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Old 05-25-2009, 07:06 AM
 
Location: USA East Coast
4,429 posts, read 10,322,035 times
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Having a bit of an earth science background …I just want to make a quick point about seasonal daylight.

SEASOANL DAYLIGHT: Thanks to things like the cartoonish Weather Channel and just old fashioned weather hype…the phenomena of “seasonal light” is often not understood when the whole picture is considered. This is especially true in the hype of “winter darkness” along the Northeast Coast (by this I mean the big cities/I-95 states from DC to NYC/southern Connecticut). What many folks tend to forget…is places in the lower middle latitudes from around 35 to 42 latitude (places like NYC, New Haven, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington, DC , Tokyo, Athens, Tehran, …etc), have the best of both worlds when it come to the length of day seasonally. We get a fairly long amount of daylight hours in summer (longer in fact that places in the tropics like Miami or Mexico City)…yet unlike the high latitude areas like Europe or Russia/Canada we don’t have to suffer with very short days in winter. Let me explain quickly, I’ll try not to ramble.

In the northern Hemisphere summer (when daylight is plentiful everywhere in the hemisphere)…places like Paris (50 north latitude), London (53 latitude), or Milan (46 latitude)… have signicantly more hours of daylight than places in the tropics like Miami or Mexico City (19 and 25 north latitude)… and a bit more daylight than places like New Haven/NYC (41 North latitude), San Francisco (38 North latitude), or Tokyo, Japan (37 North latitude).

However…they pay the price in winter:

In the northern Hemisphere winter …New Haven or Tokyo have more than 2.5 hours of daylight than cities like London, Paris, or Frankfurt, Germany. Yet in winter a city in the tropics like Mexico City or Miami… have little more than 90-minutes of daylight than say New Haven or San Francisco. Even on the shortest day of the year (December 21st) … Mexico City, Mexico…has only about 1 hour and 47 minutes more daylight than New Haven... and 1 hour and 32 minutes longer than San Francisco. However, Mexico City has more than 3 hours and 20 minutes of daylight than London or Paris during the winter months.

People in the lower middle latitude seem to get the best deal: We have the best of both worlds when it comes to the length of day seasonally. We get a fairly long amount of daylight hours in summer (longer in fact that places in the tropics like Miami or Mexico City)…yet unlike the high latitude areas like Europe or Russia/Canada we don’t have to suffer with very short days in winter. People in lower middle latitude countries like the United States, Spain, China, Japan…etc don’t really appreciate how fleeting “daylight” is in winter up the higher latitudes like Europe, Russia, or Canada. I spent a single winter month in London once. The words “fleeting winter light” has a whole different meaning than in Connecticut or New Jersey (lol).

Here is a site you might find fun. You can use NYC for New Haven since they are very close to the same latitude. It calculates he length of the solar day for many world cities.

NOAA Improved Sunrise/Sunset Calculation

Also a word about the outdoors and the coastal Tri-State area:

If you enjoy being outside buy a home in a less wooded area.

One of the mistakes people make when moving to the East Coast is they forget in the hype of the 4 months of winter …there are 8 “other months of weather” that are wet/warm/hot and green. Summers in the Tri-State area is hot and humid and wooded areas will have mosquitos just like Florida or South Carolina would in wooded areas. If you live in a more built up area or have a lot that is not so heavily wooded… you will enjoy your backyard much more. A heavily wooded lot is not a great idea on the East Coast much below Massachusetts…if you intend to be outside in your yard from April to early November. My yard is fairly good size, but totally in the sun…and ticks and bugs are just about nill. We spend a lot of time in the yard from late April until early November mostly bug free. Sun and dry ground is the enemy of bugs (lol).

