climate - length of days

[chessfou]

Among all the questions and replies about climate, I have not seen any mention of length of days.

For us, after our first full winter here, this has been the biggest (and unexpected, although easily predictable) difference from where we were in the UK (ca. 1000km N of here).

At the winter solstice ("shortest day"), we got  more than an hour of extra daylight. Now, as we move out of winter, the days are still about 20 minutes  longer here.

Even if we didn't get as many sunny days in winter (as we do), all those extra hours of daylight make a real dent in the grayness of winter.

We'll have to give a bit of that back during the summer (at the summer solstice, we will have about 45 mins less daylight here) but there's plenty to spare then (sunrise 06.05 to sunset 21.38 is quite sufficient).

[Rodie]

is this site any good www.le-guide/comclimate.html

[Dick Smith]

That link doesn't work, Rodie.

Surely the length of the day is nothing to do with climate, it is the rotation and orbit of the earth which determine the hours of daylight - or am I missing something?

[chessfou]

Of course it (length of day) doesn't affect the climate but it does affect people's perception of it, especially during winter, hence my point.

An extra hour of daylight makes a huge difference for us - and we've never suffered from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). For someone prone to SAD it could even be a matter of life or death.

[Dick Smith]

Sorry, still don't get it. The days and the nights are the same lengths as always, no? Or are you just saying that days are shorter in the winter?

[chessfou]

Hopefully this will make it clear.

Length of "day" (in hours and minutes between sunrise and sunset) in UK (1000km N) compared with here:

                      UK         here           difference in hours of daylight

mid winter     07.43       08.51        01.08 extra

today            10.56       11.16        00.20 extra

average difference in length of a winter (Oct-Mar) "day" - ca. 40 minutes longer here.

The difference between here and the North of England would be correspondingly greater still.

If you want to make your own comparisons, the following site has daily data (for the past year)  for a huge number of places in France and UK (among others):

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=France

Select your location (e.g. Ajaccio) and you will find a section about halfway down the page titled "History & Almanac" which allows you to select any date and the data for each day includes all sort of stuff, including sunrise and sunset.

[Dick Smith]

Yes, the nearer you get to the equator the closer the day and night are to 12 hours all year.

Are you saying that where you are now the winter days are longer and the summer days are shorter than in the UK?

What does your table mean? Are those sunrise/set times? Hours of daylight? What is the 'extra'?

[Jacqui Too]

I've been following this and I 'got' it in the first post!![Www]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]
Are you saying that where you are now the winter days are longer and the summer days are shorter than in the UK?

Yes he is

What does your table mean? Are those sunrise/set times? Hours of daylight? What is the 'extra'?

Hours of daylight and the 'extra' is the dufference between the two.
[/quote]

Sorry Dick you must be having a bad day[;-)]

Chipie

[Dick Smith]

Well I'm afraid I don't. Could someone explain, in plain English, what the point is, please?

[Dick Smith]

Sorry, but that is all just confusing.

If I read you two correctly the point is that days in the winter are slightly longer than in more northerly regions, yes? That means, of course, that days in the summer are shorter, unless you have unleashed some previously unknown feature of astrophysics.

So in a day which has, potentially, twenty minutes more sunshine, you feel better than in the more northern regions where the 'day' is shorter?

I think that may be true, but remember that the extra daylight time only amounts to 3% of the longest possible daylight period (12 hours) and no more than 5% in the temperate regions, so the the benefit would be small.

Presumably in mid summer the 'day' is an hour shorter than in the north?

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]Well I'm afraid I don't. Could someone explain, in plain English, what the point is, please?
[/quote]

I think the point that Chessfou is trying to make is that in the deepth of winter in France you can get up to 40 mins more daylight per day compaired with some parts of England, which is good news for people who suffer from S A D, thats how I see it?

I think the heading climate - length of days was a little missleading as it was primarily about length of day!

Cheer up Dick the days are getting longer[:D]

Chipie

ps it took me so long to write my post you had posted again

[Dick Smith]

OK. I find that turning the lights on helps a lot!

In the early 70s I was in the north of England when the experiment in no-daylight-saving was tried out. That made a lot more difference, but I don't think anyone had invented SAD in those days!

[BJSLIV]

The earlier link should be

http://www.le-guide.com/climate.html

Not that it seems to have much to do with the rest of the debate.....

[Jacqui Too]

[quote user="Dick Smith"]OK. I find that turning the lights on helps a lot!

[/quote]

Funny you should say that I use a 200w bulb for 6 hours a day from 3.45pm - 9.45pm from mid Dec. to April but not for me, its for my horse!!! no he doesn't get sad, I just need to trick his brain into thinking spring is coming ( he needs to shed his wolly winter coat by the end of March so he looks good for the early shows) works a treat !

Alas I can't say it works the same on me ! [blink]

Chipie

hummm that gives me a thought for a new thread 'Tricks of the Trade' ( not horses but any trade)!!

[Cassis]

I'm disappointed by the amount of grey sky this year compared with last.  It is making me SAD. [:(] 

Jude says Mme Surblé the grocery store owner was complaining to her this morning that this winter was getting her down due to lack of sunshine.  Mme S is about 60 and has lived here all her life so I expect what we are experiencing is not normal.  If it goes on maybe I'll have to move to the Aveyron.  Today was sunny though.  So maybe having charged up today I can get through another week without slitting my wrists.

[Patf]

Before we came here we had a holiday house in the Scottish Highlands. One of the (few) things against it was the short winterdays and long summer days. Too extreme. If you went for a winter walk you had to be home by 3.30pm. When we lived in Singapore it got dark every night all year round at 6.30pm. Where we are now is in between.In comparison with UK the biggest difference in the length of daylight hours is in midwinter and midsummer.Pat.