The changing daylight hours thread

[Summer8906]

 *Stormforce~beka* I guess in this area we often miss out on early spring warmth as it requires southerlies and the sea is quite cold that time of year.

Further inland it's a different story I'd imagine, but whatever the case, you won't get 16-18C days with prolonged sunshine in light winds in Dec, whereas you might in March!

[Festivefreeze]

We are now in the last week or so of the days being as short as they were back in early November. Personally I think there's still enough daylight around Halloween (obviously you have to wake up early to take advantage of it, as the days are very lobsided by late October and the nights are getting dark rapidly compared to the mornings). By mid-February though we are going from dark to light, so the relatively short days are easier to live with. Plus solar noon is now on our side and the evenings are lighter than the mornings. Happy days.

[cheeky_monkey]

we are now at the point of the year (we made it to Feb) where the gains in daylight really accelerate until they peak around Mid March for about a month then it begins to slow again... in my location i gain about 2 hours or so every 4 weeks from now on

[summer blizzard]

 cheese Are we sure 20C was not hit in March 05. 

Light until about 17.10 now.

[damianslaw]

Post 5pm dusks all the way ahead now until the clocks go back. With the forecast high pressure, extra light will linger in clear skies. Good bye bleak mid winter light. 

[cheese]

 summer blizzard I checked some local stations like Church Fenton and they didn’t exceed 20C. The top temperature at Church Fenton that month was only 16C.

Edited February 5 by cheese

[Festivefreeze]

Daylength for Birmingham today is 9 hours 19 minutes and 45 seconds.  The sun rose at 7:42 and will set at 17:01. That means the day is slightly longer than it was on Bonfire Night, when the sun rose at 7:11; it set at 16:30 and the time between sunrise and sunset was 9 hours 18 minutes and 44 seconds. Within a matter of days we'll be looking at daylength that is equal to what it is in late October. Just imagine if the earlier sunsets followed the winter solstice rather than preceded it - the evenings would still be quite dark now! I understand how the Equation of Time works (roughly), but Just out of interest, what would need to happen in order for it to work the opposite way? 

Edited February 5 by Festivefreeze

[Maz]

 Festivefreeze We have moved through the darkest quarter of the year.  The three months centred around winter solstice is 5th Nov - 5th Feb.  The next 3 months see rapid extension of daylight, before 3 months of light and then 3 months of daylight drawing in again.  

As you say, the mis-match between rate of change in sunsets and sunrise is noticable.  Hopefully the more scientifically minded can explain the reasons!

[Summer8906]

 Maz From this point onwards though the sunrises get rapidly earlier, I think we are now more or less on the date of latest solar noon (something like 1220 here, versus 1150 three months ago). Effectively we have gained half the hour of evening daylight we lost in late October.

Solar noon gets earlier now, which means mornings start getting lighter faster than evenings. You notice this in March when it seems to get light very early indeed (almost like summer) while the evenings are still very middling for daylight - albeit better than even now, let alone December.

March and November, in general, seem to be the two months with disproportionately high morning daylight and disproportionately low evening daylight. Which is perhaps why BST should be extended forwards into November and backwards into March, even if it doesn't occupy the whole of winter.

Edited February 5 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

On a related point, I stayed longer at work today than I should have done because the clock ticked past 5pm without me realising (i.e. it wasn't dark enough). Ended up missing the bus home as a result!

 

Edited February 5 by Summer8906

[Festivefreeze]

A daylight period that is slightly longer than 9 hours seems like winter in early November (the midway point of Autumn), but in early February  (the midway point of winter) it feels like spring and it's simply because daylength change is heading in the opposite direction. Yet it's colder in February because of thermal lag. Strange isn't it? In your personal view is it the darkness or the low temperature that makes 'winter' actually feel like winter?  In early February you just don't get that same feeling that you get in early November do you? 

Edited February 5 by Festivefreeze

[Maz]

 Festivefreeze Darkness, and also the direction of change are key for me.  February increasingly feels like spring is coming, November is dark and feels winterlike, even if its actually milder in November.