Good Luck.
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Old 05-25-2009, 07:25 AM
 
756 posts, read 2,213,050 times
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Originally Posted by willowsmom View Post
Anybody lived in both Connecticut and Florida and can give me their perspective on the pros and cons of living in each of these states? I live in South Florida, have for 20 years, but grew up in Michigan...so I know about living with snow, ice, overcast skies, and short summers...and lucky me...I now also know the joys of hurricanes, tornadoes and oppressive heat and humidity...so those things aren't issues for me. I am more interested in quality of life, cost of living, culture, jobs, housing, educational opportunities, the things that really matter. Is Connecticut a place where someone over 50 would enjoy living and could afford to live reasonably well after retirement? What about coastal towns there? Are they just out of reach for most people, or still affordable? Does Connecticut have a state income tax and what kind of a bite does it take out of your paycheck? Florida has no state income tax, but heavy sales taxes, so that is a major consideration for me. Also if anybody can speak about sea level rise from climate change in Connecticut that would be helpful. Is it forecasted to wipe out most of the state like it is in Florida?
Have you considered contacting AARP or another seniors orgnaization for info from someone your ages point of view? Many retirees leave CT for other areas due to weather and cost of living.

CT does have a state income tax that eats away at paychecks. It doesn't compare to FL's small sales tax number. I am assuming that you will be working because you ask about jobs?

Pay here is higher than other areas due to the high cost of living. The coastal towns along CT 's shoreline are beautiful and offer a variety of housing prices. There are many over 55 communities throughout the state that are beautiful, too. Great way to meet people with similar interests.

If you are worried about hurricanes I would look around at the various lake communities and not the shoreline. CT does get an occasional hurricane and noreaster coastal storms. Sea level change? Not during your lifetime. Relax and visit this great state.
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Old 05-25-2009, 08:46 AM
 
3,027 posts, read 7,894,390 times
Reputation: 3911
We are Florida residents,been here 20 years and along with recently passed legislation,we are property tax free.We are retired now for 20 years.I do not find sales tax at 7 per cent unreasonable,we get a 6 year license,until recently because of age 8 years $15 and registration $32.Even with all this advantage we would like to somehow return to Ct where our families are.The big kick in Florida are for newcomers,they will pay the price.If in hurricane area ins can be prohibitive.We are North Central so not affected.Ct can and does get wild weather,I worked 55 flood and 56 ice storm along with East Windsors tornado in 79.Hopefully if Ct's realestate continues to drop or foreclosures we will return.Price of homes still out of line from realty.
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Old 05-26-2009, 03:06 PM
 
Location: Live in NY, work in CT
11,252 posts, read 18,746,965 times
Reputation: 5078
Quote:
Originally Posted by wavehunter007 View Post
Having a bit of an earth science background …I just want to make a quick point about seasonal daylight.

SEASOANL DAYLIGHT: Thanks to things like the cartoonish Weather Channel and just old fashioned weather hype…the phenomena of “seasonal light” is often not understood when the whole picture is considered. This is especially true in the hype of “winter darkness” along the Northeast Coast (by this I mean the big cities/I-95 states from DC to NYC/southern Connecticut). What many folks tend to forget…is places in the lower middle latitudes from around 35 to 42 latitude (places like NYC, New Haven, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington, DC , Tokyo, Athens, Tehran, …etc), have the best of both worlds when it come to the length of day seasonally. We get a fairly long amount of daylight hours in summer (longer in fact that places in the tropics like Miami or Mexico City)…yet unlike the high latitude areas like Europe or Russia/Canada we don’t have to suffer with very short days in winter. Let me explain quickly, I’ll try not to ramble.

In the northern Hemisphere summer (when daylight is plentiful everywhere in the hemisphere)…places like Paris (50 north latitude), London (53 latitude), or Milan (46 latitude)… have signicantly more hours of daylight than places in the tropics like Miami or Mexico City (19 and 25 north latitude)… and a bit more daylight than places like New Haven/NYC (41 North latitude), San Francisco (38 North latitude), or Tokyo, Japan (37 North latitude).

However…they pay the price in winter:

In the northern Hemisphere winter …New Haven or Tokyo have more than 2.5 hours of daylight than cities like London, Paris, or Frankfurt, Germany. Yet in winter a city in the tropics like Mexico City or Miami… have little more than 90-minutes of daylight than say New Haven or San Francisco. Even on the shortest day of the year (December 21st) … Mexico City, Mexico…has only about 1 hour and 47 minutes more daylight than New Haven... and 1 hour and 32 minutes longer than San Francisco. However, Mexico City has more than 3 hours and 20 minutes of daylight than London or Paris during the winter months.

