When Does It Get Dark Where You Are ?

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

If you are that bothered about BST or GMT, be self sufficient and live off the land, then it wont really matter what time it is.

[Essan]

Here's a map of the world time zones

There's possibly an argument for saying Ireland should be on November Time - ie shift one time zone west - and indeed that France and Spain ought really be on Zulu Time (GMT) but how on Earth do people argue that Britain should move to Alpha Time (CET) - ie shift one time zone east? It's total nonsense.

Bearing in mind tie zones are based on the premise that midday is at 12.00 and midnight at 00.00 (we can only change midday and midnight by moving the planet or upping sticks and towing Britain to another part of the planet :lol: )

[Osbourne One-Nil]

There does appear to be an opening for J time. Perhaps we could use this to our advantage?

[Bottesford]

Here's a map of the world time zones

<snip>

There's possibly an argument for saying Ireland should be on November Time - ie shift one time zone west - and indeed that France and Spain ought really be on Zulu Time (GMT) but how on Earth do people argue that Britain should move to Alpha Time (CET) - ie shift one time zone east? It's total nonsense.

Bearing in mind tie zones are based on the premise that midday is at 12.00 and midnight at 00.00 (we can only change midday and midnight by moving the planet or upping sticks and towing Britain to another part of the planet :lol: )

Quite agree - we *should* be on GMT putting solar noon at noon and so on. Problem is, our perception of what time of day it is is so ingrained that it works out easier to move the clocks than to change peoples view on what time of day 6pm 'feels'...

11:30pm is my usual weekday bedtime - meaning 10pm still feels early, but gone midnight feels late. I eat dinner around 7-7:30 but if I eat at gone half 8 it feels late (or pre 6pm feels early). The same is no doubt true for everyone (albeit with different times). All that is dictated by my working day (0830-1730) and to stray from it isn't really possible.

So with our present work patterns (yes I know there are shift workers and so on but I'm talking about the majority of the workforce, students, kids, etc.) we either accept sleeping through a fair chunk of daylight and coming home not too far from dusk or we move the clocks (as we do now).

[Guest]

Here's a map of the world time zones

There's possibly an argument for saying Ireland should be on November Time - ie shift one time zone west - and indeed that France and Spain ought really be on Zulu Time (GMT) but how on Earth do people argue that Britain should move to Alpha Time (CET) - ie shift one time zone east? It's total nonsense.

Bearing in mind tie zones are based on the premise that midday is at 12.00 and midnight at 00.00 (we can only change midday and midnight by moving the planet or upping sticks and towing Britain to another part of the planet :lol: )

It is interesting from that map how many countries choose to take the time zone one to the east of where they should properly be.

[Cymro]

The nights are drawing in quickly here now and to top it all off as if on cue haha the lampost has also decided to turn off :lol: so my street is brilliantly pitch black by half past eight which is really nice considering, but what will I do in the winter when it comes to looking for snow? Time to buy a light to screw ont the side of the house methinks!>

[Summer of 95]

Looks like the southern part of Argentina uses GMT-3, when it's well west of the GMT-4 meridian. And it's on a similar latitude south to what we are north. And at present they don't use daylight saving, although they did in the past. Using http://www.sunrisesunset.com for Rio Gallegos (51.6S, 69.2W using GMT-3)

Winter solstice rises 09.43, sets 17.32

Summer solstice rises 05.15, sets 21.54

Sunset after 8pm from 9 October to 16 March (over 5 months)

After 7pm from 2 September to 12 April (over 7 months)

Before 6pm 13 May to 24 July (civil twilight never ends before 6pm!)

Sunrise after 8am from 3 April to 7 September- in early September and April it's dark till 8am but light past 7pm, rather than the British late Feb/early March light at 6am, dark by 6pm which wastes hours of daylight each year.

This seems so much better than forcing pre-5pm darkness for months on end, the light evenings for more than half the year make up for the late sunrises in the winter half (which never reach 10am anyway). And they currently do this without changing the clocks- they can get 7 months of light evenings without doing so simply by fixing on a time zone to the east.

[Isolated Frost]

Pitch black at 4:30pm right now, soon that'll be 4pm...

[Lancashire Lass]

Dark by 4:30pm. Nights are definitely drawing in.

[andrew.nixon@lineone.net]

starts gong dark about 4.15 and dark for around 4.30-4.45pm proper messes with my body clock

Perth now pitch black by 16.40 and I feel my SAD coming on in full force.

It is interesting from that map how many countries choose to take the time zone one to the east of where they should properly be.

Indeed Catch. Thanks for that chart Essan, a real eye opener.