The changing daylight hours thread

[davehsug]

A treat to see light in the sky before 7 this morning.

[cheeky_monkey]

3 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

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.

correct Edmonton location in the MST time zone doesn't help..if it was furthest east in that time zone it would help morning sunrise times by about 30 mins..also if clocks went back 3 weeks later it would gain me another 30 mins ..so thus shortening the dark mornings in winter by a month to 6 weeks...which would be great

[Weather Enthusiast91]

I would personally prefer it if we didn't have to keep changing the clocks at all.

[Summer8906]

14 hours ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

I would personally prefer it if we didn't have to keep changing the clocks at all.

I think we probably need to change the clocks for a time. I would guess most would want BST in the summer, as otherwise, spring and summer evenings would become noticeably darker and outdoor activities would be restricted. It would always be dark at 9pm for example, even in the height of summer.

And while I prefer the BST timezone, I can see why we need to switch to GMT in December, January and early February at least, as otherwise the mornings would be very dark.

If we didn't change the clocks, we'd end up with either dark (relatively) summer evenings or dark winter mornings. I guess then it's a choice of which of these are least bad.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Summer8906

[TheOgre]

Today’s sunny afternoon will really help to make the daylight lengthening seem more prominent. It’s not as easy to notice when it’s dull.

[Summer8906]

It's nice to see it past 4pm and not even close to dark. Today could be the day I first see the sun past 5pm, this could have theoretically happened almost a week ago but it's been too darned cloudy!

Precisely why I wish the Atlantic would go away and take its murk and drizzle with it, and instead we get some clear cold northerlies or an anticyclone.

[Downburst]

If you do at sometime decide to keep the clocks in GMT+1 or BST and want to know what it would might be like. Well the West of Ireland is the place to check it out. 

Romford Essex Sunset today 17:04 and  Tralee Co. Kerry is today is 17:42 so only 22 mins away from BST is the norm in the winter for the west of Ireland anyway. Would be terribly dark in the mornings there if they kept BST with the Sun not rising until 9.48 AM in Mid Winter, which is pushing acceptability. 

 

 

[cheeky_monkey]

3 hours ago, Downburst said:

If you do at sometime decide to keep the clocks in GMT+1 or BST and want to know what it would might be like. Well the West of Ireland is the place to check it out. 

Romford Essex Sunset today 17:04 and  Tralee Co. Kerry is today is 17:42 so only 22 mins away from BST is the norm in the winter for the west of Ireland anyway. Would be terribly dark in the mornings there if they kept BST with the Sun not rising until 9.48 AM in Mid Winter, which is pushing acceptability. 

 

 

if the UK kept BST all year round the latest sunrise in my hometown of Chelmsford Essex would be 9:04am 

[Coopsy]

14 minutes ago, cheeky_monkey said:

if the UK kept BST all year round the latest sunrise in my hometown of Chelmsford Essex would be 9:04am 

Think he’s referring to Tralee Ireland having a sunrise of 9:48 as it’s currently 8:48 in the death of winter there. 

[stewfox]

On 07/02/2022 at 23:06, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

I would personally prefer it if we didn't have to keep changing the clocks at all.

My fav

 

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by stewfox

[cheeky_monkey]

just notice here that the peak of daylight gain is between March 10th - 26th at 4:16 sec daily after the 26th daylight gain begins to diminish.

[cheeky_monkey]

Clocks go forward this weekend here ..back to 8AM sunrise and dark mornings again 

[Earthshine]

Looking forward to that first sunset after 7pm.  Two weeks to go!

[Sunny76]

11 minutes ago, Earthshine said:

Looking forward to that first sunset after 7pm.  Two weeks to go!

Yeah I can’t wait. That’s where you really feel a difference and the full transition away from winter into spring gets going. 
 

Will be glad to see the back of cold mornings and evenings.

[Frost HoIIow]

3 minutes ago, Sunny76 said:

Yeah I can’t wait. That’s where you really feel a difference and the full transition away from winter into spring gets going. 
 

Will be glad to see the back of cold mornings and evenings.

Yes we are almost in the lighter half of the year now. On the 18th the days become longer than the nights here and stays that way until 25th September. Usually after the 18th March the worst of winter is behind us but still cannot guarantee a snow cover free April such as last year. Had snow cover here just a few days off May in 2016 as well. Mind you it never lasts longer than a couple of hours in the stronger sun.

[Sunny76]

4 minutes ago, Frost HoIIow said:

Yes we are almost in the lighter half of the year now. On the 18th the days become longer than the nights here and stays that way until 25th September. Usually after the 18th March the worst of winter is behind us but still cannot guarantee a snow cover free April such as last year. Had snow cover here just a few days off May in 2016 as well. Mind you it never lasts longer than a couple of hours in the stronger sun.

I hope we have a warmer April this year. Last year was ok, but it still felt cold even in the sunshine.

[Earthshine]

20 hours ago, Sunny76 said:

I hope we have a warmer April this year. Last year was ok, but it still felt cold even in the sunshine.

A spring like 2020 will do nicely!

[damianslaw]

Less than 2 weeks to go and we switch from the 'winter state of mind' to the 'summer state of mind', always think the effect is not quite as profound as when the clocks go back, that always feels more of a seismic shift.

Edited March 14, 2022 by damianslaw

[MP-R]

Definitely felt like spring down here today after a wet and windy few days. Love the lengthening effect of a clear day too!

[Sunny76]

32 minutes ago, damianslaw said:

Less than 2 weeks to go and we switch from the 'winter state of mind' to the 'summer state of mind', always think the effect is not quite as profound as when the clocks go back, that always feels more of a seismic shift.

I think late March has the same effect as late September in some ways, but you are right in saying the clocks going back in late October have more of an impact, as we plunge from late summer/early autumn feeling, into a more winter state of mind.

Its starting to feel better now, compared to just a few weeks ago, but the real spring summer feeling will take shape after March 27th. Even if it’s still chilly, the longer evenings and daylight until 8pm makes such a difference. Then it’s like that until late August, before the slow decline.

[Earthshine]

Really appreciating the longer evenings now thanks to clear skies and just one week to go before we see a real switch to long evenings.  A matter of weeks until that 8pm sunset!

[damianslaw]

2 hours ago, Earthshine said:

Really appreciating the longer evenings now thanks to clear skies and just one week to go before we see a real switch to long evenings.  A matter of weeks until that 8pm sunset!

Pity they don't go forward tomorrow to make the most out of what looks likely to be an excellent spell of weather.

[Dangerous55019]

Morning everyone.

Thought of the day… But this time next week, won’t be this time next week! ?

[davehsug]

Yay! The sun's back in our half of the sky for 6 months. 

[Earthshine]

13 hours of daylight by the end of this week and the sun will soon be rising 45 degrees above the horizon here.  Gaining a remarkable 30 minutes of daylight every week this time of year and the sun climbs about 0.4 degrees every day so the strength of the sun is really ramping up now.  Won't be long before we see UV indexes of 6 and above.