People in the lower middle latitude seem to get the best deal: We have the best of both worlds when it comes to the length of day seasonally. We get a fairly long amount of daylight hours in summer (longer in fact that places in the tropics like Miami or Mexico City)…yet unlike the high latitude areas like Europe or Russia/Canada we don’t have to suffer with very short days in winter. People in lower middle latitude countries like the United States, Spain, China, Japan…etc don’t really appreciate how fleeting “daylight” is in winter up the higher latitudes like Europe, Russia, or Canada. I spent a single winter month in London once. The words “fleeting winter light” has a whole different meaning than in Connecticut or New Jersey (lol).

Here is a site you might find fun. You can use NYC for New Haven since they are very close to the same latitude. It calculates he length of the solar day for many world cities.

NOAA Improved Sunrise/Sunset Calculation

Also a word about the outdoors and the coastal Tri-State area:

If you enjoy being outside buy a home in a less wooded area.

One of the mistakes people make when moving to the East Coast is they forget in the hype of the 4 months of winter …there are 8 “other months of weather” that are wet/warm/hot and green. Summers in the Tri-State area is hot and humid and wooded areas will have mosquitos just like Florida or South Carolina would in wooded areas. If you live in a more built up area or have a lot that is not so heavily wooded… you will enjoy your backyard much more. A heavily wooded lot is not a great idea on the East Coast much below Massachusetts…if you intend to be outside in your yard from April to early November. My yard is fairly good size, but totally in the sun…and ticks and bugs are just about nill. We spend a lot of time in the yard from late April until early November mostly bug free. Sun and dry ground is the enemy of bugs (lol).

Good Luck.
A lot can also depend on the time of day you have daylight and that in addition to latitude varies with longitude. I'll give an example. I live in Westchester County, NY. My inlaws have a vacation home just north of Hazleton, PA that is at the same latitude as me, but 130 miles due west as the crow flies. So while they get the same amount of daylight on a given date as me (due to the same latitude), the times are shifted 9 minutes later (because of longitude). So on Dec 21, sunrise/sunset times are 7:10am and 4:30pm respectively, and over there it is 7:19 and 4:39. This becomes more pronounced the further west you go until you hit a time zone boundary, when it shifts an hour the other way and starts over again.

Why is this important? Well I'll use an example of someone who normally works 8am to 5pm in a cubicle without a window and now I'll complicate it a little more using someone who lives near Detroit (somewhat close to the next time zone boundary) who also normally works 8-5 in the same kind of cubicle. They would be 2-degrees latitude higher than me, which shortens the daylight itself by about 10 minutes and being 600 miles west of me in the same time zone, that shift is about 30-40 minutes.

As it turns out, on Dec 21, their sunrise is about 7:50am but their sunset is a little after 5pm. They will see a little daylight on both ends of their commute, but I will only see some on my morning commute, even though I have 10 minutes more total daylight than they do.

So while all you said is correct (and I agree with your assessment about the middle latitudes having the best "compromise", the times of day you see daylight is a factor too and it's more complicated than just how far north or south you are. You didn't mention Boston (which is on the border of this at 42-deg latitude), one issue there is their easterly longitude relative to a time zone border makes for very early sunsets.
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Old 05-26-2009, 05:00 PM
 
Location: New England
8,155 posts, read 20,932,992 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 7 Wishes View Post
A lot can also depend on the time of day you have daylight and that in addition to latitude varies with longitude. I'll give an example. I live in Westchester County, NY. My inlaws have a vacation home just north of Hazleton, PA that is at the same latitude as me, but 130 miles due west as the crow flies. So while they get the same amount of daylight on a given date as me (due to the same latitude), the times are shifted 9 minutes later (because of longitude). So on Dec 21, sunrise/sunset times are 7:10am and 4:30pm respectively, and over there it is 7:19 and 4:39. This becomes more pronounced the further west you go until you hit a time zone boundary, when it shifts an hour the other way and starts over again.

