Bottesford

For sure we should move the clocks back in early March - far more people are awake at 1830 then 0630 so the light is better used in the evenings. It's especially noticeable for me now I work 9am-6pm (instead of 5pm) as I've still got several weeks of finishing work in darkness yet. As for BST+1 - well if you forget June for a moment and think about late March to mid May and mid August to October - those periods would benefit a lot from extra evening light when more people are awake doing things that need light. When we talk about this people tend to immediately think about those few weeks around the solstice which I can understand does mean some quite late sunsets. But this period doesn't last that long and for the benefits across spring/early autumn maybe worth it? More sensibly we should shift society's working patterns to match the rise & fall of the sun- why is it 9-5 we work? Surely 8-4 centralises it. Although really 7-3 is even better since a vast majority of people prefer to have their free time after they finish work. It's not much fun 'relaxing' whilst clock-watching before their shift starts! This is why the "why not just get up earlier?" argument just doesn't work when you work fixed times. It ain't gonna happen of course - the time of day is too engrained in our minds. Take here in Germany - shops open 10am-8pm and office hours seem to be 9/10am-6pm which is even more skewed in the wrong direction than the UK is! And there's Spain....

I'm exactly the same Azazel - Feb can feel like a massive release as the vice like grip of insufficient daylight begins to loosen. I'm noticing the sun being getting much higher in the sky now and it not being totally dark at 6pm when I finish work. The sunny/dry weather over here has made that even more noticable. Spring approaches!

Agree 100% with TWS's ranking and reasoning. The best time of year has to be mid spring to mid summer - increasing light and the freedom that brings, plenty to do in the garden and a feeling of 'clean' and 'improving' to the weather. Could divide the year into chunks: Aug-Oct - the decaying season. Nov-Jan - the dead season. Feb-Apr - the waking up season. May-Jul - the living season. Waking up & living have gotta be the best right?!

Over here - a fairly mild & benign first half but turned very cold the second half. -13c was our low and it stayed below freezing for almost two weeks. Two days it snowed a fair bit with a good couple of inches lying- but nothing stopped, transport worked perfectly and every pavement was made easy to walk on. What a contrast to the UK! In more ways than one... And now the thaw has arrived in earnest!

March would have been fine if it warmed up afterwards which (at least in Nottingham & the east) it didn't until the end of June. The good July came too late for the plants to catch up so much lower yields were the result.

Something seasonal would be nice - yes some cold spells in March/April but mixed in with warm ones too. The UK needs a bit of drying off too so a dry but not bone dry spring would no doubt help. Looking forward to a Berlin spring where day/night temperature swings are more pronounced than in the UK... Be certainly more interesting than this 3-7c day & night winter...

This one is the best site I've come across - got lots of info (solar noon height, rate of daylight increase/decrease) and useful tools (meeting planner very helpful for talking to people around the world): http://www.timeanddate.com

Exciting March with significant lying snow - did enjoy that. But the overall cold spring was problematic in the garden and it took until the end of June for any warm weather to show up. North Sea low cloud was an omnipresent problem during spring and early summer leading to many cool & cloudy days. My wedding weekend was treated to a big Atlantic depression (one of the only ones of the summer it seemed!) so my view of April-June period was generally poor. July was mostly great - a proper summer month at long last. I think the cold spring had tempered it somewhat as we didn't reach 30c and a number of days including notably a weekend were ruined by our friend North Sea low cloud. So nothing like the superb July 2006 but by far better than anything since. Decent slice of storms too. August was ok but nothing like June. After that I can't remember a lot as I was so busy getting ready to move country! Highlights - March & July. Low points - April-June cold low cloud issues.

I'm noticing it here - it isn't quite dark at 5pm. Sunset is about 15 mins later here than in Nottingham (well 45 mins earlier on 'real' time but timezones sort that out) so it does feel the post xmas struggle out of the darkness is lifting that tiny bit quicker. Luckily since xmas its been much brighter than in Nov/Dec so feels better but the lack of anything exciting weather wise (8c sunny or 5c cloudy is the norm - little rain, little wind) means I'm boring of this winter now. The longer daylight hours will be much welcomed to allow much more freedom to explore further afield - and of course to allow the ability to do more things after work.

To say its been mild in Berlin would be an understatement! These are my current stats: Average temperature: +6.5 °CAverage maximum temperature: +8.8 °CAverage minimum temperature: +4.1 °CMaximum temperature: +12.2 °C at 19:23:00 on 09 JanuaryMinimum temperature: +0.3 °C at 07:48:00 on 01 January To compare, Jan average min is -3c and max is +2c so we're some 6c above average. Now my sensor is located on my roof terrace so I did wonder if the building was affecting it but my stats aren't too far off these: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/EDDT/2014/1/14/MonthlyHistory.html Another sunny day and 7c already...

May-July is the best period of the year. Plenty of light and freedom to get out and about which is most welcomed after the limitations of winter. Everything is growing too although if you live near the North Sea this can often be a chilly grey period if you're unlucky so it isn't always so good! Least favourite is the drag that is January. It can be an interesting month if its properly cold but otherwise the annoying darkness (which was novel before xmas) is akin to shaking off an annoying head cold - it is going but wish it'd get a move on!

Another warm day here, 11.2c which is 9c above average. Think things are going to change next week however!

This flat is very warm and I don't have to cycle in it if I don't want to, so I say - bring it on! Keen to feel some real continental style cold.. (oh and heat in summer too of course!).

Meanwhile over here it has definitely been very mild as that chart shows! Averages for Dec are: 3c max, -1c min and for Jan: 2c max, -3c min. During Nov we had some average days (3-4c max, 0-1c min) but as we went into Dec days have been 5-10c and nights 0-5c. This week its been maxing around 9-11c (warmer tomorrow), last nights min was 8.4c although we had a 'cool' night of 2.4c the night before. Given I was all prepped for -5 to -16c this winter its quite a contrast! Not used hardly any heating, the windows are open now (its sunny) and my big winter coat is only out at night. I'm sure something will change soon...

Guessing easterners need to win somewhere... not forgotten that very chilly & cloudy start to last summer whilst the west baked!

Lets hope so eh - a decent summer is long overdue!

I'm glad of the smoking ban in so far I don't have to wash my hair & wash all my clothes every time I go to a pub. Although I do think there should be somewhere for smokers to go that is at least comfortable rather than being forced to stand next to the road etc. Personally I only smoke very small amounts (and not tobacco...) so hasn't really affected me negatively. The exception being when you're with other smokers who in summer (which have all been naff since the ban came in) want us all to sit outside despite how chilly it quickly gets. Thing that annoys me is the intolerance - stuff like "why should I even smell your smoke because it offends me blah blah" just before they get into their car and belch out stinking toxic fumes. As a cyclist I'd rather remove more cars from the road than smokers from the streets!