The changing daylight hours thread

[damianslaw]

Earliest sunset time in Windermere is on the 12th 15:46 and holds for a few days, unlike last year when the coming week brought clear superb sunny skies, this year we will be cloud leaden making for an exceptionally dull dark week... 

[ManiaMuse]

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.

[WYorksWeather]

Earliest sunset here this year (to the nearest minute) is 15:45 from 9th-18th December.

Latest sunrise will be 08:23 from 27th December to 1st Jan.

[damianslaw]

Bottoming out now for most in terms of earliest sunset.. today brought a good one, and lingering light thanks to clear skies. Next couple of days don't look too bad either in this respect. Later in the week here at least I'm expecting exceptionally low light levels. 

[Summer Sun]

 

[cheeky_monkey]

5 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

 

i need to move to Lowestoft i wont see much in the way of a pre 8am sunrise until April 

[Summer8906]

1 hour ago, cheeky_monkey said:

i need to move to Lowestoft i wont see much in the way of a pre 8am sunrise until April 

On the other hand a 15:38 sunset is hideously early for somewhere that far south...

Even in this darkest (for afternoon daylight) week of the year, I still managed to see the sun at 15:50 here. Could have been later too, had it not been for clouds.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Summer8906

[Wynn D Woo]

1 minute ago, Summer8906 said:

On the other hand a 15:38 sunset is hideously early for somewhere that far south...

Even in this darkest (for afternoon daylight) week of the year, I still managed to see the sun at 15:50 here. Could have been later too, had it not been for clouds.

Yep another reason why west is best, especially with GMT!

[Summer8906]

5 minutes ago, Wynn D Woo said:

Yep another reason why west is best, especially with GMT!

Indeed, GMT is best suited to the northern and western parts of the UK, but I guess we all have to live with it to avoid having a country with multiple timezones.

To be fair, the mornings are now very dark so I can accept the need for GMT right now. But not in November, and not in late Feb or March.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On 29/11/2023 at 00:02, ChannelThunder said:

What a grim time of year. The light levels are nasty from lunchtime onwards and everything looks so sorry for itself, with the last of the greenery from summer having gone now.

Then you go into the model thread and it's raining posts and excitement. I wish I could share their enthusiasm! Roll on the end of Feb when things start to turn back for the better.

That shows why GMT in November is such a bad idea! Leads to lop-sided days, due to the very early solar noon in Nov.

Lunchtime should be at the lightest time of day, not at the point when light levels start to noticeably drop. Yet an 11.45 solar noon (as happens in November) does lead to these kinds of lop-sided days. It's not so bad later in the winter; by early Feb solar noon is as late as 12.20, meaning that GMT is a better "fit" for the working day.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Summer8906

[sarahng]

From today, the nights are officially drawing out at last!  We start the long journey to June!

[Somerset girl]

4.05 pm is my earliest sunset and 0815 the latest sunrise in from 30th December . By that time the evenings are drawing out again . 

The mornings speed up though and by March it is  rising at  0615 in mid March . 

[Summer8906]

2 hours ago, Somerset girl said:

4.05 pm is my earliest sunset and 0815 the latest sunrise in from 30th December . By that time the evenings are drawing out again . 

The mornings speed up though and by March it is  rising at  0615 in mid March . 

I always find March mornings, prior to BST, are almost silly-light, enough to disturb sleep; yet sunset is still relatively early. On March 30 the sun will be rising in this area at an obscenely early 0545, yet still going down around 1830. In somewhere like Norwich it's even worse with sunrise 0533, sunset 1826. Late March sunrises are less an an hour later than sunrise on the summer solstice, yet sunsets are still earlier than in early October.

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by Summer8906

[Somerset girl]

53 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

I always find March mornings, prior to BST, are almost silly-light, enough to disturb sleep; yet sunset is still relatively early. On March 30 the sun will be rising in this area at an obscenely early 0545, yet still going down around 1830. In somewhere like Norwich it's even worse with sunrise 0533, sunset 1826. Late March sunrises are less an an hour later than sunrise on the summer solstice, yet sunsets are still earlier than in early October.

 

I know what you mean . It's 0615 in mid March yet only just past 6 in the evening.  

I see the clocks change on 31st March next year . I suppose being a leap year makes a difference ? 

[Summer8906]

42 minutes ago, Somerset girl said:

I know what you mean . It's 0615 in mid March yet only just past 6 in the evening.  

I see the clocks change on 31st March next year . I suppose being a leap year makes a difference ? 