Why is this important? Well I'll use an example of someone who normally works 8am to 5pm in a cubicle without a window and now I'll complicate it a little more using someone who lives near Detroit (somewhat close to the next time zone boundary) who also normally works 8-5 in the same kind of cubicle. They would be 2-degrees latitude higher than me, which shortens the daylight itself by about 10 minutes and being 600 miles west of me in the same time zone, that shift is about 30-40 minutes.

As it turns out, on Dec 21, their sunrise is about 7:50am but their sunset is a little after 5pm. They will see a little daylight on both ends of their commute, but I will only see some on my morning commute, even though I have 10 minutes more total daylight than they do.

So while all you said is correct (and I agree with your assessment about the middle latitudes having the best "compromise", the times of day you see daylight is a factor too and it's more complicated than just how far north or south you are. You didn't mention Boston (which is on the border of this at 42-deg latitude), one issue there is their easterly longitude relative to a time zone border makes for very early sunsets.
Great "shake out" of the data. lol

On top of what you said, I would be curious what "daylight" is considered. I always noticed living in Orlando that the "twilight" seemed to hang around much longer in the Winter months. Similar to our area around the 4th when you can still see a "light haze" on the horizon at 9pm. So yes, technically, the sun went down only 45 minutes later or whatever, but how much longer was it still "bright" vs here.

Hmmm, actually, maybe not. Now that I think of it, I would think that "night" comes quicker the closer to the equater you get vs lingering "light" more towards the poles. Oh well.
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Old 05-26-2009, 08:55 PM
 
Location: USA East Coast
4,429 posts, read 10,322,035 times
Reputation: 2157
Quote:
Originally Posted by 7 Wishes View Post
A lot can also depend on the time of day you have daylight and that in addition to latitude varies with longitude. I'll give an example. I live in Westchester County, NY. My inlaws have a vacation home just north of Hazleton, PA that is at the same latitude as me, but 130 miles due west as the crow flies. So while they get the same amount of daylight on a given date as me (due to the same latitude), the times are shifted 9 minutes later (because of longitude). So on Dec 21, sunrise/sunset times are 7:10am and 4:30pm respectively, and over there it is 7:19 and 4:39. This becomes more pronounced the further west you go until you hit a time zone boundary, when it shifts an hour the other way and starts over again.

Why is this important? Well I'll use an example of someone who normally works 8am to 5pm in a cubicle without a window and now I'll complicate it a little more using someone who lives near Detroit (somewhat close to the next time zone boundary) who also normally works 8-5 in the same kind of cubicle. They would be 2-degrees latitude higher than me, which shortens the daylight itself by about 10 minutes and being 600 miles west of me in the same time zone, that shift is about 30-40 minutes.

As it turns out, on Dec 21, their sunrise is about 7:50am but their sunset is a little after 5pm. They will see a little daylight on both ends of their commute, but I will only see some on my morning commute, even though I have 10 minutes more total daylight than they do.

So while all you said is correct (and I agree with your assessment about the middle latitudes having the best "compromise", the times of day you see daylight is a factor too and it's more complicated than just how far north or south you are. You didn't mention Boston (which is on the border of this at 42-deg latitude), one issue there is their easterly longitude relative to a time zone border makes for very early sunsets.
Time zones and there relation to latitude/longitude have always fascinated me.

You’re totally right. I did not want to boar everyone with that too…I thought most folks would really find my post a snore fest (lol). Your totally right of course, folks in western time zones (at the same latitude) see more daylight at the end of the day and of course a less at the beginning on the day. Your example of the 8 to 5 work day is quite true. Still, the further south you live, the more daylight in winter you get, reguardless of longitude. Who gets to experience what… of course depends on your schedule. However, you’re right, the typical 8 to 5 workers in a far eastern time zones seems gets a little cheated coming home from work at night. Places like Boston or Eastport, ME do get cheated in December compared to places at the western edge of our Eastern Time zone.

JViello:

From what I understand, “daylight” is generally considered when the sun is visible above the horizon.