[Catherine91]

I think the first half of Feb still feels like winter thanks to low temperatures, but it doesn't feel 'depressing' like early November when we've just been plunged into darkness thanks to the hour change. Imagine if BST began this week, then it would feel the complete opposite of early November! Mid Feb to mid March has a very rapid increase in daylight but still doesn't quite feel like spring to me as the temperatures are normally still fairly low.

[cheese]

 Festivefreeze February is a sunnier month than November on average, so that helps make it feel less depressing. 

[Summer8906]

 Festivefreeze I'm probably mostly agreeing with your point, but I would dispute that early Feb is the midpoint of winter. Sunset has passed 5pm here now, while in December it was 3.59pm.

Granted December is rather milder on average than now. However, using a combination of light level and temperature, I'd probably place mid-winter in the middle of January, which accords with the meteorological definition. Dec is the darkest month, Jan is the coldest month, Feb is neither.

Once sunset passes 5pm, it's essentially the beginning of the end of winter. All that said, I'd prefer the current cold spell to persist for around two weeks (before a sudden switch to spring-like weather a la 2009 or 2012).

Edited February 7 by Summer8906

[Summer8906]

 Catherine91 Re early March being spring-like I think it depends on the weather. Whatever the case, early March is usually too mild to be considered true winter (in the vast majority of years, most days are above 10C).

From 1990 to 2014, and 2015 to a degree, the first half of March was often sunny and settled, so it was clearly and unambiguously spring.In recent years early March has tended to be dull and wet, but on the other hand the daffodils are normally out (due to mild temps) so it has felt like a transitional season: too mild, too light and too many flowers to be winter, but too dull for spring.

Edited February 7 by Summer8906

[Festivefreeze]

 Summer8906 I've always tended to favour the astronomical definitions. So when I class early Feb as the middle of winter I'm talking about it being halfway between the solstice and equinox. I prefer that method due to seasonal lag. I know meteoroligists count the whole of March as spring, so I know where you're coming from. I'm not a meteorologist. I'm just someone interested in the weather and also keen on astronomy.

[Festivefreeze]

 Summer8906 Thank you for your reply. I really enjoyed reading it.

[Summer8906]

 Festivefreeze No worries!

[damianslaw]

Certainly noting the drawing out of evening light. Its still preety light right now at 5.30pm under mostly clear skies. 

[Festivefreeze]

There's only just under 5 weeks to go until the Vernal Equinox now, and once that's passed our sunrises and sunsets shall shift progressively north of east and west each day, and by early April we'll be back to the daylight levels of early to mid September. I'm really looking forward to late May when the 'twilight nights' return for roughly 2 months. Where I live we're only talking astronomical twilight, but I would love to go much further north and experience lingering civil or nautical twilight. I'm not so sure if I'd want to be far enough north to experience the true midnight sun though because a). I'm not sure how I'd cope with the constant daylight and b). I know the sun wouldn't be as high in the sky (compared to my latitude) during 'daytime' hours. 

Edited February 16 by Festivefreeze

[LetItSnow]

I’m noticing it in the evenings now. It’s close to 6 o’clock and there’s still a little bit of light, plus it’s only a month and a bit until the clocks change.

Despite the cloudy weather, I can feel the rapid shift getting closer to spring and I’m sure that when it turns very mild (even though it still will probably be very cloudy) it’ll feel even more closer to spring.

[WYorksWeather]

 LetItSnow Not too far behind here - sunset at around 5.20 now, twilight until just before 6.

[Maz]

 LetItSnow After such a long spell of “gloom” the next morning and evening with some clear sky will show a significant shift.  Then the road to spring will be really under way.

[Catherine91]

Longyearbyen in Svalbard had its first sunrise of the year yesterday! They had just over an hour of daylight yesterday and just over 2 hours today.

At my location we're approaching peak gains in daylight, i.e. about 4 minutes a day.

Edited February 16 by Catherine91