It's always the last Sunday in March which just so happens to be (unfortunately) the 31st next year.  But if it wasn't for the leap year the last Sunday in March would have been the 25th, so the leap year does sadly make a difference. A winter one day longer than last year, and GMT one week longer. And the weather's rubbish so far this winter too.

It's also Easter so we have the unfortunate situation of a Good Friday and Easter Saturday with (relatively) dark evenings. Something of a tourism-killer perhaps which makes me wonder why they don't time the switch back to BST such that the entire Easter weekend, every year, is always under BST. Indeed they did this up to 1980 (it was around the third Sunday in March). In March 1981 for some unbeknown reason they switched it to the last Sunday in March. Not sure whether Thatcher had anything to do with it (the timing would coincide with her taking power, given the bill would presumably have passed through parliament a year or so earlier) but it was a spectacularly silly decision.

Another thing I've always wondered about is the uniquely early switch to GMT in 1995 (Oct 22nd). Other years with the same calendar, both before and after, all used the 29th.

Would be interesting to hear explanations of these if anyone has any.

Edited December 16, 2023 by Summer8906

[Maz]

4 hours ago, sarahng said:

From today, the nights are officially drawing out at last!  We start the long journey to June!

Yay!!  I love a good cold, snowy spell, but what I really look for in the charts is the start of spring.

Despite cloudy forecast it’s clear blue skies here.  Can’t believe it.  Sitting comfortably outside having lunch…have I fast forwarded past the dark days of SAD into spring?

[Maz]

1 hour ago, Summer8906 said:

I always find March mornings, prior to BST, are almost silly-light, enough to disturb sleep; yet sunset is still relatively early. On March 30 the sun will be rising in this area at an obscenely early 0545, yet still going down around 1830. In somewhere like Norwich it's even worse with sunrise 0533, sunset 1826. Late March sunrises are less an an hour later than sunrise on the summer solstice, yet sunsets are still earlier than in early October.

 

I run silly early every morning.  Love how quickly it goes from fully dark in early Feb to fully light a few weeks later in early March.

[damianslaw]

According to time and date, today marks the last day of the bottom curve light loss in the evening at least, sunset today 15:46, tomorrow 15:47. It is a very slow climb out through the rest of Dec, but onwards and upwards.

Today truly a dark day before christmas, we have dusky light now, low cloud and drizzle all day. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by damianslaw

[cheeky_monkey]

winter solstice hits at 8.27pm my time this evening..which is 3.27am your time i think 

[Scuba steve]

2 minutes lighter now in the evening time to dust off the BBQ

Edited December 21, 2023 by Scuba steve

[ManiaMuse]

16 minutes ago, Scuba steve said:

2 minutes lighter now in the evening time to dust off the BBQ

I called my mum earlier today and she said that she thought it was getting lighter already in the evenings. I told her that we had only gained 2 minutes of evening light since the darkest evening...

I guess it is more the fact that it isn't getting any darker in the evenings, it is basically just the status quo but it isn't getting any worse.

Anyway, happy solstice for later tonight/tomorrow.

[I remember Atlantic 252]

I want light mornings, not until Feb it's lighter at half 6, Spring forward sucks! darker mornings again

[cheeky_monkey]

4 minutes ago, I remember Atlantic 252 said:

I want light mornings, not until Feb it's lighter at half 6, Spring forward sucks! darker mornings again

doesn't get light here before 8am until end of March 

[Dangerous55019]

Morning everyone.

Well at 03:27 this morning, the Winter Solstice occurred! 
So this is it folks… The pendulum has reached the end of its stroke… And we have reached the darkness at the end of the tunnel.
The next time we’ll be loosing daylight will be in six months time.

I know that the morning end of the day has still got a little bit of light to lose … But as of tomorrow… What is being gained in the evening now outweighs what’s being lost.

[Maz]

7 hours ago, Dangerous55019 said:

Morning everyone.

Well at 03:27 this morning, the Winter Solstice occurred! 
So this is it folks… The pendulum has reached the end of its stroke… And we have reached the darkness at the end of the tunnel.
The next time we’ll be loosing daylight will be in six months time.

I know that the morning end of the day has still got a little bit of light to lose … But as of tomorrow… What is being gained in the evening now outweighs what’s being lost.

The pendulum has reached its end stroke….nice analogy. 
 

Running this morning in the dark, rain and wind, knowing it won’t even properly get light again today, I was thinking that at least the direction of travel has now changed.