday. The high looks like it will drift further west and allows storms from a northerly airflow. So perhaps the rest of March will be poorer here (after being cloudless and close to 20c for a week not surprising!) but better later in spring.. I dunno but interesting finding out!

Primarily - lots & lots of sunshine - no low cloud, no Atlantic depressions. Temps 23-27c in general with some warmer/hotter days and just a few cooler days (but no sub 18c maxima). Some rain but not too much and coming from thunderstorms which appear on evenings when I don't intend to be outdoors too much! Think I'm more likely to get my wish this year...

Boy do I not miss the spring spoiler - North Sea low cloud! 14.4c here under clear skies. 20.6c yesterday!

Again as previously said - the difference applies not just to the solstice period but mid/late spring and late summer/early autumn when the energy savings from having light when more people are awake is quite significant. There are few of us who have the power to shift the entire timing of the daily cycle of life for society as a whole - so this is a fair compromise. But still - Europe should follow the US clock move timings for sure!

Easily possible it won't happen - well at least away from the south east corner. I didn't record above 30c in many years since 2006 (see sig) - even last year we just missed it - well in my backyard anyway. Now I've moved I'm pretty much sure I'll see 30c this summer - or even spring - and probably on quite a few occasions!

Try Iceland - went there around the summer solstice a few years back. Magical it was! Finished a late dinner and drink in a restaurant with the sun streaming in at 11pm.. went to a club till 2am and walked back as the sun came up again. Messes with the mind a bit though!

2 more days and I'm clear of 6pm too. At last sunset after work has ended! Good riddance to short days!

How much electricity is consumed from 6pm-7pm during the average March for electrical lighting? How does it compare to usage 6am-7am? This is why its an issue...

The problem is most of us cannot choose the hours that we work. 9-5 isn't really GMT compatible in summer (unless you like getting up with the sun and clock watching waiting for it to be time to get the bus to work) but your customers still want stuff at 4:30pm so if you turn up at 7am and are gone at 3pm who's going to sort the problem out? I had exactly this issue only today but in reverse when the IT staff at our client were nowhere to be seen at 3:10pm so software testing ground to a halt when we hit an issue. Until tomorrow. I totally agree that we should all move our hours to suit the sun but its simply not that easy to actually do in reality. Society is very much skewed that most stuff happens in the PM part of the day so of course when more light is available in summer lets put it into the evening instead of at 3-4am in the morning! Sure its only numbers on a clock but its embedded in our brains - 6pm feels like 6pm.. 8pm feels like 8pm.. you know what I mean? Its far easier to spend 5 mins changing the clocks than to change bus timetables, shop opening hours and so on twice a year!

It's not about how much a certain group of people should pay or have their life quality improved/reduced. It is simply down to saving energy by having daylight present (as much as is possible) at times when the majority of people are awake. This reduces the energy required for electrical lighting. If you look at most groups of people - working adults, children at school, babies, students, pensioners, the unemployed and so on you could probably say 8am-8pm would be the time with the most people awake, perhaps an hour later at the weekends. Certainly the period noon to 7pm - barring shift workers - I can't think of any group of people who are asleep in those times - even those that like really long lie ins!

It's not just about moving clocks to suit the whims of 9-5 worker you've got energy considerations too. Having it light, thus not requiring electrical lighting, when most people are awake makes more sense than having it at 4-6am when most are not awake!

Many talk about this being your worst winter and I can totally believe that. But for me this is the *best* winter I've ever gone through! 2 solid weeks of sub-zero temps and snow with it hitting -13c one night. Then since then an early spring - sunshine, dry and mild days, cool nights. Just how I like my winters - short & very sharp!

Thing is its tricky to just shift your hours to suit in many jobs. Although I have some freedom to choose my hours, if I did 0700-1500 Berlin time that'd be 0600-1400 UK which would essentially make me unavailable during the entire afternoon for UK clients. And even if I could do it, the wife's job is 0900-1800 no flexibility so would be pointless. Same goes for many people here which then when they want to meet in a bar at 8pm for a few beers and I'd be almost ready for bed!

No I mean more simply you'd stop changing the clocks and stick to GMT all year. You'd then change working, school and every other pattern to run more with the sun - maybe adjusting based on season. But we all know that won't happen as shifting everything 2 hours earlier to make a better match simply won't work. Imagine working hours are now 7-3, lunch time is now 10:30-11am and those pubs that close still at 11pm now close at 9pm, the last bus is at 10pm not midnight but the first one is now 4am instead of 6am. Naughty films on tv now can show at 7pm, kids start school at 6:30am but finish at 1pm and an early dinner is 3pm. This is the same as BST+1 but somehow totally different... We have to change the clocks otherwise in summer it'd be an absurd waste of daylight given the standard time points our society runs on.