As far as “ twilight or brightness”… the farther a given latitude is from the latitude at which the noon sun is directly overhead - the greater is the obliquity of the sun’s rays. In other words, where the noon sun is more directly overhead…the beam of solar energy is more vertical (i.e., perpendicular to the surface) and is stronger/brighter. As you move north of where the sun is overhead, the rays become increasingly oblique and the solar radiation is spread over a greater surface area. So I would think on a typical November day for example, the sun would seem brighter in Key West or Galveston than in Chicago or Detroit.

Also, I have always noticed when visiting the tropics (Jamaica, Key West…etc) in morning there seems like a sudden “blast of light” and an equally quick twilight. The bright morning light I would think is due to the brighter and more vertical rays of the sun in the tropics. I have even noticed this here in Connecticut from late May until mid August - there is a sudden blast of light in morning, as opposed to a more gradual increase in daylight in fall, winter, or early spring. As far as “twilight” I would think this too would be effected by latitude and the intensity of the solar rays. On December 21st, twilight should last longer in Key West than in New Haven, and longer in New Haven than in Paris,…etc.
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Old 05-28-2009, 11:30 AM
 
Location: Central Virginia
834 posts, read 2,270,064 times
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There are so many factors to choosing a state to live but I can't imagine an extra 10 minutes of sunlight affecting my decision.
The south may have a later sunset in the winter, but they also have an earlier sunset in the summer. The sun will be out until 9pm here in the summer and in Florida it was set by 8pm. Also, it seems to get light sooner in the morning. I know in Florida, when I had to be at work by 7am, it was always pitch dark no matter what time if year it was.
But anyway, if someone is looking for a cheap southern state to live in, Florida is not it. Keep looking, IMO.

Quote:
Now that I think of it, I would think that "night" comes quicker the closer to the equater
I found this to be true too. In Florida it seemed to get darker faster where here in CT I noticed that twilight hangs around much longer.
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Old 05-28-2009, 12:00 PM
 
Location: Live in NY, work in CT
11,252 posts, read 18,746,965 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JViello View Post
Great "shake out" of the data. lol

On top of what you said, I would be curious what "daylight" is considered. I always noticed living in Orlando that the "twilight" seemed to hang around much longer in the Winter months. Similar to our area around the 4th when you can still see a "light haze" on the horizon at 9pm. So yes, technically, the sun went down only 45 minutes later or whatever, but how much longer was it still "bright" vs here.

Hmmm, actually, maybe not. Now that I think of it, I would think that "night" comes quicker the closer to the equater you get vs lingering "light" more towards the poles. Oh well.
I won't do another long drawn thing, but will say there is a term for it (actually terms), the "lingering light".

Look up "civil twilight", "nautical twilight" and "astronomical twilight". I know the third is the time it is truly "pitch black" and the first begins at sunset. I don't know if they're longer at the poles or the equator, but I do know that areas just above the Arctic circle that have days with no sunrise/sunset may still have these periods where you have "lingering light" for some part of the day.
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Old 06-06-2009, 08:21 PM
 
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I'll make this easy for you since I've lived in both states...spend your winters (meaning Nov-April) in Jupiter, FL and your summers (May-Oct) in Old Saybrook, CT...you will have a smile on your face every day of the year.
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Old 09-10-2010, 05:29 PM
 
9 posts, read 26,266 times
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Stay in Connecticut, South Florida Is Full Of Scum, Connecticut is Full of Nice Decent People 150 hardworking people for every 1 scum bag, In Florida Its The total opposite 150 Scum Bags For Every 1 Decent Person And The decent Person Will Be totally stuck up and have nothing to do with anyone because of all the scumbags..I Lived In Vernon ct it was fine nice regular decent people maybe not the prettiest but then moved to boca raton... nice people but everyone is stuck up becuse of all the scumbags.. but you figure the average cost of a house is 1,000,000 dollars all the surrounding areas full of scum bags..South Florida Is "*******d" up Connecticut people are great the only downside is the snow..Florida has great enviroment..the downside are the people..
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