Nice clear afternoon here in West Northants, can actually see the sun set against a skyline and not other houses at this time of year. Tonight was 15:51. Time/date website tells me that, give or take seconds, that's as early as it gets.
After 18 December sunset starts creeping forwards again though it's the end of December before the mornings begin to get lighter. Latest sunrise is 08:13 on 30 and 31 Jan after which it's getting earlier.
Being somebody who lives for the days getting longer again I posted the thought on Facebook.
A friend, former work colleague living in London, corrects me with the message "5th Jan actually" for date the mornings ease out.
Another look on the Time and Date site says latest sunrise in London is 08:06 on 28 December and sticks there until around 4th Jan.
We're probably about 70/75 miles distance and (obvs) lat long too but that's quite a surprising variation.
Now got my torch and globe out.....
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This got me thinking. We are a small country but, in round terms, the mainland of U.K. spans nearly 5 degrees of longitude and nearly 10 degrees of latitude. A lot more if you include the islands. So sunrise/set varies quite a bit. It was of course why they needed to introduce standard time once the railways came. Until then it hardly mattered that local solar time was used.
Then we have the annual debate about changing the clocks. I still look forward to the next change and the sudden lighter evenings even though, being retired, I can pretty much choose my own hours.
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Pedant Corner.
In London the earliest sunset is tomorrow - the 13th. The latest sunrise is on the 31st.
This tells you all you could possibly wish to know, including why the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise aren't on the same day - look at the little linky bits at the bottom.
www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london
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30 years ago I made a work visit to the Shetlands mid December.
I drove the 130 miles to Aberdeen Airport in the dark. Shetland flight was back of 8am and the plane took off in the dark. Arrived in the Shetlands, via Wick, around 10am and it was getting light. I left at 3pm and the the airport was getting dark.
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You might like a phone app called TPE (The Photographer's Ephemeris).
It does sun an moon rise and set and shows the direction of the sun/moon light from any point on a map.
You can quickly scroll through the days and see how the bearing changes.
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Sunset and Sunrise Oddness Abounds - martin aston
